Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada

President of Bolivia

1 July 1930 La Paz, Bolivia

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6 August 2002 – 17 October 2003

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Sánchez de Lozada and the second or maternal family name is Sánchez Bustamante. Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada Sánchez Bustamante (born 1 July 1930), familiarly known as "Goni", is a Bolivian politician and businessman, who served as the 61st President of Bolivia for two nonconsecutive terms from 1993 to 1997 and from 2002 to 2003. He is a lifelong member of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario, MNR). As Minister of Planning in the government of President Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Sánchez de Lozada used "shock therapy" in 1985 to cut hyperinflation from an estimated 25,000% to a single digit within a period of less than 6 weeks. Sánchez de Lozada was twice elected President of Bolivia, both times on the MNR ticket. During his first term (1993–1997), he initiated a series of landmark social, economic and constitutional reforms. Elected to a second term in 2002, he struggled with protests and events in October 2003 related to the Bolivian gas conflict. According to official reports, 59 protestors, 10 soldiers and 16 policemen died in confrontations. As a result of the violent clashes, Sánchez de Lozada resigned and went into exile in the United States. In March 2006, he resigned the leadership of the MNR. The former government of Evo Morales unsuccessfully sought his extradition from the US to stand a political trial for the events of 2003. Victims' representatives have pursued compensatory damages for extrajudicial killings in a suit against him in the United States under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). In 2014, the US District Court in Florida ruled the case could proceed under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). The trial, which began on 5 March 2018 and concluded on 30 May 2018, found Sánchez de Lozada and his former defense minister Carlos Sanchez Berzaín not liable for the civilian deaths after the judge declared that there was "insufficient evidence" to do so. Nevertheless, on 3 August 2020, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated this ruling.