The problem of Latin America’s proxy presidents
They are proliferating
ON NOVEMBER 8TH Luis Arce took office as Bolivia’s president following his clear victory in an election last month. A day later the man who picked him as a candidate, Evo Morales, was greeted by adoring crowds as he crossed into Bolivia from Argentina, a year after fleeing his country after protests over electoral fraud. Mr Arce, who was Mr Morales’s finance minister, insists he is his own man. His former boss, who ruled as an increasingly authoritarian socialist strongman for 13 years, “has no role in the government”, he said. But some Bolivians believe Mr Arce will have Mr Morales breathing down his neck.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “The problem of proxy presidents”
From the November 14th 2020 edition
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