Luis Arce

 ( 1963 Births ) 

Arce spent most of his working life as a Official, beginning in 1987 at the Central Bank of Bolivia, where he spent much of his professional career. From 1992 to 2005, he worked in the International Operations Management of the Central Bank of Bolivia as Deputy Manager of Reserves. Between 1994 and 1995, he was promoted to head of the Department of Information and Publications, of the Research and Analysis Sub-management, under the Management of Economic Studies of the Central Bank of Bolivia.

Arce also started working in academia as an undergraduate and postgraduate professor at various Bolivian public and private universities. He has given lectures at universities in Europe, North America, and South America, including Columbia University in New York, the University of Buenos Aires, and Harvard University.

In 2011, the American Economy Magazine ranked Arce the region's 8th-best minister of the economy out of 18. As the minister of economy, Arce maintained a relatively low profile. Christopher Sabatini, a senior researcher fellow for Latin America at Chatham House and founder of Americas Quarterly, called Arce "one of the few technocrats in MAS". "He's level headed" and "doesn't engage in inflammatory rhetoric", Sabatini wrote. Bolivian media often credited Arce with steering the nation through a period of economic growth. His policies were salient in slashing Bolivia's poverty rate during his terms and facilitating large amounts of economic growth as a result of rising gas exports.

On 24 June 2017, Arce was forced to give up his position and travel to Brazil to undergo surgery to treat severe kidney cancer. He remained there for a mandated recovery period before returning to his post as minister of economy on 23 January 2019.

Soon after resigning, Arce took refuge in the Mexican Embassy in La Paz, where he was granted asylum by the Mexican government. Given his medical history, the interim government of Jeanine Áñez granted him and his wife safe-conduct to leave the country. Nonetheless, Arce denounced that he had received harassment from police while attempting to board his flight at the El Alto International Airport. On 6 December, after a brief layover in Lima, Arce arrived in Mexico, where he joined other exiled authorities, including Morales.

Some MAS opponents accused Arce of being a puppet of Morales, a point Arce denied. During the campaign, Arce distanced himself from Morales, with David Apaza, a MAS leader from El Alto, stating that "categorically, Evo will not interfere in the government of brother Luis Arce... We believe our comrade Morales should rest, while brother Luis Arce takes the lead". Arce stated that Morales "will not have any role in our government" but will still be the president of the party.

Most public opinion polls showed Arce with a lead, but not one big enough to avoid a November runoff. By election night, the divided candidates of the right had managed to partially consolidate around former president Carlos Mesa as Áñez and former president Jorge Quiroga dropped out. Early results favored Mesa, but polling firm Ciesmori's quick-count of the vote on the morning of 19 October indicated that Arce had won 52.4% of the vote, enough to win the election outright without a runoff. Arce and his party declared victory, which Áñez soon confirmed on Twitter. Carlos Mesa, Arce's primary opponent, conceded the election at a news conference, saying that initial counts showed a "strong and clear" win for Arce. The final tally gave Arce 55.1% of the vote and Mesa 28.8%.

Bolivian newspaper El Deber called Arce's victory "clear and crushing" and praised him for his conciliatory statements after the result, while also stating that the new president will have to appease MAS's radical wing. Writing on Los Tiempos, Oscar Díaz Arnau attributed Arce's victory to MAS's strong support in rural areas, the weakness of Mesa's candidacy, Arce's moderation, lack of connection between the opposition and rural inhabitants and the candidacy of Luis Fernando Camacho splitting anti-MAS voters and weakening the opposition.

On the night of 5 November, MAS spokesman Sebastián Michel denounced an attack committed against president-elect Arce. The statement came after a stick of dynamite was detonated at the party's campaign headquarters in La Paz. Though Arce suffered no physical damages, Michel pointed out that Arce still had not yet received state protection.

The official inauguration act took place on 8 November in La Paz. On 28 October, Foreign Minister Karen Longaric confirmed that Morales would be allowed to return from exile to attend the ceremony. However, the following day, Longaric retracted the offer, stating that "Morales has been hostile to the Bolivian democratic process and his presence in the country will generate social and political tension". Also not in attendance was still-president Jeanine Áñez, who left La Paz and retired to her residence in Beni a day before the end of her mandate. Despite initially stating that he would not go, Mesa later announced his intent to attend the inauguration. However, he and the entire CC bloc left the hemicycle of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly prior to the end of the ceremony as an act of protest against the two-thirds regulation. As such, the only former president to attend the entire event was Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé.

Foreign dignitaries to the event included three presidents, fifteen international delegations, and seventeen foreign social organizations. Presidents Alberto Fernández of Argentina, Iván Duque of Colombia, and Mario Abdo Benítez of Paraguay, as well as King Felipe VI of Spain, all attended. Chilean President Sebastián Piñera declined his presence in order to focus on urgent government matters after initially having announced that he would attend; Foreign Minister Andrés Allamand arrived in his stead. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's presence was vetoed by the interim government due to the fact that it did not recognize his administration. Arce was sworn in as the sixty-seventh president of Bolivia at the front of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly. In his inaugural address, he promised to lead "a new stage in our history ... in a government that is for all without discrimination of any nature". He outlined his intent to "defeat" the pandemic and pledged to turn around the nation's faltering economy which he blamed the interim government for having "shattered". In addition, he criticized the Áñez administration, labelling it a de facto government that led an "internal and systematic war against the people". At the same time, he promised to "govern with inclusion ... , hoping to be remembered as the government that restored hope and social justice".

The two primary coca-producing regions are the highland Bolivian Yungas and the lowland Chapare Province. According to some experts, around thirty percent of coca cultivated in the Yungas is used to make cocaine, while ninety percent produced in the Chapare is converted into the drug. Morales' government legalized the cultivation of coca in the Chapare in 2017, a decision criticized by Yungas farmers, who said the product was "surplus coca". During his administration, Arce fostered new uses for the leaf. On 11 January 2022, in commemoration of National Coca Chewing Day, the government announced its intent to sponsor the production of "toothpaste made from coca". Certain contained in the leaf have been known to neutralize cavities. The first step in the project was the establishment of a factory to produce the toothpaste, with Arce stating that "later others will come". In June, Arce established the Public Productive Company for the Industrialization of the Bolivian Coca Leaf (KOKABOL), charged with producing and marketing products derived from coca. The decree establishing the state-owned enterprise—based in Sacaba with planned branches throughout the national territory—also authorized the Ministry of Economy to make an initial "capital contribution" of approximately US$8.9 million for its development.

In addition to Sputnik V, Arce's government also signed a contract with the Serum Institute of India for the supply of five million doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine. With both vaccines combined, Arce stated that the government now had the capacity to fully inoculate the country's entire vaccinable population with two doses. On 11 February, a separate agreement between Bolivia and Sinopharm was reached, providing for the sale of 400,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine and an additional donation of another 100,000 doses.

During a speech at the Ibero-American Summit held in Andorra, Arce called on World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization to release patents on vaccines and medications meant to combat COVID-19. He denounced the "hegemonic pharmaceutical industry" for, in his view, harming "billions of human beings" by maintaining patents on life-saving medication and demanded that they release their anti-COVID drugs into the public domain for use by all nations. At the initiative of the Arce government and the United Nations Development Programme, Bolivia convened the forum "Release of patents and intellectual property considerations in the context of COVID-19", hosted by the Public University of El Alto on 13 May. At the forum, the attending parties issued a call for the suspension of intellectual property rights on vaccines. Days earlier, Arce initiated a process with the WTO in order to compel Johnson & Johnson to waive its vaccine patent, allowing the Canadian firm Biolyse Pharma to produce fifteen million doses of the Janssen vaccine.

In order to "protect public health and prevent its loss or deterioration", Arce enacted Law N° 1359, the Health Emergency Law, on 17 February 2021. The policy came into effect despite the lack of a negotiated agreement with the country's public health sector, who on 5 February declared the entire content of the law to be in violation of the Constitution at an emergency meeting in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Their complaints centered on three provisions in the legislation, with the most egregious aspect being Article 19, which prohibited the interruption of the national health system for the duration of the health emergency. Doctors' unions viewed this as a restriction on their right to protest. On 18 February, the National Health Council of Bolivia (CONASA) declared an indefinite general strike in opposition to the law. In response, Arce issued Supreme Decree N° 4542 on 14 July, which regulated the original law by allowing the government to impose sanctions and administrative measures as well as criminally prosecute those who suspend or interrupt health services. The regulation was described as "dictatorial" by CONASA and led numerous other health unions, including the Union of Medical Branches of Public Health of La Paz (SIRMES), to declare themselves in emergency and announce further protests against the government.

To promote an increase in vaccinations, Arce issued a Supreme Decree N° 4641 on 22 December mandating that individuals provide proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test to access most public institutions, including banks and airports, as of New Year's Day 2022. In its first week, the mandate achieved its intended effect of boosting vaccinations, with daily inoculation figures rising from 2,000 per day to around 100,000. However, protests from traditionally government-aligned unions led the administration to back down on the policy, with Minister of Health Jeyson Auza announcing on 6 January a suspension of the mandate until the twenty-sixth. By 19 January, continued mobilizations and some street clashes by anti-vaccine groups led the government to permanently suspend the policy to avoid "unnecessary measures of violence". The move was criticized by numerous regional authorities of the opposition, many of which announced that they would maintain their own vaccine passport measures in place. Political analysts noted that the government's speed in conceding defeat indicated a weakness when faced with popular discontent from the MAS' political base compared to protests from the opposition: "The MAS is afraid ... that a real opposition can be generated ... , and the best way to try to avoid that is to back down".

Upon inaugurating his new cabinet on 9 November 2020, Arce pledged to re-establish the Ministry of Cultures. The office was established in 2009 during the Morales administration, but the Áñez administration had abolished it in June to reduce government expenditure. The reconstituted ministry—dubbed the Ministry of Cultures, Decolonization, and Depatriarchalization—was created through Supreme Decree N° 4393 on 13 November, and Sabina Orellana was appointed to head it on 20 November.

On 13 January 2021, Arce instituted the Chakana as the government's official logo, replacing the previous logo promulgated by Áñez after just a year in use. The cross displays twenty-four fabrics, symbols, and textures, representing a variety of textile designs from the various regions of Bolivia. Arce assured that representing "the identity of each Bolivian is the most important thing so that the country moves forward, integrated, united, and inclusive".

Shortly into his term, Arce announced a series of policies aimed at rectifying what he viewed as erroneous economic decisions made by the transitional government. "The Neoliberalism model that was implemented for eleven months will be dismantled. In 2021 we will have a recovery", he said. On 28 December 2020, Arce enacted Law N° 1357 Tax on Large Fortunes, a permanent yearly wealth tax on those with a personal wealth above US$4.3 million. The law established the gradual increase in tax collection, with a 1.4 percent levy on those with a personal wealth ranging between US$4.3 million and US$5.7 million; 1.9 percent from US$5.7 million to US$7.2 million; and 2.4 percent on fortunes larger than that. The measure applied to all assets stored in accounts at home or abroad by any persons residing in Bolivia—including foreigners—for more than 183 days. The fine for failing to comply with this measure was equivalent to 200 percent of the initial amount due. The Ministry of Economy initially estimated that the new legislation would allow the government to collect Bs100 million (US$14.3 million) in taxes from 152 registered individuals. By 2021, it was announced an amount of approximately Bs240.1 million from 206 registered individuals had been collected, an overperformance of 240.1 percent from the initial goal. Of the amount collected, Bs237.2 million came from citizens residing in the country—206 taxpayers—while Bs2.9 million came from those living abroad—six taxpayers.

On 18 February 2021, Arce announced that he had ordered the Central Bank to return an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan totaling US$327 million previously granted to the Áñez government as aid for the economic crisis. Aside from the base price of paying back the loan, the move additionally cost the country another US$24 million in interest and commissions. The Central Bank justified that the government's decision was "in defense of Bolivia's national sovereignty", as the loan was conditioned on certain economic policies, and the Constitution prohibits the acceptance of such impositions by foreign institutions. In a letter to the Legislative Assembly, the IMF denied that fact. Writing for Americas Quarterly, Richard Lapper stated that the determination seemed "more influenced by the need to discredit the previous government, rather than any kind of broader economic logic"—on 28 June, Carlos Schlink, former vice minister of the treasury, was detained as a result of a criminal investigation into the loan. Lapper wrote that in August, the government had received a nearly identical loan from the IMF for $US326.4 million, which had prompted the opposition to accuse Arce of accepting "the same credit that it recently criminalized".

Nearing the end of 2021, Arce's economic policies had achieved a 9.4 percent increase in the country's GDP, reversing the previous year's historic decrease of 8.8 percent. In a speech commemorating Plurinational State Day on 22 January 2022, Arce lauded his economic achievements, pointing out that Bolivia was the third fastest-growing economy in the region and highlighting that the country suffered the lowest Inflation in South America at just 0.9 percent. Other positive aspects he pinpointed were that Bolivia had registered a trade surplus for the first time in seven years and the twenty percent reduction in the wealth gap, the lowest such gap in the country's history. Political analyst Marcelo Arequipa noted that Arce's economic measures in 2021 had "managed to stabilize the economy although not make it grow", and that one of the president's main objectives in 2022 would be to conduct economic growth beyond pre-pandemic levels.

Throughout April 2022, Arce conducted yearly negotiations with the Bolivian Workers' Center (COB) regarding an increase in workers' wages. The COB proposed a ten percent raise in the minimum wage and a seven percent increase in the contract salary, while the government countered with a 1.5 percent increase in both. After a period of negotiations, Arce announced that he and the COB had agreed to raise the minimum wage by four percent from around US$311 to US$327. Meanwhile, workers in the health and education sectors received a three percent salary increase. Vice Minister of Budget Zenón Mamani noted that other public and private sector workers could also negotiate their salaries with their employers "on the basis of three percent". Arce officially codified the wage increase into law on 1 May as part of a ceremony celebrating Labour Day in Oruro. At the event, the president also signed three other decrees into law, including granting workers the right to paid leave in the case of a death in the family, Marriage leave, or birthday.

On 1 February, Arce announced the formation of the Rape and Femicide Case Review Commission set to meet on 4 February with the aim of issuing conclusive results within a maximum period of 120 days. The commission was initially made of: the minister of the presidency, María Nela Prada; of justice, Iván Lima; the president of the Chamber of Senators, Andrónico Rodríguez; of the Deputies, Freddy Mamani Laura; of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, Ricardo Torres; of the Judicial Council, Marvin Molina; of the Constitutional Court, Paul Franco, the State attorney general, Wilfredo Chávez; and the prosecutor general, Juan Lanchipa.

The commission faced complaints from numerous groups, mainly due to the lack of presence of any independent representatives. Mujeres Creando noted that, in its present composition, the commission could "become politicized". Jurist Juan del Granado lambasted it for the fact that it was entirely conformed of members of the MAS when "it was the MAS that since 2011 took over the judicial branch with its militants ... . So who will investigate whom?" Opposition senator Andrea Barrientos noted that of the ten commission members, only one was actually a woman: "Pure men want to solve how they kill us women. They are an embarrassment!". Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé, who presided over the now-defunct Supreme Court, stated that the "population expects solutions, not commissions" and implored Arce to "summon the organs of power"—including the opposition—in order to achieve popular consensus on structural reform of the country's judiciary. response to criticism, Arce expanded the size of the commission to include six more women, with Prada designated as the body's head. By the end of its 120-day term, the commission's investigation had led to the dismissal of ten judges and eight prosecutors. A total of fifty arrest warrants were issued through the Prosecutor's Office, leading to the recapture of twenty-one illegally released criminals..|274x274px|left]]Following the conclusion of the commission's work, Arce promulgated the Law for the Protection of Victims of Femicide, Infanticide, and Rape of Infants, Girls, Boys, or Adolescents. The legislation expanded the punishment for both rapists and corrupt officials, with an up to twenty-year sentence for judges found to have acted unlawfully and a ten-year sentence for prosecutors, judges, and police found guilty of acting against victims. House arrest was eliminated as a means of confining accused rapists, and delays in the judicial system could no longer be cited as a reason for the cessation of preventative detention. To prevent long wait times in judicial processes—often lasting multiple years—contending parties were granted the option to request the prompt dispatch of processes within a period of ten days. Courts failing to comply with these may face criminal proceedings for delaying justice.

At the government's invitation, Bolivia received an official visit from Diego García-Sayán, United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. Between 15 and 22 February, García-Sayán conducted a series of meetings with various political, governmental, and judicial authorities to assess the state of the Bolivian judicial system, concluding with a personal encounter with Arce. In his preliminary observations, the rapporteur lamented that the prison system failed to comply with the UN's Mandela Rules and that the judiciary faced serious shortcomings, especially regarding women's access to justice. García-Sayán concluded that "in Bolivia, justice is far from the people" and announced that he would expedite the schedule for his official report, bringing it forward to June 2022 rather than 2023, as originally planned.

At the behest of the United Nations, the Arce administration assumed international commitments to combat terrorism and its financing. On 2 July 2021, Arce delivered a draft bill against the legitimation of illicit profits, financing of terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The main substance of the proposal was primarily technocratic, focused on combating money laundering in the country. Its policies were largely copied from similar ones already in place in European countries. The Chamber of Deputies approved the bill without opposition support on 17 September, and its passage in a similar manner by the Senate was expected.

The proposed law faced backlash from the opposition, who considered it "draconian" due to the alleged extraordinary powers given to government agencies to conduct investigations into individuals, empowering political persecution. Senator Andrea Barrientos pointed out that its lack of a definition for "suspicious operations" allowed the Financial Investigations Unit (UIF) and Prosecutor's Office to investigate the earnings of and expropriate assets from "whomever you want" on simple suspicion. Government-aligned trade unions and merchants also protested, describing the law as "cursed". In Bolivia, where eighty percent of the economy is predicated on commercial transactions carried out outside of the financial system, the bill's view of such dealings as especially vulnerable to criminal organizations aroused concern and suspicion.

Discontent with the legislation led Arce to face his first major protests during his presidency. On 11 October, trade unions, civic committees, and other groups demanding the law's repeal instituted blockades on transit routes in the cities of Cochabamba, La Paz, and Santa Cruz. Arce accused the opposition of promoting a coup d'état but assured that the "vast majority" of the populace would support him. The following day, ostensibly to celebrate Decolonization Day, he participated in several pro-government mobilizations in the three major protest cities, where he accused the right of not wanting to respect the results of the 2020 election. By 14 October, over 300,000 people had participated in mass nationwide demonstrations and strikes led by social and union organizations, with more marches and an indefinite strike by the meat sector planned for the ensuing days. Such widespread opposition forced Arce to withdraw the bill from the Senate to "not give rise to violence". Minister Lima pledged that the initiative would not be reintroduced for the remainder of Arce's term, expiring in 2025.

Despite the withdrawal of the comprehensive "daughter law" from the Legislative Assembly, concerns continued about the more generic "mother law" that still remained in effect. This law, already enacted by Arce in August, outlined a national strategy to combat the legitimation of illicit gains and the financing of terrorism. Trade unions and social sectors considered that both pieces of legislation contained much of the same foundation and called for its immediate removal. The opposition also pointed to a set of other "cursed laws" that they sought to have repealed. In response to these criticisms, Arce defended that "you have to be crazy to think that our government is going to affect the poorest". Nonetheless, he celebrated the one-year anniversary of his presidency facing an indefinite strike from many of the countries most powerful trade unions. His management report delivered to the Legislative Assembly was drowned out by parliamentarians on both sides, with the opposition booing and blowing whistles while members of the MAS shouted supportive chants. To counteract the most serious elements of the mobilizations, police forces were deployed, with over 125 detainees throughout the country. Citing the fourth wave of the pandemic, the president also imposed sanctions on health workers who suspended their work to join the strikes. Finally, after weeks of protests, Arce announced the repeal of the second law on 13 November, so that there would be "no more excuses to continue paralyzing the economy".

In October and November 2022, the pro-Santa Cruz Civic Committee and Governor Luis Fernando Camacho again organised strikes and demonstrations in the Santa Cruz department to demand that the government bring forward by one year the population census, which was to determine the distribution of seats in parliament. The department's strong demographic growth should enable it to win several seats, as the last census was conducted in 2012. The movement extends to other demands, such as regional autonomy, which the head of the committee, Romulo Castro, has called for. The department had already experienced secessionist unrest in 2008 which resulted in dozens of deaths. The blockade caused economic losses estimated at 1 billion dollars and clashes between strikers and non-strikers left at least four dead and more than 170 injured. The United Nations has condemned the "unacceptable" violence, acts of racism against indigenous Ayoreo women attempting to picket in the east of the country, a case of gang rape, and attacks on pro-government peasant and worker social organisations.

Arce made an official visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 7 April, where he held bilateral meetings with Fernández at the Casa Rosada. Their negotiations primarily surrounded the sale of natural gas, with Bolivia agreeing to ship fourteen million cubic meters (m) of gas per day during the winter months. For this, Argentina agreed to pay between US$8 million and US$9 million for the first ten million m, with the price doubling to US$18 million for the remaining four million m. Though Argentina agreed to pay a higher price for the same volume of gas sent in 2021, it was still significantly less than what Buenos Aires would've paid to import liquefied natural gas by ship. Additionally, Bolivia agreed to prioritize Argentina for the delivery of a further four million m at a price of US$18 million should Brazil not need it.

Hours later, Chilean Foreign Minister Andrés Allamand replied that, while his country was "willing to resume dialogue with Bolivia without delay", the issue of sovereign sea access had been "definitively resolved" by the International Court of Justice, which in 2018 ruled that Chile was not obligated to negotiate the issue. On 7 May 2021, Allamand announced that the two states had agreed to reopen dialogue for the first time since 2010 in a move towards reestablishing formal diplomatic relations that had been suspended since 1978. Critically, the agreed upon road map did not include Bolivia's maritime demand.

Arce and the MAS celebrated the victory of left-wing former student leader Gabriel Boric in the 2021 Chilean general election, with the president affirming that "Latin American democracy is strengthened" by his win. For his part, Boric signaled his will to "substantially improve relations" between the two countries and stated that the lack of a Chilean embassy in La Paz was a "shame". Arce and Boric shared two phone calls following the election, in which it was agreed to deepen their mutual bilateral agenda. The president personally attended Boric's inauguration on 11 March 2022, in which they discussed pending bilateral issues regarding visas for senior government officials, shared use of the Silala River, and Bolivia's maritime claim. Arce assured that Boric's presidency would "strengthen our ties of brotherhood, creating more bridges of integration". Boric also pledged that as president, he would seek to restore diplomatic relations with Bolivia: "I think it is absurd that two neighboring countries with a common history ... have not had diplomatic relations for so long." He predicated this hope on the stance that "Chile does not negotiate its sovereignty". The following week, during his annual Día del Mar address, Arce declared that the maritime issue constituted one of the "permanent and inalienable objectives of the Bolivian State". Therefore, any reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Chile could only commence within the framework of a solution to the territorial dispute.