Rodrigo Paz Pereira | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait,c. 2020 | |
| President-elect of Bolivia | |
| Assuming office 8 November 2025 | |
| Vice President | Edmand Lara (elect) |
| Succeeding | Luis Arce |
| Senator forTarija | |
| Assumed office 3 November 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Marcelo Antezana |
| Mayor of Tarija | |
| In office 30 May 2015 – 24 October 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Oscar Montes |
| Succeeded by | Alfonso Lema |
| President of theTarija Municipal Council | |
| In office 30 May 2010 – 30 May 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Roberto Ávila Castellanos |
| Succeeded by | Alfonso Lema |
| Member of theChamber of Deputies fromTarija | |
| In office 6 August 2002 – 22 January 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Pedro Sagredo |
| Succeeded by | Roy Cornejo Raña |
| Constituency | Circumscription 49(2002–2006) Circumscription 46(2006–2010) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rodrigo Paz Pereira (1967-09-22)22 September 1967 (age 58) |
| Citizenship | Bolivia • Spain |
| Political party | PDC (2019; since 2025) |
| Other political affiliations | MIR–FRI (2002–2005) PODEMOS (2005–2008) CC (2020–2025) |
| Spouse | Maria Elena Urquidi |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent(s) | Jaime Paz Zamora Carmen Pereira Carballo |
| Relatives | Víctor Paz Estenssoro (great-uncle) Xosé Manuel Beiras (uncle-in-law) |
| Education | San Ignacio School |
| Alma mater | American University inWashington,United States (BIGS,MPM) |
Rodrigo Paz Pereira (Spanish pronunciation:[roˈðɾiɣoˈpaspeˈɾejɾa]; born 22 September 1967) is a Bolivian politician who is thepresident-elect of Bolivia.[1] The eldest son of former presidentJaime Paz Zamora, he has served assenator forTarija since 2020. He previously served asmayor of Tarija from 2015 to 2020 and as a member of theChamber of Deputies from 2002 to 2010, representing his father'sRevolutionary Left Movement (MIR).
Born in Spain during the exile of his father, Rodrigo Paz Pereira graduated from theAmerican University inWashington,United States and joined the government ofHugo Banzer in various diplomatic positions. He was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the2002 election for his father's MIR, serving until 2010. Following the dissolution of the MIR, Paz entered the local field of the familiar political stronghold,Tarija, serving as President of the Municipal Council from 2010 to 2015 and as Mayor of Tarija from 2015 to 2020. In 2020, he was elected to theChamber of Senators for theCivic Community list, representing Tarija.
In the2025 general election, Paz ran as the candidate for president of theChristian Democratic Party, with former police officerEdmand Lara as his running mate. He defeated former presidentJorge Quiroga in the first run-off vote in the history of the country.[2]
Rodrigo Paz Pereira was born on 22 September 1967 inSantiago de Compostela, in Spain, the first-born son of Carmen Pereira Carballo, a native of Spain,[3] and then-Bolivian exiled nationalJaime Paz Zamora. Via his mother's side, he is the cousin of Galician actressCamila Bossa [gl],[4] while his auntAurichu Pereira [gl] was married to Galician nationalistXosé Manuel Beiras until her death in 2023.[5]
Paz spent his childhood and adolescence inpolitical exile, a by-product of his father's political activity during the military dictatorships of the 1970s and early 1980s. He studied in numerousJesuit schools in several countries, and when democracy was re-established in Bolivia, he attended theSan Ignacio School inLa Paz. Later, Paz studied at theAmerican University inWashington, D.C., United States, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in international relations with a major in economics and a master's in political management.[6] During the second presidency ofHugo Banzer—whose government was supported by the MIR—he worked as a commercial attaché at the Bolivian embassy in Spain and served as chargé d'affaires to theWorld Trade Organization.[7]
Together with his brother, Jaime Paz Pereira, he was one of the so-called "political heirs" of the country, a group of younger statesmen whose political careers had been facilitated by their connections to the country's prominent party leaders. In the2002 general elections, the MIR nominated Paz as its candidate forTarija in circumscription 49 (Avilés-Méndez), a major stronghold of support for the party. Winning the seat with a comfortable majority, he was elected to represent the district for the2002–2007 National Congress.[7][8] Though thesignificant social conflicts of the time culminated in the collapse of the traditional party system, Paz's already-established political career survived. When the legislature's mandate was shortened by two years, he was presented by a diminished MIR as its candidate for Tarija in circumscription 46 (Cercado) for the2005 general elections, in alliance withSocial Democratic Power ofJorge Quiroga.[9][10]
By August 2006, the inability of the MIR to achieve the required 2% vote threshold in that year'sconstituent assembly elections led to the loss of its national registration.[11] With that, Paz joined the ranks of United to Renew (UNIR), led by the ex-Mirista and Tarija mayor Óscar Montes. In the2010 regional elections, he headed UNIR's list of councillors in Tarija in support of Montes's bid for a third mayoral term.[12] From 2010 to 2015, he served under Montes as the president of the Tarija Municipal Council and was nominated to succeed Montes as UNIR's mayoral candidate in the2015 regional elections. Paz swept the race, winning almost 60% of the city's votes.[13][14]
At his mayoral inauguration on 30 May 2015, Montes highlighted that "it has been the MIR, then UNIR, who will govern Tarija for twenty consecutive years".[15] However, Paz's own political project, focused on "rescuing the greatMirista root" of his father's party,[16] ultimately resulted in the rupture of his alliance with Montes and his departure from UNIR just a year into his term, under accusations that he was trying to "destroy UNIR in order to structure the Revolutionary Left Movement".[17][18] The culmination of Paz's political project came on 3 April 2019 with the establishment of theFirst the People (Primero la Gente; PG) civic group. With himself at the head, PG aimed at consolidating municipal and departmental sectors into a political alliance whose "ideology is the people".[19]
After the2019 political crisis, Paz's mayoral term was extended by an additional year.[20] However, he cut it short by tendering his resignation on 20 October 2020 to take office in thePlurinational Legislative Assembly.[21] After four days of debate, the Municipal Council voted to accept Paz's resignation and elected its president, Alfonso Lema, as his successor.[22]
In February 2024, the Departmental Prosecutor's Office of Tarija formally charged Paz with alleged irregularities related to the 4 de Julio Bridge, a public works project awarded during his tenure as mayor. The bridge—now widely referred to as the "Million-Dollar Bridge" (Puente Millonario)—was contracted forBs 73.2 million in 2018, during Paz's administration, but was completed several years[when?] later, when he was no longer in office. The case was brought forward following a complaint by current mayor Jhonny Torres and is being handled by the Fourth Anti-Corruption Court of Tarija.[23]
In the2019 general elections, PG signed an alliance with theChristian Democratic Party (PDC), which presented Paz's father, ex-president Jaime Paz Zamora, as its presidential candidate.[24] However, shortly thereafter, Paz Zamora withdrew his candidacy due to internal disagreements with the PDC, leading Paz to shift his support toCarlos Mesa ofCivic Community (CC).[25][26] On 3 February 2020, PG finalized an alliance with CC, presenting Paz as the coalition's candidate for first senator for Tarija.[27][28]
During his tenure, Paz was a vocal proponent of census reform in light of the process scheduled for late2022. In January of that year, Paz presented a bill to establish Departmental Institutes of Statistics (IDEs), aimed at generating departmental, municipal, and regional statistical information. If passed, the legislation would have decentralized the census process —overseen by theNational Institute of Statistics (INE)— which Paz assured would make the 2022 census "a census of the people".[29] Paz also criticized a lack of transparency regarding what preparations and activities were underway to carry out the census. On 7 February, the CC caucus delivered a petition to theMinistry of Development Planning requesting a report on planned activities. By early March, CC noted that it had not received a response so far. Failing the creation of IDEs due to a lack of time to establish such institutions, Paz also proposed the formation of inter-institutional monitoring committees made up of governorates, municipalities, universities, regional chambers, social organizations, and other relevant groups to guarantee transparency in the process.[30]
He was assigned to the following commissions:
Rodrigo Paz Pereira was named theChristian Democratic Party's nominee for president for the2025 general election.[33] With around 32% of the vote, he placed first in the first round of voting on 17 August[34] and won a run-off against former president Jorge Quiroga on 19 October with 54.5% of the vote.[35] He was congratulated by U.S. Secretary of StateMarco Rubio and Israeli foreign ministerGideon Sa'ar.[36][37]
| Year | Office | Party | Alliance | Votes | Result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | P. | |||||||
| 2002 | Deputy | Revolutionary Left Movement | MIR-FRI | 11,564 | 44.81% | 1st | Won | ||
| 2005 | Revolutionary Left Movement | Social Democratic Power | 10,656 | 41.82% | 1st | Won | |||
| 2010 | Councillor | United to Renew | None | 43,402 | 48.38% | 1st[a] | Won | ||
| 2015 | Mayor | United to Renew | None | 70,231 | 59.82% | 1st | Won | ||
| 2020 | Senator | First the People | Civic Community | 150,405 | 50.24% | 1st[a] | Won | ||
| 2025 | President | PDC | None | 1,717,432 | 32.06 | 1st | Runoff | ||
| None | 3,506,458 | 54.89 | 1st | Won | |||||
| Source:Plurinational Electoral Organ |Electoral Atlas | |||||||||
El TCP indicó que la extensión del mandato también se aplicará a los integrantes de la Asamblea Legislativa, a los alcaldes y gobernadores del país.
