WUNRN
BOLIVIA:
Indigenous Leaders, Women Head New
Cabinet
Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, Jan 24 (IPS) - Reforms to Bolivia's current
"neoliberal" free-market policies and the fight against corruption and red tape
announced by incoming President Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, were put in the
hands of a cabinet made up largely of indigenous people, trade unionists and
women.
Bolivia's first-ever indigenous president, sporting the same
red, grey, white and blue sweater that became famous on his tour to Europe as
president-elect, swore in his new cabinet Monday with a speech in which he urged
them to work hard and to respect the will of the people.
Morales, who
took office on Sunday, began his first day as president Monday at 5:00 AM, when
he met a delegation from Japan at his rented home in the upscale neighbourhood
of Miraflores. Business opportunities, sales of sugar to Japan and potential
debt relief from that country were the issues on the agenda.
"Ministers,
we have placed our trust in you to eradicate corruption and overhaul the
neoliberal model," Morales told his new cabinet, while outside of the government
palace a crowd tried to get in to see the new ministers.
In the Aymara
tongue, the new Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca, a sociologist and social
activist, described the political juncture as a return by Bolivia's indigenous
people to their roots, with the mission of being at the forefront of major
change.
Morales's landslide victory, which brought him nearly 54 percent
of the vote on Dec. 18, gave his party, the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), the
authority to freely appoint all of the cabinet ministers without having to forge
agreements with other political forces.
The business community, the
different regions, and every major sector are all represented by the 16
ministers, said Morales, who called on the cabinet to interpret "the feelings,
thoughts and suffering of the Bolivian people."
Bolivia is the poorest
country in South America, with 70 percent of the population of just under nine
million living below the poverty line. An estimated 60 percent of Bolivians
belong to indigenous groups.
The key cabinet position of chief of staff
went to retired army major Juan Ramón Quintana, a professor of sociology, one of
the leading thinkers in Bolivia's indigenous rights movement.
And for
the first time ever, a woman, former senator Alicia Múñoz, was named to the
Interior Ministry, in charge of intelligence, the police, migration issues and
the anti-drug fight.
The complex task of strengthening the armed forces
and resolving a scandal over the destruction of Chinese missiles, which were
taken to the United States to be deactivated, went to the former president of
the bar association, Walker San Miguel, the new defence minister.
In the
Finance Ministry, Luis Alberto Arce will have the mission of guaranteeing the
monetary stability maintained since 1985, while leftist economist and social
researcher Carlos Villegas will revive a Planning Ministry that was severely
weakened under a free market model which largely did away with the state's
oversight and regulatory role.
The Ministry of Economic Development will
be headed by another female minister, Celinda Rosa, while the Ministry of Public
Works will be run by Salvador Riera, a business executive from the eastern
department of Santa Cruz.
One of the most widely applauded appointments
was that of leftwing journalist Andrés Soliz Rada as the new minister of
hydrocarbons. Known as a fierce defendant of Bolivia's right to control its own
resources, one of the first measures he announced was the registration of
Bolivia's natural gas reserves on foreign exchanges as the property of the
Bolivian state, viewed as a first step towards nationalisation.
This
measure will also correct a move made by the Spanish-Argentine energy giant
Repsol-YPF, which registered Bolivian gas reserves that it holds in concession
as the company's own property on the New York stock exchange, sparking protest
and controversy.
As minister of education, Morales designated Félix
Patzi, who will now face such formidable challenges as Bolivia's illiteracy rate
of 22 percent. Cuba has already pledged to send several dozen advisers to help
with the government's efforts to boost literacy.
The new minister
announced that he would undertake a process of "educational decolonisation", and
would replace educational reform legislation with a new policy that would be
designed with the participation of the country's 60,000 public school teachers.
Nila Heredia, a university professor and tireless defender of civil rights, was
selected to head up the Health Ministry. She will be taking on a particularly
difficult task given the radical stance adopted by the country's health care
workers, who are demanding a six-hour work day and higher wages.
Santiago Alvez will be the new minister of labour, while agricultural
development has been assigned to Hugo Salvatierra, a MAS leader from Santa Cruz.
Former mining union leader Walter Villaroel was chosen by Morales to
head up the Ministry of Mines, while anthropologist and women's rights activist
Casimira Rodríguez is at the head of the Ministry of Justice.
One of the
most noteworthy designations was that of activist Abel Mamani to the newly
created Ministry of Water. Mamani played a leading role in the massive
demonstrations staged in the city of El Alto in 2004 against the privatisation
of the country's water resources. A similar battle was waged in the central
Bolivian city of Cochabamba in 2000, and succeeded in wresting the control of
drinking water supplies away from foreign corporations.
One of the first
tasks facing Mamani, however, will involve Silala springs in the southeastern
department (province) of Potosí, which borders on Chile. The water from the
springs flows into the neighbouring nation, and while Bolivia has consistently
demanded payment from Chile for its use, the matter has yet to be resolved.
(END/2006)
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