Alain Mesili (born 24 February 1949 in Paris) is a climber and mountain guide, photographer and political activist based in

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...

, Bolivia.Alain Mesili, a living leyand (sic)
a biography by Yossi Brain He was a political activist in France during the

1968 student riots Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which ha ...

. In 1969 he left the country, disgusted by the French Communist Party's failures, for Argentina. Over the period of a year Mesili explored Patagonia, crossing the Southern Patagonian Ice Field; he may have been the first person to travel through modern-day Los Glaciares National Park. He further explored the Cordillera Darwin and crossed into Chile. He later moved to La Paz, where he worked as a mountain guide. In 1991 Mesili was accused of being driver for the extreme left Commission Nestor Paz Zamora (CPNZ) during an attack on the US Marine barracks in

in October 1990. He fled, eventually to his native France. In May 1994, he was arrested at Miami airport and held without trial for 9 months. He was then extradited to Bolivia in February 1995, in exchange for a Bolivian colonel accused of drug trafficking by the US authorities. He was released in 1997 without facing trial.andes-mesili.com Expérience en Alpinisme et Andinisme
(in French) By 1999, he had resumed his career as a mountain guide.

References

French mountain climbers 1949 births Living people French people imprisoned abroad French emigrants Immigrants to Bolivia People extradited from the United States People extradited to Bolivia {{Climbing-bio-stub