Lidia Gueiler Tejada

Lidia Gueiler Tejada (28 August 1921 – 9 May 2011) was the first female President of Bolivia, serving in an interim capacity from 1979 to 1980. She was Bolivia's first (and thus far, only) female Head of State, and the second in Latin American history (the first was Isabel Perón in Argentina between 1974 and 1976).

Background and earlier career

Gueiler was born in Cochabamba, to Moisés Gueiler Grunewelt a German immigrant and a Bolivian mother Raquel Tejada Albornoz. She studied to become an accountant. In the 1940s, she joined the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR). When that party came to power as a result of the 1952 National Revolution, Gueiler became a member of the Congress of Bolivia, serving in that capacity from 1956 until 1964. In 1964, she went into exile abroad after the MNR was toppled from power by generals Barrientos and Ovando. She spent the next fifteen years out of the country, and joined Juan Lechín's Revolutionary Party of the Nationalist Left (PRIN).