Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada

“You have troubles with violent indigenous movement around the continent. Here, we are putting more power in their hands and creating a nonviolent indigenous society.”

“I'm not going to say that the problems of my government, or those of Bolivia, are the fault of the United States. But they could have done a little more to help us.”

“After Victor Paz's government, I was still in politics, but I personally spent a lot of time consulting and working with Argentina, with Peru, and in Brazil.”

“I only became involved in politics when democracy returned to Bolivia. Then, unluckily in democracy, we ran into the inheritance of 20 years of military government, a great deal of debt, and a great deal of expense.”

“Whoever gives in to terrorism has to be prepared to do so many times.”

“Bolivia was the first country to stop hyperinflation in a democracy without depriving people of their civil rights and without violating human rights.”

“We don't know if our economy, our society, could support the social and the human and the economic cost of an insurgency.”

“There are radical elements who don't want me to finish my term. But I will not resign.”

“I got my degree in philosophy and English literature; those were my main interests.”

“We want to bring order and respect for the constitution.”

“There is a national consensus building here that drugs are doing a great deal of damage to the Bolivian society.”

“I've never liked to judge other people in the hope that they won't judge me.”

“The actions I took at a time of national crisis in 2003 were necessary to protect lives and property and restore law and order. Regrettably, lives were lost among both the government forces and armed protesters.”

“Around the continent, governments worry that indigenous groups are fertile ground for extremist, terrorist groups. We are trying to make sure that doesn't happen here.”

“To say to a country that it shouldn't export its gas is like saying, 'Look, the only way we can defeat hunger is to put a padlock on the refrigerator.'”

“It's difficult to explain a giraffe to a Bolivian who lives on the Altiplano. But when they see one, I think they'll like it.”

“Hopefully, together we can find solutions to our grave problems, but we'll never find them through violence.”

“Let's forget a little about the 19th century and start looking at the 21st century.”

“Democracy is not perfect.”

“We are turning all Bolivians into capitalists.”