Luis Arce Completes One Year at the Helm of Bolivia's Government

Bolivian President, Luis Arce, offered a speech to the nation, within the framework of the inauguration of the first ordinary session of the Legislative Assembly (Parliament) for 2021-2022 and on the first anniversary of his assumption to the Bolivian Presidency.

Before the President's speech, the Vice President, David Choquehuanca, referred to the popular demand for justice for the deaths and human rights violations and cases of racism during the de facto government of Jeanine Añez.

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In this regard, he indicated that what happened in 2020 compared to 2021 reflects irreversible change and stressed the need to use democratic means and the rule of law to banish fascism and other forms of extreme violence.

"2020 has warned us and taught us that political chaos, deaths, racism, abuse, corruption, injustices, violation of human rights is not the path of our plurinational system. It is the obligation of all of us to identify those responsible so that these events never happen again," he said.

In this sense, he referred to the importance of justice to respect due process but identifying those responsible so that the facts do not go unpunished.

"A country without justice is a nation submerged in disorder and chaos; justice has to seek the truth, the people need to know the truth, the people demand justice," he said.

Luis Arce, on his part, presented before the Legislature the results of his first 12 months in office. Concerning his administration, he said that 54.4 percent of the Bolivian population over 18 years of age is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, thanks to the application of 7.9 million doses of the more than 15.4 million free antigens distributed.

At the same time, he noted that in the third wave of the pandemic, immunization was massive, reaching 64 percent of first doses and 54 percent in second doses, in addition to implementing active epidemiological surveillance.

The Bolivian head of state recalled that when he took office in November 2020, the country had a deep health crisis due to the coronavirus.

"In the year of our democratically elected government, 7.9 million doses were administered, including first, second, third and single doses. As of November 2021, 54.4% of the population over 18 years of age has the complete vaccination schedule against COVID19."

"In Bolivia, COVID-19 arrived in March 2020, bringing pain, mourning and impotence in the face of a clear inability to manage the health crisis of the de facto government, the lack of medical supplies, medicines, oxygen, massive PCR tests, trained personnel resulted in shocking figures of lethality, in a scenario that, despite having adopted rigid and flexible quarantines, did not foresee hope for the Bolivian people," he commented.

To face this situation, the President said that three lines of action were implemented, including free mass testing, free vaccination, and strengthening the health system at the state level.

"With these actions, we went from a lethality rate of 6.2 percent in the first wave to a lethality that did not exceed 2.7 percent in the second and third waves. At the beginning of this fourth wave, the lowest levels of the entire pandemic were recorded at 0.96 percent in November 2021," he said.

Arce continued his speech, outlining the work of the Government to favor pregnant women with the Juana Azurduy Bonus. He added that through the Unified Health System and the National Intercultural Community Family Health Policy, the number of births attended by qualified personnel increased.

He also referred to the reestablishment of sports institutions taken over after the de facto Government, through the reopening of centers, incentives for sports practice and economic support.

He also highlighted the opening of the school year in February 2021, with 38.5 percent of educational institutions in face-to-face mode, increasing to 58.7 percent in October. "If to that modality we add the semi-presential classes, we would have a total of 84.1 percent of the total of the country's educational units under these two modalities, which means a substantive improvement of the educational process in our country in times of pandemic," he evidenced.

Luis Arce also referred to the economic reconstruction measures to seek gradual growth. "The measures implemented responded favorably, achieving positive results for our economy, reducing the depth of the crisis that in the second and third quarter of 2020 hit bottom, with accumulated falls of -12.9 percent and -12.6 percent, respectively," he said.

The head of the Bolivian Government was sworn in on Sunday, November 8, 2020, at the Plurinational Legislative Assembly and with national support of 55.11 percent at the polls. From his entry into the Presidency, he implemented measures to counteract the political, economic, educational and health crises in search of the reconstruction of Bolivia and its stability after the coup d'état of 2019.