Hernán Iván Arias Durán (né Padilla; born 8 August 1958), often referred to as El Negro, is a Bolivian politician, political analyst, and sociologist serving as mayor of La Paz since 2021. A member of For the Common Good, of which he is the leader, he previously served as minister of public works from 2019 to 2020 and vice minister of popular participation from 2001 to 2002. A specialist in decentralized public management and indigenous matters, he was the private secretary of Víctor Hugo Cárdenas, the first indigenous vice president, and was part of the team that drafted the Law of Popular Participation, which implemented municipalism in Bolivia through the direct election of local authorities.
Born in La Paz and raised in rural poverty, Arias attended the Juan XXIII Boarding School in Cochabamba, where he was educated in Marxist thought by trade unionist Filemón Escóbar. He graduated as a sociologist from the Higher University of San Andrés. During the military governments of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Arias became a partisan of Escóbar's Workers' Vanguard. For his Marxist activism, he was imprisoned and tortured by the Luis García Meza regime, later fleeing to exile in Sweden, where he abandoned most of his subversive beliefs. Returning to Bolivia, Arias worked for the Peasant Research and Promotion Center and was a member of the Technical Support Team for Educational Reform, later serving as the private secretary of Vice President Víctor Hugo Cárdenas. In the early 1990s, Arias assisted in drafting the Law of Popular Participation, which expanded municipal autonomy and granted the populace suffrage over their local governments. During the administration of Jorge Quiroga, he served as vice minister of popular participation, resigning the post to seek a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, though he failed to attain it.
In the ensuing two decades, Arias reinvented himself as a consultant and political analyst. His unique and humorous style of conveying information gained him widespread notoriety. In 2019, he returned to political life after a seventeen-year hiatus, serving as minister of public works in the transitional administration of Jeanine Áñez. Upon the conclusion of his term, he launched his bid for the La Paz mayoralty. Arias' innovative campaign, described as populist by some observers, won him the election. As mayor, Arias launched public works projects aimed at renovating the capital's infrastructure. Despite attempting to present himself as an apolitical figure interested in "reconciliation" between opposing groups, Arias nonetheless faced numerous legal processes instigated by the ruling Movement for Socialism, actions he denounced as acts of political persecution.
Early life and education Arias was born Hernán Iván Padilla Durán on 8 August 1958 in La Paz. He is the son of Julia Durán Severiche, a peasant woman who emigrated to the capital from her native Vallegrande in search of greater economic opportunity. Arias' baptismal name is an homage to Hernán Siles Zuazo, the sitting president at the time of his birth, while the name Iván comes from Iver, an elder sibling who died in childhood. His biological father, Isidro Padilla, abandoned the family shortly after his birth, with his stepfather, Manuel Arias Becerra, being his primary paternal figure throughout his childhood. Iván retained the surname Padilla until shortly before entering high school, at which point he permanently adopted his stepfather's surname.
Arias and his six siblings were raised in El Alto—at the time a remote satellite city of La Paz—in a state of rural poverty. From a young age, Arias' mother instilled in him the maxim of "poor but worthy", teaching him and his siblings to wash, iron, and mend their own clothing so as to appear presentable in public. "It annoyed her that we raised compassion [among others]", Arias stated, "[she told us that] if you seek compassion, they will give it to you, but they will use you and then despise you". Durán also strongly discouraged her children from stealing, "even if you're starving". "The thief starts... at home", she stated. In one instance, Arias recalled receiving "the beating of my life" for having picked up a b$5 bill off the street. Throughout his adolescence, Arias made an income working as a shoeshiner and selling lottery tickets.
In the early 1970s, Arias' stepfather, a teacher at the Fe y Alegría schools, nominated him to attend the newly inaugurated Juan XXIII Boarding School in Cochabamba. He was informed of the opportunity while on a work trip to Vallegrande, giving him just fifteen days to return to La Paz and study for the entrance exam. During his time at the Jesuit institution, Arias became an adherent of liberation theology, a sect of Christian theology conversant with Marxian socioeconomic analyses. He was educated in the field of history by Filemón Escóbar, a prominent trade unionist whom the Jesuits had been sheltering under the assumed name of Lucho Rodríguez. "We thought he was just another academic", Arias stated. With Escóbar as his political mentor, Arias came to embrace Marxist thought, including elements of Guevarist "new man" theory. He carried these ideals to the Higher University of San Andrés, where he studied sociology, additionally becoming self-taught in the fields of economics, local development, and public law. Moreover, he studied journalism at the Bolivian Catholic University.
In the late 1970s, Arias reluctantly enlisted into the Armed Forces to complete his mandatory year of military service. He served in the Military Police (PM) of San Jorge, La Paz, where he was trained as a sniper, rising to the rank of corporal. His nom de guerre was búho (owl), owing to his slim figure with comparatively large "eyes and balls". Arias' service in the PM coincided with a period of political instability in Bolivia, during which time longtime dictator Hugo Banzer was ousted in favor of Juan Pereda. Among the PM, Pereda's assumption was viewed as a betrayal, and it was soon decided to remove him from office. In the early hours of 24 November 1978, Arias was placed under the command of General Raúl López Leytón, who put him in charge of a military contingent tasked with guarding the Irpavi neighborhood, which housed the presidential residence. Following Pereda's removal, López Leytón entrusted Arias with escorting General David Padilla from the Army General Staff to the Palacio Quemado to assume the presidency.
Political and journalistic career Arias entered political life as a member of the Workers' Vanguard (VO), a minor organization founded by Escóbar following his split with the larger Revolutionary Workers' Party (POR). Arias' Marxist activism put him at odds with the military governments of the day. In 1981, he was imprisoned and tortured by the Luis García Meza regime, nearly suffering permanent paralysis on his left side after sustaining two gunshot wounds during a botched escape attempt. Following his release, Arias fled to exile in Sweden under the assumed name of Jhonny Domínguez Mamani. He arrived in Stockholm, where he underwent the necessary surgeries to retain his mobility before settling in Malmö. While abroad, Arias abandoned many of his more subversive left-wing values in favor of moderate democratic socialist principles.
Returning to Bolivia, Arias became an early supporter of the nascent indigenist movement, leading the press team that covered the March for Territory and Dignity, in which over 300 lowland indigenous protesters traveled from Trinidad to La Paz demanding State recognition and respect of tribal lands. He went on to work for the Peasant Research and Promotion Center (CIPCA) before being invited by Amalia Anaya to join the Technical Support Team for Educational Reform (ETARE), which sought to improve the country's education system. During this time, Arias became closely acquainted with Víctor Hugo Cárdenas, an educator and ETARE consultant at the time campaigning to become vice president. Upon assuming office, Cárdenas—the country's first Aymara indigenous vice president—appointed Arias as his private secretary.
While working in the Vice President's Office, Arias became involved in the early stages of formulating the Law of Popular Participation, which intended to implement a municipalist system across the country. Originally at the sidelines of the project, Arias became more deeply involved upon joining the National Secretariat for Popular Participation, serving on the team of the project's lead, Carlos Hugo Molina, as part of the research and analysis unit. Promulgated on 20 April 1994 by President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, Law Nº 1551 of Popular Participation deeply decentralized the country, allowing for civic engagement in local public administration by expanding the autonomous power of municipalities.
Vice Minister of Popular Participation In 2001, during the administration of Jorge Quiroga, Arias was appointed to serve as head of the Vice Ministry of Strategic Planning and Popular Participation. One of the first projects of Arias' administration was the "National Crusade against Poverty", which focused on working with prefectures and municipal governments to determine what resources they could expect to receive from the government. In particular, the ministry was able to provide on-demand technical assistance to municipal governments by establishing local operating groups (GOLs), teams of technicians directly contracted by municipalities using State finance. "The idea was... to bring the State closer to the people; that technical assistance is not given from La Paz, but that the technicians are there, within the municipality", Arias stated. In collaboration with the executive committee of the Bolivian University (CEUB), the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Arias implemented the "Youth against Poverty" program. The project trained and sent university students to work as civil servants in various municipalities for a six-month period. According to Arias, of the 314 students sponsored by the program, thirty percent maintained careers in civil service upon graduating.
Leading up to the 2002 general elections, Arias resigned to stand for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies as part of Nationalist Democratic Action's electoral list. From the legislature, he hoped to expand on his previous work decentralizing municipalities by applying the same principle to prefectures with the aim of attaining departmental autonomy. Arias lost the election, later expressing regret for having ever stood for office, describing it as an act of hubris that "disqualified" any good intention he may have had. The electoral loss halted Arias' political career for over a decade.
Journalist and political analyst Between the mid-2000s and the late-2010s, Arias reinvented himself as a political analyst and consultant. He worked for a variety of municipal governments, including multiple departmental capitals, advising them on matters of education, health, and urban development. As an international consultant, Arias worked for companies based in Ecuador, El Salvador, and Sweden, as well as for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In journalism, Arias served as a writer for multiple news outlets, later making the jump to television as a political analyst for the program El Abogado del Diablo on UNITEL. Arias' unique style of explaining and exemplifying political issues through the use of dolls and drawings gained him widespread notoriety. As did his critiques of the Evo Morales administration, of which he was a vocal opponent from its assumption in 2005, classifying it as "authoritarian".
Minister of Public Works