New leftist President Luis Arce took office in Bolivia on Sunday, bitterly criticizing last year's ouster of his mentor, former leader Evo Morales, and branding the conservative interim administration that followed as “brutal.”
The former economy minister inherits a deeply polarized nation struggling with the coronavirus pandemic and the economic hardships it has caused — the worst economic slump in four decades — as well as sharp divisions over the 14 years in power of Morales, the country's first Indigenous leader.
Arce promised “to rectify what was bad and deepen what was good” as he took office following an election in which his Movement Toward Socialism party won 55% of the vote.
