Free trade between the United States and Bolivia is necessary in order to increase Bolivia’s stability, said the President of Bolivia Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada in a speech in Gaston Hall on Monday.
Sanchez spoke of the multitude of problems facing Bolivia, its relationship with the United States and the need to halt threats to globalization, free market economies and democratic principles.
Sanchez identified several main tasks for his government: creating employment in Bolivia, which has seen unemployment figures triple since the onset of a recession that has bankrupted 40 percent of manufacturing companies; fighting corruption; and addressing the social problems.
“We are in a moment of great change, great crisis, but also perhaps great opportunity. [The government] needs to recover confidence and do no harm.”
According to Sanchez, a major problem in Bolivia is the coca crop, which continues to provide a major source of both employment and income for many farmers. Sanchez believes that the way to stop the production of cocaine will be to offer viable alternatives to these farmers, and he sees the best option as creating employment opportunities in the manufacturing sector.
Sanchez said that he recognizes the importance of the United States as a market for Bolivian exports, including recently discovered natural gas reserves, which are second in size only to those of Venezuela.
He said he remained hopeful that Washington would take steps to promote free trade between the two nations.
“Although God helps those who help themselves, it is nice when God is helped by the American government,” he said.
Due to Bolivia’s unique political system, which combines elements of both a presidential and parliamentary system, Sanchez’s administration is in power through a coalition agreement in which Sanchez himself received only 22 percent of the electorate.
Sanchez, who was raised and educated in exile in the United States, is a self-described agent of change who helped bring Bolivia’s problem of hyperinflation under control in the 1980s.
