Silvia Lazarte

Silvia Lazarte (born 1964), a Bolivian Indigenous woman from Quechua ancestry, became the President of the Constituent Assembly on August 6, 2006. Ms. Lazarte is a peasant leader representing the Santa Cruz department, although she was born in the Cochabamba Department. She became the principal authority of this important conclave through an agreement between social organizations and President Evo Morales that considered the presence of an Indigenous woman to be of capital importance in the design of a new State.

Silvia Lazarte was previously a coca-leave grower’s leader and declared, when sworn in as the Constituent Assembly: “We all have to think with our hearts; we women and men legislators have to think how to end our differences” At the time of her becoming President of the Constituent Assembly, she was 42 years old and she was founder and Executive Secretary of the Central New Chapare Federation for Women.