The current president of Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, has been facing scrutiny on multiple fronts. According to a report in the Washington Post, Paz, who only took office two weeks abruptly scraped long standing fuel subsidies put in place by the previous left wing government. On top of that, the government bought a batch of contaminated gasoline, which damaged thousands of cars. The upshot of that was massive street demonstrations, with protesters wielding sticks of dynamite. Away from the protests, Paz had to fire his economic minister after allegations emerged that he failed to declare his true income when purchasing a luxury car. However, all of that pales in comparison to the travails of Paz’s informal Argentine advisor, Fernando Cerimedo, whose former lover, a Bolivian lawyer, Nadia Beller, was shot but thankfully survived—from her hospital bed, Beller accused Cerimedo of ordering her killing to silence her from making allegations of widespread corruption in the Paz government. Needless to say, it’s been a week full of explosive allegations in La Paz.
Tag: Bolivia
Attempted Coup Unsettles Bolivian Politics.
Last Wednesday in Bolivia, a former general in the army led a group of troops to attack the presidential palace. According to a report in The Guardian, the current president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, told the coup’s leader, Juan Jose Zuniga, to stand down. According to a report in the AP, the former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, claimed that Arce had been in on the plot and encouraged the coup as a way to score political points. Recent polls in Bolivia have shown that Arce’s Movement For Socialism (MAS) is unpopular due to an ongoing economic crisis. It is unclear what will happen, but Arce’s position will not be secure for the foreseeable future.