Rodrigo Paz sworn in as Bolivia’s new president, ending 20 years of socialist rule

Paz assumed office after receiving the presidential sash in a ceremony in Congress in the administrative capital of La Paz,

He said previous governments left behind an economy “in collapse, trapped in inflation and debt.”

“We inherited a destroyed country,” he said. “They left us with a collapsed economy, the lowest international reserves in 30 years, inflation, shortages, debt, and insecurity.”

Highlighting the country’s economic crisis, Paz added: “They left behind unjustifiable fiscal deficits. Corruption has practically become state policy. We are saying enough to ideologies that can no longer put food on the table."

"We reject a system that does not respect employment, production, growth, and private property.”

Targeting former leaders of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, Paz asked: “In the presence of international witnesses, the armed forces and the police, I want to ask, where is the gas? Where is the sea of gas you promised? Evo where is the lithium? Arce, where is the gas?” he asked rhetorically of former presidents Evo Morales) and Luis Arce.

The ceremony was attended by leaders and representatives from Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru, Brazil, Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.

Paz, the son of former Bolivian President Jaime Paz Zamora, takes office amid one of the country’s most severe economic crises in the last four decades.

End of 20 years of MAS rule

In an Oct. 19 runoff, Paz, representing the center-right Christian Democratic Party, won 54.53% of the vote, defeating his rival and marking the end of the MAS party’s 20-year rule, a movement long associated with left-wing politics in Bolivia and Latin America.