This archive report was first published on 17 November 2019.
La Paz, Bolivia, November 17, 2019 — Bolivia's interim leader, Jeanine Añez, has taken a sharp turn to the right since assuming power, sparking concerns that she may deepen the country's divisions.
Ms. Añez, a little-known senator from a remote Bolivian region, was sworn in on Tuesday after former President Evo Morales was forced into exile by protests and pressure from the security forces.
Ms. Añez has stacked her cabinet with conservative ministers and thrust religion to the forefront of government, injecting Catholicism into government and making speeches shadowed by an aide carrying a cross.
Her actions have been met with criticism from analysts, who say she is reaching beyond her caretaker mandate of organizing national elections by January.
“Without a popular mandate, they are pushing forward some of the most objectionable aspects of their agenda,” said Javier Corrales, a Latin American politics professor at Amherst College in Massachusetts.
Ms. Añez's revival of Catholic rituals in public events has caused discomfort because the Constitution defines Bolivia as a secular state.
Her cabinet appointments have also been criticized, with many of her ministers being staunch opponents of Mr. Morales's socialist policies or having served in previous conservative administrations.
The new Bolivian government has accused Venezuela and Cuba of destabilizing the country and financing subversive groups, an allegation regularly used by the region's right-leaning governments when faced with internal discontent.
