Bolivia’s new centre-right president-elect said on Monday he would seek to reinstate diplomatic ties with the United States that were broken off nearly two decades ago under leftist ex-leader Evo Morales.
“In the specific case of the United States … that relationship will be resumed,” economist-turned-senator Rodrigo Paz, 58, told reporters after emerging victorious in a run-off election on Sunday.
He beat a fellow right-wing rival after voters in a first round in August delivered a critical blow to the socialist MAS party created by Morales and blamed by many for the South American country’s myriad economic woes.
Paz is set to take office on November 8.
Under Morales, in office from 2006 to 2019, Bolivia took a sharp turn to the left – nationalising energy resources, breaking ties with Washington and making alliances with China, Russia and fellow leftists in Cuba, Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America.
Morales in 2008 expelled the US ambassador and officials of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), accusing them of interference in Bolivia’s affairs. USAID officials followed in 2013.
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