Movement Without Fear


The Movement Without Fear is a progressive political party in Bolivia. MSM was founded on March 1, 1999.
The leader of the party, Juan del Granado, was the mayor of La Paz from 2000 to 2010. The party won mayoral elections in 2010 in both La Paz and Oruro.
MSM entered into a political alliance with the Movement for Socialism on September 3, 2005 in advance of the 2005 presidential election. The parties also consolidated their efforts during the 2006 election for the Constituent Assembly, in support of President Evo Morales during the 2008 recall referendum, and finally in a joint legislative slate in the 2009 general election.

Elected officials

Plurinational Legislative Assembly

Four members of MSM were elected to serve in the lower house of Bolivia's Congress when the party was in alliance with the MAS-IPSP: Javier Zavaleta, Marcela Revollo, Fabián Yaksic, and Samuel Pamuri. The last three of those were elected to uninominal seats. As part of a break between the MSM and its ally the Movement for Socialism, the party's four deputies, elected on the MAS slate left the MAS ranks and pledged in late March 2010, "to act in accord with our political identity, with our conscience, and with the people who elected us with their vote." However, Samuel Pamuri quickly pledged his allegiance to the MAS-IPSP by April 2010. Javier Zavaleta distanced himself from the Movement without Fear as well, culminating in his formal detachment in February 2011.
MAS-IPSP deputies have repeatedly threatened to remove the remaining deputies from their seats for non-adherence to their elected slate. In January 2012, the Movement without Fear proposed that the five uninominal seats representing the city of La Paz be subjected to a recall referendum, thereby confirming or rejecting their current party allegiances.

Municipal officials

In the departmental and municipal elections on 4 April 2010, the MSM participated in 176 contests, winning the mayor's office in 21 municipalities. Luis Revilla won the municipality of La Paz, which marked the third time that the Movement without Fear has won a mayoral race. Also, Rossío Pimentel Flores, from the MSM, carried the municipality of Oruro, something unexpected, since the Movement towards Socialism has enjoyed strong support from that city. The MSM has consolidated itself since then strongly in opposition to the ruling party.

Presidential candidacy, 2014

After President Evo Morales suggested he would run for re-election in 2014, Juan del Granado, the leader of the Movement without Fear, led the party to challenge its former ally, the Movement towards Socialism, to submit Morales' proposal to a constitutional referendum. Simultaneously, del Granado stated that the MSM would present a candidate for president. On November 11, 2013, the MSM nominated del Granado as its candidate for president in the 2014 elections.