Rodrigo Paz: Pro-business senator wins Bolivia runoff amid nation’s economic chaos

Senator Rodrigo Paz won Bolivia’s presidential runoff on Sunday, pledging to repair relations with Washington, attract foreign investment and curb spending to address the deepest economic crisis in four decades.

Senator Paz led former president Jorge Tuto Quiroga of the Alianza Libre coalition by 54.5 per cent to 45.5 per cent, with 98 per cent of ballots tallied in the preliminary count. Quiroga conceded.

In his victory speech, Senator Paz said that Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau had called to congratulate him, and that the country is rebuilding its international ties.

“Bolivia is breathing winds of change,” he told supporters. “Ideology doesn’t put food on the table. What does is the right to work, strong institutions, legal security and private property.”

Senator Paz, 58, will take office on November 8 in a nation hit by soaring inflation, fuel shortages, a crippling debt load and the risk of unrest from supporters of socialist former president Evo Morales, who are angry that he was barred from running. Senator Paz has said he will phase out expensive fuel subsidies and allow the currency to devalue.

Bolivia is one of the poorest nations in the Americas despite its vast deposits of lithium, a key component in batteries.

But whereas his opponent called for an International Monetary Fund program to address the crisis, Senator Paz says he would first stabilize domestic finances before reaching out to the lender.

The first round of voting in August brought down the curtain on two decades of socialist government, when the ruling party was wiped out amid fuel and food shortages and soaring inflation.

The Andean nation’s sovereign bonds have returned almost 40 per cent this year, among the top performers in emerging-markets, as investors bet that the defeat of the ruling socialists would herald more business-friendly policies.

His team has said that he will continue to service the nation’s debt, but may try to ease the burden through asset swaps, maturity extensions, or currency adjustments

‘Capitalism for Everyone’

Senator Paz is a former mayor of the small provincial city of Tarija, and son of Jaime Paz Zamora who led the country from 1989 to 1993. On the campaign trail, he promoted what he called “capitalism for everyone” and promised to dismantle the “state roadblock” to economic development.

Luciana Jáuregui, a Cochabamba-based political analyst said that many people had backed Paz in the expectation of a more gradual economic adjustment than his opponent was proposing, with greater protection for vulnerable Bolivians.

However, “the crisis makes major reform urgent,” she said.

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