One of the frontrunners in Bolivia’s upcoming presidential election, Jorge Quiroga, said that the country was poised for “radical change” after two decades of socialist rule marked in recent years by a severe economic crisis.
Quiroga, who served as president from 2001 to 2002, is running a close second behind business magnate Samuel Doria Medina in polls for the first round of the election on Aug. 17.
The ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), founded by three-term former Bolivian president Evo Morales, is shown at rock bottom, with voters poised to punish the party over its handling of the worst crisis in two decades.
Photo: AFP
Basics like fuel and food items are in short supply in the Andean nation, which is running out of the dollars it needs to import essentials.
After a rally on Thursday with supporters in the administrative capital, La Paz, Quiroga, 65, said that Bolivians faced a period of “radical change [to] regain 20 lost years” — a reference to the Morales era from 2006 to 2019 and that of his successor, Luis Arce, who has been in power since 2020.
Referring to MAS, which was credited with lifting many Bolivians out of poverty during a commodities boom in the 2000s, Quiroga said: “Its cycle is over, its time is up.”
Quiroga, Doria Medina and Bolivian Senator Andronico Rodriguez, who is polling in third, have all prescribed varying degrees of austerity to turn around Bolivia’s finances.
Quiroga, a supporter of Argentine President Javier Milei, has advocated the deepest spending cuts.
Year-on-year inflation rose to 25.8 percent last month, the highest level since 2008, driven by a shortage of dollars, with the US currency having nearly doubled in value against the local boliviano in a year.
Quiroga, a US-educated former finance minister who served as vice president under former Bolivian president Hugo Banzer in the 1990s, said that if elected, he would “change all the laws” to attract investment, including in the energy sector, which Morales nationalized in the 2000s.
He also vowed a change in international alliances, breaking from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua — close allies of the Morales and Arce administrations.
Quiroga was the youngest vice president in Bolivia’s history when he was elected to the post in 1997 at the age of 37. He later served as president for one year after Banzer resigned in August 2001 due to cancer.
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Young Chinese, many who fear age discrimination in their workplace after turning 35, are increasingly starting “one-person companies” that have artificial intelligence (AI) do most of the work. Smaller start-ups are already in vogue in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, with rapidly advancing AI tools seen as a welcome teammate even as they threaten layoffs at existing firms. More young people in China are subscribing to the model, as cities pledge millions of dollars in funding and rent subsidies for such ventures, in alignment with Beijing’s political goal of “technological self-reliance.” “The one-person company is a product of the AI era,” said Karen Dai
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
RSS