By Elmira Lindo, El Pais:

With similar biographies and almost identical proposals, the nuances may sway the more liberal militants toward one or the other, but it prevents them from broadening their reach

Tuto Quiroga is very liberal, and Jaime Dunn is also very liberal. Both promise to imprison Evo Morales in record time, disregarding due process.

Tuto Quiroga has lived half his life in the United States, and so has Jaime Dunn; one studied at Texas A&M University, and the other at Colgate University with additional mentions at Harvard. One worked for IBM, and the other was a broker on Wall Street.

Tuto and Dunn both have a master’s degree in Business Administration.

Dunn drafted the Securities Market Law in 1998, during the government of Hugo Bánzer Suárez, when Tuto Quiroga was vice president.

Dunn graduated in International Relations and Political Science but has never been a candidate; Tuto is an industrial engineer and has been involved in politics since he was 28 years old — he was a minister under Jaime Paz and later an active part of ADN’s organization.

Tuto has worked in private enterprise and has served on some Boards of Directors; Dunn was a stock market operator and a consultant for several financial organizations. Both have experience in banking but little in personal entrepreneurship.

Both Tuto and Dunn have worked for Evo Morales’ MAS government. Tuto briefly participated in the international campaign accompanying the maritime claim; Dunn spent more than five years building financial instruments with the BDP to manage resources and investments. Both claim they did it out of a sense of duty to the State.

Tuto has more international connections with conservative right-wing leaders and has been particularly involved in the conflicts in Venezuela; Jaime Dunn does not have a political support network in the region, although it is expected to emerge, mainly from Argentina, as the campaign progresses.

Tuto and Dunn are both forceful in their responses; the former, with more tact, often turns it into humor and rhyme, while Dunn still gets angry.

Tuto and Dunn belong to the same essentially upper-class social background…

Alarms have already gone off at the headquarters of both candidates; their differences in discourse and narrative are minimal, and the fact that they are so similar discourages the idea of a merger where one would accept being the other’s vice-presidential candidate, as it would bring no added value.

The fact that they cancel each other out also prevents Dunn from emerging as something new and broadening the voting base. Analysts who previously estimated Tuto could get 25% of the opposition vote now assume it is in dispute with Dunn, but both are far from the majority.

Probably, at some point, they will have to sit down for a coffee or engage in a debate.