Anarchism in Bolivia has a relatively short but rich history, spanning over a hundred years, primarily linked to syndicalism, the peasantry, and various social movements.
The first recorded anarchist movement in Bolivia was the Unión Obrera Primero de Mayo in 1906, in the small southern town of Tupiza.
In the city of La Paz, FOL maintained the periodical Luz y Verdad, while FOI published the Defensa Obrera, which launched a campaign for an eight-hour day.
The anarcho-syndicalist FOL, later associated with the international Asociación Continental Americana de Trabajadores confederation, published the weekly newspaper La Humanidad.
The FOL was also present in the agrarian peasantry, organizing the Federación Agraria Departamental (FAD), which later disappeared due to intense government repression.
[1] The Spanish expropriative anarchist, and notorious bank robber and forger, Lucio Urtubia participated in planning the kidnapping of Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyon", a former Nazi German officer and war criminal who after fleeing to Bolivia with the help of the CIA helped the government fight Communist guerrillas, later aiding a coup d'état in 1980.
In the 1950s Antonio García Barón (1921–2008), described by the BBC as the last surviving member of the Durruti Column, an anarchist militia in the Spanish Civil War, and a former prisoner of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, moved to Bolivia with his wife Irma.
The group was founded by María Galindo, Mónica Mendoza and Julieta Paredes in 1992 and members include two of Bolivia's only openly lesbian activists.
It publishes Mujer Pública, produces a weekly radio show, and maintains a cultural café named Virgen de los deseos.
In 2001, Mujeres Creando gained international attention due to their alleged participation in an armed occupation of the Bolivian Banking Supervisory Agency.