BOLIVIA:
Indigenous Leaders, Women Head New Cabinet
Franz Chávez

LA PAZ, Jan 24  - 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.