María Magdalena Cajías de la Vega (born 8 October 1957) is a Bolivian academic, historian, and politician who served as minister of education from 2007 to 2008.
Cajías spent most of her professional career teaching history at the Higher University of San Andrés, in addition to holding a number of consultancy posts for intergovernmental organizations and government bodies.
She is a member of the academically prestigious Cajías family; her father, the patriarch of the clan, was a respected journalist and intellectual, notable for having founded and directed Presencia, the premier periodical of the second half of the twentieth century.
Others, such as Cajías's elder siblings, Fernando and Lupe, also exercised prominent public functions, the former having served as prefect of La Paz while the latter was the chief anti-corruption officer during the administration of Carlos Mesa.
[5] She held the post for approximately a year before being promoted to head the Ministry of Education following Morales's ouster of Víctor Cáceres, the previous officeholder.
[12] With preexisting funding from Cuba and Venezuela and additional aid her office secured from Spain in early 2008, Cajías's time helming the Ministry of Education saw significant advances in combating illiteracy.
After over half a decade in private practice, Cajías returned to public administration at the invitation of Morales, who designated her as consul general in Santiago, Chile, in 2014.