The Movement Toward Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (; MAS or MAS-IPSP) is a socialist political party in Bolivia. Its followers are known as Masistas.
In the December 2005 election, MAS-IPSP won the first majority victory ever won by a single Bolivian party since Bolivia's return to democracy, electing Evo Morales as president. The party went on to win the next four general elections by a majority, ruling until 2025, when their support collapsed during that year's election. MAS–IPSP also dominated the municipal elections during this period.
MAS-IPSP evolved out of the movement to defend the interests of coca growers and is rooted in indigenous mobilization. Morales has articulated the goals of his party and popular organizations as the need to achieve plurinational unity, and to develop a new hydrocarbon law which guarantees 50% of revenue to Bolivia, although political leaders of MAS-IPSP in later years showed interest in complete nationalization of the fossil fuel industries, as well as the country's lithium deposits.
During Arce's government, the party was divided into two internal factions: the "Arcistas" (Renovator Bloc), which defends Luis Arce's management and seeks the renovation of the party leadership, which is chaired by Grover García, and the "Evistas", which defends Morales's leadership and seeks his re-election in the 2025 Bolivian general election. On 4 October 2023, President Luis Arce and Vice President David Choquehuanca were expelled from the party by a decision of the board chaired by Evo Morales. However, the Arcista faction did not recognize the expulsion.
By February 2025, Morales left MAS due to the party prohibiting him from running for president in the 2025 general election; initially joining the party, he and his supporters later went on to found a new party, EVO Pueblo.
Mainly due to internal conflicts and high dissatisfaction towards the Arce government due to a crisis leading to shortage of goods, the party faced a near-total collapse of support in the 2025 general election, winning 3.1% of the vote (slightly above the minimun percentage necessary to maintain the party's national status). The presidential candidate, Eduardo del Castillo, was placed sixth in the first round. In the legislative elections, the party maintained only 2 of 75 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, while being eliminated in the Senate.
History
Origins The roots of MAS-IPSP can be traced to the closures of the Bolivian Mining Corporation and shut-down of various mines during the 1980s. Thousands of former miners became coca farmers as their means of survival, but also encountered new hardships in their new profession. The growth of the coca farmer community resulted in a sharp numerical growth of organizations such as Unified Syndical Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB) and Syndicalist Confederation of Intercultural Communities of Bolivia (CSCIB). The movement built alliances with the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB) and mobilized joint protests in a 1992 campaign titled "500 years of resistance of the indigenous peoples", culminating in a march to La Paz where a protest was held on 12 October 1992 (Columbus Day). The 1992 campaign marked the emergence of a 'peasant-Indigenous' movement.Monasterios, Karin, Pablo Stefanoni, and Hervé do Alto. Reinventando la nación en Bolivia: movimientos sociales, Estado y poscolonialidad. La Paz, Bolivia: CLACSO, 2007. pp. 73-74Harnecker, Marta. MAS-IPSP: Instrumento político que surge de los movimientos sociales. p. 70
However, CSUTCB was wary of building a political party to contest state power. The experiences of the 1980s, when the CSUTCB leadership had been divided over electoral candidatures (of leaders such as Genaro Flores and Víctor Hugo Cárdenas) had been negative. Rather the organization began discussing the possibility of launching a 'political instrument', a structure in which the trade unions would enter as collective members. The idea would be to combine social and political struggles, to have one branch in the social movements and one political branch. According to Lino Villca there were also discussions about forming an armed wing of the movement.Harnecker, Marta. MAS-IPSP: Instrumento político que surge de los movimientos sociales. p. 68
Carlos Burgoa Maya traces the initiative for a political instrument to the Third Congress of the CSUTCB (26 June–3 July 1987, Cochabamba) in which several proposals were merged into a document proposing an "Assembly of Nationalities" including traditional authorities to forge "political instruments of the nationalities." In the COB's 9th Congress (May 1992, Sucre), a thesis for worker-indigenous unity in "constructing a political instrument" was approved. Numerous prominent future leaders of the MAS, including Evo Morales, Félix Patzi, and David Choquehuanca met on 7 November 1992 in a gathering organized by CSUTCB, CSCB, CIDOB, FNMCB (Bartolina Sisa), and the COB, which decided to call for withdrawal from existing parties and to consolidate as an independent political force. The August–September 1994 cocalero march also endorsed the creation of a political instrument.
The creation of a political instrument received the backing of the sixth CSUTCB congress in 1994, and in March 1995 CSUTCB convened a congress titled 'Land, Territory and Political Instrument' in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Present at the congress were CSUTCB, CSCB, the Bartolina Sisa National Federation of Peasant Women of Bolivia and CIDOB. The congress resulted in the foundation of the Assembly for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (ASP), under the leadership of the Cochabamba peasant leader Alejo Véliz as the main leader and Evo Morales in second position.Monasterios, Karin, Pablo Stefanoni, and Hervé do Alto. Reinventando la nación en Bolivia: movimientos sociales, Estado y poscolonialidad. La Paz, Bolivia: CLACSO, 2007. p. 75 From 1996 onwards, Evo Morales was a rising star in the ASP leadership. Soon he became a competitor of Veliz. Internal conflict emerged between the followers of Morales and Veliz — evistas and alejistas.Monasterios, Karin, Pablo Stefanoni, and Hervé do Alto. Reinventando la nación en Bolivia: movimientos sociales, Estado y poscolonialidad. La Paz, Bolivia: CLACSO, 2007. p. 77 ASP wanted to contest the 1997 national elections, but never obtained the registration of a political party at the CNE. Instead, the group contested the election of the lists of the United Left. Veliz was candidate for the presidency and for parliament (on the proportional representation list). However, many trade unions decided not to support Veliz's candidature, accusing him of having manipulated the candidate lists of the United Left. Four ASP members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected from the Chapare Province (the entire United Left group): Evo Morales, Román Loayza Caero, Félix Sanchéz Veizaga and Néstor Guzmán Villarroel.Monasterios, Karin, Pablo Stefanoni, and Hervé do Alto. Reinventando la nación en Bolivia: movimientos sociales, Estado y poscolonialidad. La Paz, Bolivia: CLACSO, 2007. p. 78Directorio: 1997 - 2002. La Paz: Centro de Investigación del Congreso Nacional (CICON), 2002. pp. 201-202, 209
Foundation and local elections After the 1997 elections a split occurred in ASP and Evo Morales was expelled from the organization.Harnecker, Marta. MAS-IPSP: Instrumento político que surge de los movimientos sociales. pp. 71-72 In 1998 the supporters of Evo Morales founded the Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (IPSP). Notably, the majority of the grassroots supporters of ASP sided with Morales in the split. One of the prominent ASP leaders who sided with Morales was Román Loayza Caero, leader of CSUTCB.Loayza Caero, Román, and Shirley Rasguido. Román Loayza Caero: lider quechua, contribuyó al ascenso campesino indígena del país. Líderes contemporáneos del movimiento campesino indígena de Bolivia, no. 3. La Paz, Bolivia: CIPCA, 2006. Back Cover
At the time of its foundation, an IPSP flag was adopted. It was brown and green, with a sun in the middle.
In order to contest the 1999 municipal election (because the National Electoral Court of Bolivia declined to recognize the party), IPSP borrowed the registration (and party name) of an inactive spliter faction of the falangist Bolivian Socialist Falange, Movimiento al Socialismo – Unzaguista (MAS).Albó, Xavier, and Victor Quispe. Quiénes son indígenas en los gobiernos municipales. Cuadernos de investigación CIPCA, 59. La Paz: CIPCA [u.a.], 2004. pp. 103-105Komadina, Jorge, and Céline Geffroy Komadina. El poder del movimiento político: estrategia, tramas organizativas e identidad del MAS en Cochabamba (1999–2005). La Paz: CESU-UMSS, 2007. p. 22 The decision to go for elections as MAS was taken in Cochabamba in 1998. IPSP decided to adopt the name, banner and colours (cobalt blue, black, and white) of MAS.Harnecker, Marta. MAS-IPSP: Instrumento político que surge de los movimientos sociales. p. 74 In January 1999, the organization adopted the name MAS-IPSP. This move provoked a split between IPSP and the new CSUTCB leader, Felipe Quispe. Quispe stated that he was unable to accept to contest the elections under a name tainted by a fascist past and that the falangist profile meant a negation of indigenous identity.Monasterios, Karin, Pablo Stefanoni, and Hervé do Alto. Reinventando la nación en Bolivia: movimientos sociales, Estado y poscolonialidad. La Paz, Bolivia: CLACSO, 2007. p. 79 In the 1999 elections Quispe aligned himself with Veliz's group, which had decided to contest elections through the Communist Party of Bolivia. In the Cochabamba region the verbal confrontations between the two sides were often tense, and the Veliz group launched the slogan "MAS is Unzaguist, falangist, heil heil Hitler".Loayza Caero, Román, and Shirley Rasguido. Román Loayza Caero: lider quechua, contribuyó al ascenso campesino indígena del país. Líderes contemporáneos del movimiento campesino indígena de Bolivia, no. 3. La Paz, Bolivia: CIPCA, 2006. p. 27 MAS-IPSP itself however stressed that the adaptation of the name MAS was a mere formality, and the membership cards issued by the organization carried the slogan "legally MAS, legitimately IPSP".
MAS-IPSP got 65,425 votes (3.3% of the nationwide votes) and won 81 local council seats (4.8% of the seats in the country) in 1999.Albó, Xavier, and Victor Quispe. Quiénes son indígenas en los gobiernos municipales. Cuadernos de investigación CIPCA, 59. La Paz: CIPCA [u.a.], 2004. pp. 91-94CSUTCB. EXPERIENCIA POLITICA INSTRUMENTO POLITICO POR LA SOBERANIA DE LOS PUEBLOS - IPSP According to a study by Xavier Albó and Victor Quispe, the vast majority of the MAS-IPSP councilors elected in the 1999 municipal election were indigenous. In the Cochabamba Department MAS-IPSP obtained 39% of the votes winning seven mayoral posts. The MAS vote in Cochabamba was almost completely confined to the Chapare, Carrasco and Ayopaya provinces. In the capital of the Department (Cochabamba) the MAS mayoral candidate only got 0.88% (less than the Communist Party candidate, Alejo Veliz who got 1.1%). The mayoral post of Cochabamba was won by Manfred Reyes Villa of the New Republican Force, who got 51.2% of the votes in the city.Komadina, Jorge, and Céline Geffroy Komadina. El poder del movimiento político: estrategia, tramas organizativas e identidad del MAS en Cochabamba (1999–2005). La Paz: CESU-UMSS, 2007. pp. 33-34
Years of struggle