Bolivian senator Rodrigo Paz on Sunday became the third man in his extended family to be elected president, a role he has vowed to use for the betterment of all.
On the campaign trail, the 58-year-old economist worked hard to present himself as a moderate man of consensus.
Careful to avoid ideological labels, he had slogans for everyone: from “God, family, country” for his more conservative followers to “Until victory, always” — a catchphrase associated with Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara.
Paz, clean-shaven with thick, neatly combed-back hair and a penchant for collared shirts, has been described as a candidate trying to be everything to everyone.
In August, he came out of left field to take the most ballots in a first voting round that saw Bolivians deal a death blow to 20 years of socialist government blamed for a raft of economic woes.
In Sunday’s runoff, the Christian Democratic Party candidate notched about 55 percent of the vote, beating rightwing rival Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.
– Globe-trotting youth –
Paz, the son of former president Jaime Paz Zamora (1989-1993), was born in Spain, where his family fled successive military dictatorships and where he spent his early years in exile.
There were also stints in Argentina, Chile, Peru and Venezuela, forcing Paz to start over several times as his family of leftist dissidents moved repeatedly to evade persecution.
“In my parents’ struggle for democracy, we lived in 10 different countries,” Paz told AFP in an interview in August.
The candidate’s political lineage also includes great-uncle Victor Paz Estenssoro, a leftist four-time president.
Since entering politics, he has been a mayor, a congressman and served until now as a senator for Tarija, an oil- and gas-rich department where his family hails from.
On the campaign trail, Paz toured hundreds of municipalities in the country of 11.3 million inhabitants.
With his bushy eyebrows, his strong physical resemblance to his father serves as a point of nostalgia for many old-school leftists, and Paz has featured the 86-year-old patriarch in posts on social media, where he is very active.
– ‘An alternative’ –
“I don’t have to define myself, but rather to offer the country an alternative,” Paz replied in an interview with CNN when asked for an ideological identification.
His message has been one of “capitalism for all, not just for a few,” with deep spending cuts, formalization of the sputtering economy, and constitutional changes to bring back much-needed foreign investment.
He has promised to cut taxes and eliminate import duties.
Rather than take out big loans, Paz has undertaken to “put our own house in order first, because there are many corrupt people here who have stolen a lot.”
He has told AFP he would not seek a second term after this one.
Part of Paz’s appeal has been attributed to his running mate, highly popular former police captain Edmand Lara, known for his broadsides against corruption.
“The popular sectors” have “strongly” identified with Rodrigo Paz, especially through his running mate Lara, who comes from a modest background, Bolivian sociologist Maria Teresa Zegada told AFP.
gta/mlr/arb/ksb
