La paz: Rodrigo Paz, a center-right candidate who won Bolivia's presidential runoff on Oct. 19, was sworn in before the parliament on Saturday to serve as president for the 2025-2030 term. Paz assumed office after receiving the presidential sash in a ceremony in Congress in the administrative capital of La Paz.

According to Anadolu Agency, Paz addressed the nation during his inauguration, criticizing previous governments for leaving behind an economy "in collapse, trapped in inflation and debt." He stated, "We inherited a destroyed country. They left us with a collapsed economy, the lowest international reserves in 30 years, inflation, shortages, debt, and insecurity."

Paz further emphasized the economic challenges facing the country, highlighting "unjustifiable fiscal deficits" and accusing past administrations of institutionalizing corruption. He declared, "We are saying enough to ideologies that can no longer put food on the table," and expressed a firm stance against systems that neglect "employment, production, growth, and private property."

In a pointed critique of former leaders from the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, Paz questioned the promises made by former presidents Evo Morales and Luis Arce. He asked, "In the presence of international witnesses, the armed forces and the police, I want to ask, where is the gas? Where is the sea of gas you promised? Evo where is the lithium? Arce, where is the gas?"

The inauguration ceremony was attended by leaders and representatives from Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru, Brazil, Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. Paz, the son of former Bolivian President Jaime Paz Zamora, takes office amid one of the country's most severe economic crises in the last four decades.

In the Oct. 19 runoff, Paz, representing the center-right Christian Democratic Party, won 54.53% of the vote, defeating his rival and marking the end of the MAS party's 20-year rule, a movement long associated with left-wing politics in Bolivia and Latin America.