The election of center-right Sen. Rodrigo Paz as president of Bolivia on Sunday was inarguably the latest rejection of the leftist agenda that at one point dominated nearly all of Latin America.
After 20 years of socialism under Presidents Evo Morales and Luis Arce, both affiliated with the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, voters chose Paz, son of a former president, over stalwart conservative former President Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga by a margin of 54% to 46%, respectively.
While Paz’s triumph is clearly a rejection of Bolivia’s leftist past, the president-elect is not like other more notable (and clearly more unconventional) leaders who have come to power in the last two years: Argentina’s flamboyant Javier Milei, the first libertarian president elected anywhere in the world, and Ecuador’s “law-and-order” President Daniel Noboa.
“Rodrigo Paz is pragmatic, institutional, and focused on restoring fiscal order and international credibility,” Juan Pablo Chamon, co-founder and executive director of the classical liberal LIBERA Bolivia think tank, told Newsmax.
“He prefers dialogue over confrontation and represents a generational break with Bolivia’s populist tradition.”
Dardo Lopez-Dolz, senior fellow at the Center for a Free Secure Society and former Peruvian minister of the interior, told Newsmax, “My Bolivian sources say Paz is not as close to conservative politics as most non-Bolivian analysts think.”
“To them, he is a well-advised socialist chameleon, something that makes more sense with the electoral help he received [in the runoff] from the MAS party.”
The near-collapse of the Bolivian economy under socialist strongmen undoubtedly fueled the movement for something different.
Last month, inflation mushroomed to 23%, and natural gas production and exports were on a downswing.
There were also widespread reports of long lines of automobiles waiting at gasoline stations, not unlike those in the U.S. during the energy crunch of the 1970s.
Against this backdrop, Paz’s slogan of “Capitalism for All!” resonated with merchants and small businessmen, and he swept six of the nine provinces in the Andean nation with a surprisingly large vote from Indigenous Bolivians — long a bulwark of support for socialists Morales and Arce.
Even those who have hopes for Paz agree the center-right hopeful was neither specific nor hard-nosed about making needed reforms.
In contrast to Argentina’s Milei — who specifically said which Cabinet ministries he would close and how many government employees he would let go — Paz avoided details of what he would do to reduce the size of government and promised cash handouts to the poor to compensate for cuts in state programs.
There was also considerable interest Paz’s vice presidential running mate, former police Captain Edman Lara.
Fired from the federal police for taking to TikTok to denounce corruption in the hierarchy of law enforcement, Lara, 39, went to work as a clothing salesman and quickly became a populist folk hero.
A product of humble origins, Lara publicly called for higher pensions for retirees and a universal income for women — positions with which Paz publicly disagreed.
On election night, the two did not appear together.
“Edman Lara, is a more complex figure than Paz: younger, politically assertive, and less predictable,” Chamon said.
“He has strong media instincts and appeals to a different audience, which could bring balance to the administration — or tension — depending on how power is managed within the presidency.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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