What to know about Rodrigo Paz, the centrist who shot from obscurity to Bolivia's presidency
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1:05 AM on Monday, October 20
By ISABEL DEBRE
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Three months ago, Rodrigo Paz was a little-known Bolivian opposition senator with a famous father. Now he’s the first conservative to win a presidential election in the country in 20 years.
To widespread surprise, Paz, 58, beat out his far more prominent right-wing opponent, former President Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, in Bolivia's presidential runoff on Sunday. He will be inaugurated Nov. 8.
Paz inherits an economy in shambles after 20 years of rule by the Movement Toward Socialism party, founded by charismatic former President Evo Morales. The party had its heyday during the commodities boom of the early 2000s, but natural gas exports have sputtered and its statist economic model of generous subsidies and a fixed exchange rate has collapsed.
With U.S. dollars scarce and chronic fuel shortages, a majority of voters chose Paz to lift them out of their worst economic crisis in decades. Paz pitched major reforms but at a more gradual pace than Quiroga, who advocated an International Monetary Fund bailout and fiscal shock program.
The son of former President Jaime Paz Zamora, Rodrigo Paz was born in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and spent his early childhood there.
His father, one of the founders in the 1960s of the Marxist-inspired Revolutionary Left Movement, had gone into exile in Spain to escape the repressive rule of General Hugo Bánzer, one of a series of dictators who ruled Bolivia from 1964 to 1982.
Paz Zamora returned to Bolivia when Bánzer stepped down in 1978 and became president in 1989. His tenure brought tight fiscal discipline and free-market changes to rein in inflation, thrilling investors but disappointing his former left-wing supporters who watched inequality deepen and unemployment persist.
Rodrigo Paz began his political career in his father’s political party but later, like the elder Paz, recast himself as a conservative committed to business-friendly reforms. He started out as a lawmaker in the lower house of Congress before becoming mayor of the southern city of Tarija and then a senator.
When Bolivia's campaign season kicked off in August, the soft-spoken senator didn’t even make the cut for the first televised presidential debates. Ahead of the Aug. 17 election, he was polling near the bottom of the eight-candidate field.
But Paz's choice of a former police captain, Edman Lara, as his running mate turbocharged his campaign.
Lara was fired from the police in 2023 for denouncing corruption in viral TikTok videos. He amplified Paz's anti-corruption message and resonated with working-class, Indigenous residents of Bolivia's highlands who once made up the base of the Movement Toward Socialism party.
The pair crisscrossed the country, throwing beer-soaked, no-frills events with the message of “capitalism for all.” They played up their contrast with the wealthy Quiroga and his large campaign war chest. They also promised cash handouts for the poor to cushion the blow of austerity measures.
Before Sunday’s runoff, Paz visited Washington, speaking at think tanks and expressing a conviction that improving relations with the U.S. is necessary for Bolivia’s success.
That could mark a major shift for Bolivia after years of antipathy toward Washington that goes back to 2008, when Morales kicked out the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and expelled the U.S. ambassador. Bolivia allied with Venezuela and other left-wing governments in the region and with world powers like China and Russia.
Late Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that Paz’s victory “marks a transformative opportunity for both nations."
"The United States stands ready to partner with Bolivia on shared priorities, including ending illegal immigration, improved market access for bilateral investment, and combating transnational criminal organizations to strengthen regional security,” he said.
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