Luis Arce has appointed a cabinet with technicians and militants: he said his government will be “extremely austere”

The first council of ministers of the president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, composed mainly of militants of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) and some technicians, was sworn in on Monday with the challenge of addressing the economic, health and social crisis that the country lives.

Arce has named on this day the holders of 16 of the 17 existing ministries and announced the replenishment of the portfolio of Cultures, which had been suppressed during Jeanine Áñez’s transitional government.

Thirteen men and three women make up Bolivia’s new cabinet of ministers, including MAS militants, former trade unionists, former collaborators of Arce when he was head of the Ministry of Economy and some other former officials of minor positions in the government administration.

In his speech, the president said that his will be a government “extremely austere“And anticipated that they wait”hours of hard work“To get the”reconstructionEconomic of the country.

Arce said it should form a council of ministers that lives up to the “great challenges“That Bolivia has, therefore it has chosen”could be“For his cabinet, which he described as”family”, With the aim of getting the country out of the crisis.

The challenges are not only in the economic area, but also in the social area because the COVID-19 pandemic “has exacerbated poverty” in Bolivia, with a part of the population that has become “starving”, he complained.

The educational crisis and the challenges “in the order of international politics” are also part of the challenges cited by the new Bolivian president, who he asked his ministers to urgently report how they find their respective state departments in order to take the first measures as soon as possible.

Arce, who served as Minister of Economy for twelve of Evo Morales’ nearly 14 years at the head of Bolivia, criticized the day before in his inauguration speech that the country had collapsed not only due to the global pandemic, but also due to what he considered a terrible performance in the eleven months of Áñez’s transitional government.

“We will move forward” with the capacity, the “detachment and commitment of the new ministers” and the team of their vice president David Choquehuanca, he confided.

PROMISE OF RECONCILIATION

The Ministry of the Presidency, one of the key portfolios of the Bolivian government, was for the first time in charge of a woman, María Nela Prada, a MAS militant who worked closely with Arce when he was minister.

The new minister is the daughter of Ramón Prada, the deceased former prefect of the eastern region of Santa Cruz, a member of the right-wing National Democratic Action (ADN), and Betty Tejada, a deputy from MAS and president of the lower house in the 2013-2014 legislature. .

In the speech on behalf of the cabinet, Prada gave her case as an example to mention that although she and her father had “different ideas and positions regarding militancy”, he taught her “to respect and value those differences”.

“Accepting differences is often a difficult path, but it is a path that all Bolivians have to travel due to the enormous challenge we have at this time of building and rebuilding a country,” he said.

He also assured that now it’s up to “heal wounds“And leave behind the violence, which is”the failure of politics is the inability to confront ideas“.

According to the minister, “battles of ideas are healthy, differences are healthy, but violence and death never will be”, so he supported the reconstruction of the country by accepting existing differences “, that the fact of being political opponents does not it does so implies the annihilation of the other ”.

THE FURNITURE IN MAPLE

Along with Prada, there are three other women in the cabinet and the promise that a fourth will occupy Culture’s portfolio once Arce replaces it.

Among the ministers are some familiar faces of Morales’ efforts, as former president of the Chamber of Deputies and former governor of the central region of Cochabamba Edmundo Novillo, who is the Minister of Defense.

There are also several former deputy ministers and former collaborators of Arce when he was head of the Economy, a portfolio that was left in the hands of Marcelo Montenegro.

The new Bolivian foreign minister is the jurist and former senator candidate of the MAS Rogelio Mayta, who was an advocate for the victims of the so-called “Gas War”, a social uprising that took place in 2003 in Bolivia.

The Ministry of Health, which has had three changes during the transitional government, is in charge of the cardiologist Edgar well, until now director of the National Institute of the Chest and without militancy in the MAS.

The appointment of the council of ministers coincided with the return of Evo Morales to Bolivia almost a year after his resignation from the Presidency, denouncing that he had been forced by an alleged coup d’etat, in the face of the serious crisis that interrupted his mandate for almost 14 consecutive years.

(By Gina Baldivieso – EFE)

MORE ON THIS TOPIC:

Luis Arce was sworn in as the new president of Bolivia for the return to power of the MAS

The regime of Nicolás Maduro has appointed Alexander Yánez as ambassador to Bolivia