Ahora El Pueblo

Ahora El Pueblo is the Bolivian state’s newspaper, historically published in La Paz in print and online with national circulation, though its print and digital distribution has been in flux since the state-media restructuring that began in late 2025. It covers politics, the economy, society, international affairs and sport, and carries opinion sections. The outlet is the direct successor of earlier state newspapers that were renamed at successive changes of government, and it now sits within a reorganised state-communications structure.

Media assets

Publishing: Ahora El Pueblo, the state newspaper, historically a national daily published in La Paz in print and through its website and social-media channels, covering politics, economy, society, international news and sport, with opinion content. Its current official distribution channel is not clearly established.

Ownership and governance

Ahora El Pueblo is a state-owned outlet, and its identity has changed with successive governments. The state daily was created in January 2009 as Cambio, by ministerial resolution of the Ministry of the Presidency, under the government of Evo Morales and the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS, Movement Toward Socialism), and it later operated within Bolivia’s changing state-communication structures, carrying mainly government news. After Morales’s resignation, the interim government of Jeanine Áñez renamed Cambio as the newspaper Bolivia, effective 17 November 2019 under Supreme Decree 4082-A, which declared it an official state communication medium. After the MAS returned to government under Luis Arce, who won the 2020 general election and took office in November 2020, Supreme Decree 4499 renamed Bolivia as Ahora El Pueblo, effective 1 May 2021; according to its own account the name was chosen by President Arce, echoing the historic left-wing paper “Mañana El Pueblo.” Each renaming accompanied a change of government and a corresponding shift in the outlet’s editorial alignment.

The outlet operates under the state’s communications apparatus rather than any independent structure. Following the 2025 general election, in which Rodrigo Paz won the October run-off and ended the long MAS-dominated period that began in 2006, interrupted by the 2019-2020 interim government, the state media were reorganised. By Supreme Decree 5566 of 2 March 2026, the government created the Unidad de Comunicación Estratégica del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, a decentralised public entity under the Ministry of the Presidency, with its own legal personality and administrative, financial and technical autonomy, which administers the state media, including Ahora El Pueblo, Radio Illimani – Red Patria Nueva, the ABI news agency and the Indigenous-peoples radio network. The unit has no board and is headed by an executive director general appointed by the president through a supreme resolution, and it may be funded from the Treasury and other public resources. In late November 2025 the new government appointed Ximena Galarza as Director General of Strategic Communication of the State, and the outlet has been reported to be undergoing restructuring. This placement within an executive-controlled communications entity, with leadership appointed by the president, is the basis for the classification.

Source of funding and budget

Ahora El Pueblo and its predecessors have been funded almost entirely by the state. Reported public-budget allocations for the outlet were around 10.2 million bolivianos in 2019, about 11.8 million in 2021, about 11.6 million in 2022 and about 10.95 million in 2023, according to press reports of the state-media budget; these appear to be allocation figures rather than audited accounts, and independently audited income figures for the outlet are not publicly available.

The 2026 decree that created the new state-communications unit provides that it may be financed from the Treasury and other public resources, reinforcing the outlet’s structural dependence on public money. Its near-total dependence on state funding, rather than commercial revenue, is a structural tie to the government.

Editorial independence

Ahora El Pueblo has no structural guarantee of editorial independence, and its editorial line has historically shifted with each change of government. As Cambio, it endorsed the Morales government; after being renamed Bolivia under the Áñez interim government, it pivoted to support that administration, amplifying the interim president’s statements and criticising the previous government, and archives of Cambio were reportedly removed from the internet at the time. After the MAS returned to power, the outlet, renamed Ahora El Pueblo, again aligned with the government, and a content analysis conducted for SMM found a pronounced pro-government slant, as confirmed by journalists and experts interviewed by SMM. Under the government that took office in November 2025, the outlet’s practical editorial direction remains to be assessed, given the ongoing restructuring, but its structural subordination to the executive is unchanged.

That absence of a durable guarantee of independence is not offset by any effective external safeguard. Bolivia’s constitution requires media to observe principles of truthfulness and responsibility, and the country has a National Press Tribunal composed of journalists’ appointees, but SMM found no independent, binding mechanism to assess or enforce the impartiality of Ahora El Pueblo specifically. The European Union Election Observation Mission to the 2025 elections found that the state media, including Ahora El Pueblo, operated under the government’s communication structures and gave most of their coverage to the government and the president, and recommended a law on public media to guarantee pluralism and independence from the executive.

AI and digital policy

SMM found no comprehensive AI law in force in Bolivia as of mid-2026, though AI-related legislation has been under consideration: the Senate approved an AI-related bill in October 2025 and forwarded it for further consideration. SMM found no published editorial AI-governance policy for Ahora El Pueblo. As a state outlet, its digital operations follow its institutional and governmental communication objectives. It distributes its content online and through social media alongside its print edition, where that print edition is running.

Classification rationale

Ahora El Pueblo is classified State-Controlled because it is a state-owned outlet operating within the government’s communications apparatus, its leadership is appointed by the executive, it depends on the state for almost all of its funding, and it has no binding guarantee of editorial independence, with a documented record of aligning its output with the government of the day. It is not an independently managed public-service outlet.

The outlet’s history illustrates the basis for the classification: it has been renamed from Cambio to Bolivia to Ahora El Pueblo by decree with each change of government, and its editorial line has moved accordingly. The 2025 change of government has placed it within a newly created, executive-controlled state-communications entity under Supreme Decree 5566, headed by a presidential appointee, and it is undergoing restructuring; its practical editorial direction under the new administration remains to be assessed, but its structural subordination to the state is unchanged, and its classification remains State-Controlled for 2026.

July 2026