[1][2][page needed] The MIR was founded in 1971 by a merger of a left-wing faction of Bolivia's Christian Democratic Party and the radical student wing of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR).

After a few years of unstable military rule, Siles Zuazo was proclaimed Constitutional President in 1982, based on the results of the 1980 elections, which had been annulled by general Luis García Meza.

The faction of the MIR that remained loyal to Paz Zamora referred to itself as the MIR-New Majority, and espoused a much more moderate program than before, having disassociated itself from Marxist dogmas and any notion of class struggle.

Since no party had obtained the 50% majority needed for direct election, Congress was called upon to decide who should be Chief Executive; Paz Zamora got the nod, thanks to a most unlikely alliance with a former enemy, the right-wing candidate General Hugo Banzer.

[3] Instead, it chose to focus its efforts in local and provincial contests, with its leader, Paz Zamora, failing to win the Prefecture of Tarija as part of a joint candidature entitled Regional Convergence.