Rodrigo Paz, a center-right politician and son of a former president, won Bolivia's run-off election on Oct 19. He defeated former president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga who ran on a more conservative platform. For the first time since 1997, there was no candidate on the ballot from the Movement for Socialism (MAS), the party of former president Evo Morales. A candidate from MAS, which had ruled all but one year since 2006, was eliminated [8] in the first round in August.
The son of ex-president Jaime Paz Zamora, Paz scored a decisive victory [11] over Quiroga, prevailing by a nine-point margin with 54% of the vote and winning in six of Bolivia's nine departments. His victory capped a remarkable campaign [12] in which Paz consistently defied the polls. In August, he stunned observers by finishing first in the first round of voting after months of polling towards the bottom [13] of the eight-candidate field. The second-round result was another upset: despite trailing [14] Quiroga in the days leading up to the vote by a similar margin as his eventual victory, Paz reversed the numbers comfortably.
Tuto's far-right supporters took to the streets in several cities across the country to contest the results, despite no evidence of irregularities. On Oct. 21, his Libre party sent a letter to the country's electoral body requesting an audit [15] of 34,000 ballots, alleging a possible "inversion" of votes between Libre and Paz's Christian Democratic Party. Tuto finally conceded his loss on the next day, as international observers from the European Union and other bodies rejected the allegations of fraud. Bolivia's Electoral Tribunal called Tuto's move "anti-democratic."
Paz's success is in part due to his more cautious approach addressing Bolivia's profound economic crisis. Quiroga had proposed deep economic reforms [16], including a massive IMF bailout and widespread [7] privatization of state industries and natural resources. By contrast, Paz offered a more moderate reform agenda: preserving social programs, cracking down on corruption, and rejecting IMF dependency. His platform drew support from [17] left-leaning voters who were uneasy about a full shift to the right.
Paz's appeal also had much to do with [18] his charismatic running mate, former police captain Edman Lara. A self-styled anti-corruption crusader and admirer of [19] Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Lara rose to fame [20] on TikTok for exposing alleged police abuses. His outsider persona energized younger voters and loaned credibility to Paz's campaign. Yet the strength of their alliance is unclear. After Paz's first-round victory, Lara publicly warned that he would turn against Paz if he failed to deliver on his promises. On the campaign trail, Paz routinely had to walk back [21] Lara's populist pledges of universal income and higher pensions. Still, Lara's popularity proved so strong that many Bolivians said they cast their votes [22] as if it were Lara, not Paz, leading the ticket.
The results were celebrated by mainstream media around the world as a resounding defeat for a fractured Bolivian left weakened by [23] years of infighting and economic turmoil. Nevertheless, Paz's win attests to Bolivians' enduring attachment to the social and economic programs born from nearly two decades of leftist rule.
At the same time, Paz moved quickly to distance himself from a key pillar of MAS rule: its hostility [24] toward the United States. Nearly 20 years after Evo Morales expelled [25] the US ambassador, Paz pledged to restore warm relations [26] with Washington. In a striking reversal of recent Bolivian diplomatic orientation, Paz received a congratulatory phone call [27] from Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado [28]. He seized the opportunity to congratulate her on her recent [29] Nobel Peace Prize and invite her to his inauguration on Nov. 8. Breaking with years of alignment with the Venezuelan governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolas Maduro, Paz told Machado [30] that Bolivia would "join in the fight" for Venezuelan democracy. In a post-election interview with El País [31], Paz re-affirmed his slogan "capitalism for all" and expressed his hope that "Bolivia returns to the world and the world returns to Bolivia."
For Bolivia's social movements and rural populations, deeply distrustful of the traditional party politics represented by Paz and his Christian Democrats, there is little cause for celebration. But in the words [32] of Bolivian anarcha-feminist María Galindo [33]: "The far right has been defeated."
From NACLA Update [34], Oct. 24. Slightly edited. Internal links added.
