Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Cyclical swings from far left to far right and back again seem to typify voting patterns in Latin America. And elections in the Andean nation of Bolivia – ruled for nearly 20 years by an increasingly unpopular far-left party – were expected to be no different. Yet, on Sunday, voters upended predictions of a rightward swing. Centrist Rodrigo Paz Pereira won the most votes, putting him into an October runoff with a conservative former president, Jorge ‘Tuto’ Quiroga. Mr. Paz’s appeal points to a political maturing among voters for a more moderate path than the outgoing leftist government. Under the country’s first Indigenous leader, Evo Morales, poverty rates dropped from 63.5% to 33.1% between 2006 and 2018. A boom in gas and oil production supported social spending and subsidies. But Mr. Morales grew authoritarian and was ousted in 2019. Since then, gas production has fallen and inflation has soared.” (08/18/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0818/A-balancing-act-in-the-Andes