Luis Arce was born in a middle-class family of teachers. He got his university degrees in economy. Arce is not considered to be indigenous, and is seen as a moderate Marxist.
"I have had my ideas since I was 14 years old and I started reading Karl Marx. Since then I have not stopped having the same ideological position and I am not going to change for anything," Arce told Reuters in an interview in October. In Evo's shadow, Bolivia's new president Luis Arce promises moderate socialism (msn.com)
Morales-Arce finance budgets included bonuses for pregnant women, school children, the elderly, and huge investments industrializing natural gas and lithium for batteries and nuclear physics. Now President, Arce has already reinstituted a new "Bonus against Hunger", which will help over four million people. The beneficiaries are people over 18, who do not receive income from public or private institutions, people with disabilities, mothers, and those with the Universal Bonus. Bolivia: President Arce Approves Bonus Against Hunger | News | teleSUR English
Arce has promised not to cut public spending, though he acknowledges that some austerity measures will be needed. He also declared the "process of change [will be resumed] without hate, and learning and overcoming our errors as MAS."
Half of all revenues still come from natural gas and oil. Agricultural production is second. Arce wishes to diversify the economy. He has stopped the exportation of food, in order to assure that all Bolivians are well fed. He has fixed the currency rate of exchange to curb inflation.
Vice-President David Choquehuanca, leader of the Confederacià �n Sindical Única de Campesinos de Bolivia and the Movimiento Campesino Indà gena, was born in 1961, in an Aymara community of La Paz. The former foreign minister learned to speak Spanish at the age of seven. During his years in Morales cabinet, he assumed the general secretariat of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). Bolivia has returned to ALBA after à �à �ez had withdrawn from the cooperative-oriented alliance of eight Latin American countries. The state has also resumed diplomatic and fraternal relations with Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua leftist governments. à �à �ez had also expelled Cuba's 700 doctors and medical workers.
Half the population is indigenous (some sources place the percentage even higher). In the beginning of the Morales presidency, a new constitution was created with grass-roots participation. It recognizes 36 peoples as indigenous, and made three of their languages, along with Spanish, official languages of the nation. Quechua people make up half the indigenous population; Ayamara's 41%.
Yet of the 17 ministers, only one is indigenous and four are women. Sabina Orellana, a Quechua union activist, was appointed Minister of Cultures, Decolonization and Depatriarchalization.
Ten days following assumption of the presidency, Arce fired military right-wingers loyal to the coup-makers and to the U.S. He replaced them with officers purportedly loyal to the people and the constitution.
Coronavirus prevents full recovery
Western mainstream media (MSM) have ignored most developments in Bolivia since the election other than some coverage about coronavirus and floods. MSM puts Bolivia in bed with Russia, because it is supplying Sputnik V vaccine to Boliviaone of 50 countries to buy this inexpensive vaccine. Russia to supply Algeria, Bolivia with Sputnik V vaccine | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera
The prestigious Lancet medical journal just published its findings that Sputnik V is effective against 91.6 percent of symptomatic CoTvid-19 cases. Sputnik V vaccine is 91.6% effective against symptomatic covid-19 | New Scientist
The government has also ordered Western-made vaccines such as Astra Zeneca, which charges three times more than the Russian vaccine and is not very effective against the South African mutation.
At the beginning of February, 218,000 people had tested positive. The population is 11.5 million. Around 50 persons are dying daily. Evo Morales' sister, Ester, died from the virus at age 70.
Fearing an economic collapse, Arce has not shut down as much business as many people desire. Health workers are upset. Hospitals are filled to near overflowing. Health workers in the most conservative Santa Cruz region conducted a partial 24-hour strike (February 2), demanding a greater lockdown of society, in order to prevent more spreading of the virus and its mutations. Me'dicos bolivianos hacen paro en regià �n golpeada por COVID - Infobae
Many people also wish to postpone the planned regional and municipal elections scheduled for March 7. The government intends to maintain the date despite fears of more coronavirus infections.
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