Bolivia returns $ 327 million loan to the IMF to the transitional government | International

The government of Luis Arce, the runner-up to former President Evo Morales who won elections in October last year, on Wednesday announced the return of a $ 327 million loan that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had granted to his predecessor, Jeanine Áñez. To the initial loan amount given to the Áñez government, which took power after Morales was ousted in November 2019, the Bolivian state must add more than $ 24 million in interest and fees.

Central Bank of Bolivia President Edwin Rojas said the government was taking action< pour défendre sa souveraineté nationale >>, since the IMF’s support was conditioned by certain economic policies and the Bolivian Constitution, promulgated in 2009 by Morales, prohibits it from admitting economic objectives and disciplines imposed by foreign institutions. Accepting the loan a little less than a year ago went against that mandate.

The justification for canceling the loan has been questioned by officials of the previous government. According to them, the credit was not part of any agreement with the organization, but was “temporary support” to improve the liquidity of the Bolivian state during the covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, they argue, the loan was not subject to any special conditions.

The Bolivian opposition has criticized the fact that the government will stop using money that could be useful to fight against the economic and health crisis the country is going through due to a “false idea of ​​sovereignty”. Bolivia is emerging from a second wave of infections that has put the country on hold since December of last year. As of Wednesday, 238,495 infections and 11,303 deaths have been recorded in a population of 11 million.

On Wednesday, the ruling party approved a health law that resulted in great rejection from doctors and health workers. They claim that the law allows the Ministry of Health to hire staff who have not been accredited by the academic institutions they control, and it is feared that Bolivia will again seek the services of Cuban doctors who were expelled by the Áñez government. Bolivian doctors have systematically refused to allow professionals of another nationality to work in the country, even in positions that most of them did not want to occupy, such as in rural areas. The Arce government has denied that it will bring Cuban personnel to the country again.

Another point in the law that unions oppose is government control of prices for health services. The rule also requires that any vaccination against COVID be free, which eliminates the possibility for private laboratories to market the vaccines. This is criticized by sectors of the opposition, who demand “free market”. His argument is that private vaccination could ease the obligations of the state, which is far behind in the acquisition and distribution of vaccines. So far, only around 10,000 Bolivians have been vaccinated, all doctors and nurses. The first massive campaign will take place in March.

Former President Áñez presented the taking out of the IMF loan as an achievement of her administration against the pandemic, but could not use the money because the then parliament, controlled by the Movement for Socialism, the party of Arce and Evo Morales, refused to approve the decisions of your government. With this return, the principle of this political tent of independence of the country vis-à-vis the international organization was established, which it blames for the programs of job reduction and privatization of public enterprises applied in the 80s and 90s.

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