Bolivia's
new leftist leader names 'cabinet of change'
AP/Juan
Karita
Bolivia's
new President Evo Morales, right, waves as the president of Venezuela,
Hugo Chavez, left, embraces Bolivia's new Foreign Minister, David
Choquehuanca, at the balcony of the presidential palace in La
Paz.,Jan 23, 2005
By
Isabel
Sanchez
AFP
LA
PAZ
Petroleumworld.com 01 24 06
Bolivia's new leftist president, Evo Morales, named union leaders
and fellow Indians to his first cabinet on Monday with a mission
to eradicate corruption and end neo-liberal policies.
Morales unveiled his "cabinet of change" at Quemado
Palace one day after his triumphant inauguration during which
he vowed to end centuries of injustice that he said have been
inflicted on the Bolivian Indian community.
"Politics is the science of serving the people, not living
off the people," Morales said in the cabinet unveiling ceremony,
in which he wore his trademark red sweater with white and blue
stripes, continuing his refusal to wear suits.
He told his new ministers: "I ask you personally, in the
name of the people: zero corruption, zero bureaucracy. We have
the task of dignifying politics."
Morales said his government's job was to fulfill "the people's
mandate to change the neo-liberal model and democratically fix
the structural and social problems."
His 16-minister cabinet has a large number of indigenous ministers
as well as more women in influential positions.
David Choquehuanca, an Aymara Indian -- like Morales -- who has
worked with international agencies, was named foreign minister.
During the ceremony, Choquehuanca spoke in a native Andean language
to proclaim that a great new day had arrived for Bolivia's Indians,
who make up more than 60 percent of the population.
Morales also broke the mold by picking the head of the domestic
workers' union, Casimira Rodriguez, a Quechua Indian, as justice
minister.
Alicia Munoz, an anthropologist and former senator, became the
first woman interior minister.
Andres Soliz Rada, a leftist attorney and journalist, was put
in charge of the sensitive energy ministry and will have the delicate
task of dealing with foreign oil companies.
Two presidents resigned in the last two years amid protests against
their policies for the country's natural gas wealth.
A radical union leader Abel Mamani, another Aymara, was put in
charge of the water ministry of this landlocked country, the poorest
of South America.
The water industry was privatized in 1997 and Mamani will be in
charge of efforts to renationalise it.
Greater state control of the natural gas wealth and other resources
was a cornerstone of Morales' election campaign.
At his inauguration on Sunday, Morales vowed to end what he called
the humiliation of the majority Bolivian Indian community.
"We have been condemned, humiliated ... and never recognized
as human beings," he said.
"500 years of campaigning and popular resistance by indigenous
people have not been in vain. We are here and we say that we have
achieved power to end the injustice, the inequality and oppression
that we have lived under."
Morales joins a growing list of left-wing leaders in South America
who form a growing obstacle to US influence in the region. Bolivia's
new president vowed during his campaign to be the "worst
nightmare" of the United States.
One of his first acts Monday was to sign a cooperation accord
with Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, another virulent
critic of the United States.
Chavez, who was at the inauguration on Sunday with a host of other
South American leaders, praised his left-wing ally predicting
that Morales would "be successful in reforming Bolivia in
a way that no one else has."
Morales will be Bolivia's fifth president since 2002 and took
part in protests that led to the downfall of two. But he has been
given a largely positive welcome from leaders and media across
South America.
Most comment highlighted his more moderate stance toward the United
States and to unify Bolivia at his inauguration and in more recent
speeches.
Even in the United States, The Washington Post headline on its
front page inauguration story said: "For Bolivian majority,
a new promise."
AFP
01 23 06
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