Rodrigo Paz Won the Wrong Term

Rodrigo Paz Pereira, the son of former president Jaime Paz Zamora, arrived at Bolivia’s presidency at the wrong moment, this opinion piece argues. Unlike his father, who inherited relative stability after the difficult reforms of Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Paz took office while the country faced a crisis demanding urgent and unpopular decisions.

The writer says the new government should have acted within its first 30 days by ending the fixed exchange rate and fully removing fuel subsidies. Those measures, in the author’s view, would have helped rebuild international reserves, reduce the fiscal deficit and ease inflationary pressure. Within six months, the government should also have shown fiscal discipline by cutting the state apparatus and closing loss-making public companies.

Instead, the piece says Paz took more than a month to adjust fuel prices without eliminating the subsidy, price controls or the state monopoly that, in the author’s view, enables corruption. He later said he would take no further action until the March subnational elections, which the writer presents as evidence that political interests came before the country’s needs and that the government lacked a plan.

The author also criticizes Paz for taking eight months to liberalize the exchange rate through rules described as inadequate. Constitutional reform, another medium-term priority identified in the piece, has not advanced. The writer calls the current constitution an obstacle to progress and a risk because of the potential for abuse of power.

The article concludes that Bolivia has squandered a rare chance for reform, perhaps one that will not return for 20 years. It also cites the “suitcase case,” the gold case, low-quality gasoline and the Cerimedo case as controversies surrounding the government.