René Zavaleta Mercado

René Zavaleta Mercado (1937–1984) was Bolivia’s foremost social and political theorist. Born in the mining city of Oruro, he held diplomatic and ministerial posts with the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) in the late 1950s to mid 1960s. In the late 1960s he aligned with the Marxist left, and in the 1970s developed his creative, heterodox Marxist position that is reflected in this final work. He directed the Latin American Social Sciences Institute (FLACSO) while in exile in Mexico City in the years before his death.