EL DEBER

What is EL DEBER?

EL DEBER is a daily newspaper published in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and distributed nationally, and the masthead of a group that also publishes the sports title DIEZ.^[1] Reporters Without Borders, in its 2026 country page for Bolivia, names it among the country's leading newspapers, writing that “the leading newspapers are El Deber and El Diario”, and in the same passage that “the Bolivian government controls many newspapers” and that “ownership of privately owned media is highly concentrated, which jeopardises pluralism”.^[2] That is RSF's characterisation of the market, given in RSF's words.

The Museo de la Prensa Boliviana, writing on 31 July 2024, describes the paper as the “decano de la prensa cruceña” after seven decades of circulation and as a “escuela para periodistas cruceños”; both are the archive's characterisations.^[3]

What does EL DEBER cover?

The paper runs general news sections — Santa Cruz, país, economía, opinión — and carries sport through a separate title. Its own reporting reaches into sport administration: on 14 August 2026 it reported that Decreto Supremo 5675, approved the previous day, keeps the Viceministerio de Deportes within the structure of the Órgano Ejecutivo and places it inside the Ministerio de Salud.^[4]

Sport itself is published as DIEZ on a separate domain: a request to eldeber.com.bo for a football article returns a 302 redirect to diez.bo, and the article then carries the DIEZ masthead.^[5] The sports desk's output therefore sits outside this outlet's own domain, which is why the two appear separately on this list.

On 11 February 2026 the paper published a set of anniversary pieces, one tracing its own development from print to multiplatform publishing and another carrying comment from named academics and institutions, including the historian Paula Peña, the Unifranz vice-rector Carlos Dabdoub and the UAGRM rector Reinerio Vargas.^[1][6]

How large is EL DEBER's audience?

No audited circulation or audience figure for EL DEBER could be retrieved. Its own anniversary coverage of 11 February 2026 carries no print run, no staff count and no digital audience metric.^[1][6] The Museo de la Prensa Boliviana's account carries none either.^[3] Bolivia has no press-circulation currency that could be retrieved for this page, and traffic estimators are not audited measurement, so no figure is given here.

What is measurable is RSF's index position for the country rather than for the paper: RSF placed Bolivia 91st of 180 in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index with a score of 54.25.^[2]

Since when has EL DEBER existed?

Two dates are in the record and this page adopts neither. The paper's own anniversary article of 11 February 2026 marks 73 years and gives the founding as 11 February 1953, naming Lucas Saucedo Sevilla as founder of a first period running from 1953 to 1959 and Pedro Rivero Mercado as directing a second period from 1965.^[1]

The Museo de la Prensa Boliviana, on 31 July 2024, writes that “el 10 de junio de 1953 circula en la ciudad de Santa Cruz el primer número del periódico El Deber”, founded by the lawyer Lucas Saucedo Sevilla; that an assault on 22 November 1959 destroyed its plant and equipment, closing the paper and sending Saucedo Sevilla into exile in Argentina; and that publication resumed in a “second epoch” on 11 February 1965.^[3] The two accounts agree on the founder and on the interruption; they differ on which day in 1953 the paper began, and the 11 February the paper now marks is the day the archive assigns to the relaunch of 1965.

Why does EL DEBER matter in Bolivia's sport?

Its relevance to sport is structural rather than editorial. The group's sports journalism is published under the DIEZ masthead, and EL DEBER's own domain redirects sport requests to it.^[5] What EL DEBER itself carries on sport is the administrative side: its report of 14 August 2026 on Decreto Supremo 5675 is the source used on this site for the placing of the Viceministerio de Deportes inside the Ministerio de Salud.^[4]

Ownership matters to how that is read. DIEZ's own front page carries Grupo EL DEBER branding in its footer, so the two titles sit under one owner; RSF's 2026 country page states that ownership of privately owned media in Bolivia “is highly concentrated, which jeopardises pluralism”, and that independent media face “the threat of withdrawal of state advertising, which can have drastic consequences and lead to their closure”.^[7][2] Both statements are RSF's, as at its 2026 index. See Bolivia and Bolivian sports media.