New Bolivian President Luis Arce took office on Sunday, bitterly criticizing last year’s ouster of his mentor, former president Evo Morales, and branding the conservative interim administration that followed as “brutal.”
The former economics minister inherits a deeply polarized nation struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic hardships it has caused — the worst economic slump in four decades — as well as sharp divisions over the 14 years in power of Morales, the nation’s first indigenous leader.
Arce promised “to rectify what was bad and deepen what was good,” as he took office following an election in which his Movement Toward Socialism party won 55 percent of the vote.
Photo: AP
Bolivian Vice President David Choquehuanca, who is to head the nation’s congress, sounded a conciliatory note, saying the new government “signifies a new time to listen and heal wounds.”
Arce, 57, is fondly remembered by many Bolivians for overseeing a boom time for Bolivia’s economy as the nation benefited from rising global prices for its commodities and the leftist government’s social policies helped reduce poverty.
He has promised to retake that state-led model to rebuild and stabilize the economy.
Morales was not permitted to run in the election a year after abandoning power, at the suggestion of military and police leaders, following a wave of deadly protests against his claimed re-election.
The interim government that followed tried to erase many of Morales’ foreign and domestic policies, and prosecutors brought charges against the former leader and several of his aides, accusing them of fomenting violent protests.
Since winning election, Arce has downplayed speculation of a major role in his administration for Morales, whose popularity was dented in his final years as president by a refusal to accept term limits and by perceived growing authoritarianism.
Anti-Morales groups have been protesting again in recent days, especially in the eastern economic center of Santa Cruz, challenging Arce’s election as well.
Attendees at the inauguration included Spain’s King Felipe, the presidents of Argentina, Colombia and Paraguay, and Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Javad Zarif.
While outgoing president Jeanne Anez skipped the ceremony, the main runner-up in the election, centrist former president Carlos Mesa, appeared.
“We await signals he will have a good government and respect the opposition,” Mesa said, although may opposition figures left the ceremony to protest government actions that would make it easier to pass its programs through the legislature.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not