By Brújula Digital:

Ronald MacLean Recommends Renewing the Cabinet to Advance the Change of Model

The former minister revived a controversial phrase attributed to Paz Estenssoro: “Hopefully people like you, even better if they respect you. But if they neither like nor respect you as a government, then they must fear you.”

Ronald MacLean on Brújula Streaming this Friday

“I would tell Rodrigo (Paz) to assume his role as president, to change his cabinet, and to appoint people who truly believe in a genuine liberal project,” Ronald MacLean said Friday morning.

The experienced politician, who served as foreign minister during the second government of Hugo Banzer, stated in an interview with Brújula Streaming that the country is going through a very delicate moment and that strong and decisive measures are urgently needed “to achieve a change of model.” Otherwise — he predicted — the outlook is not encouraging: “In the end, this is not about the survival of the government, but about the survival of the country,” he said, referring to the context of the social conflicts that have plagued the government in recent weeks.

“The electoral mandate was very clear: change this model, and this model is not changing. In fact, I fear we are about to burn down the house just to get through the winter,” said the former mayor of La Paz, who believes the government is making mistakes because, although “it has the legitimacy of the elections, of the people, and of officials elected by popular vote,” it is not applying strong measures against those generating unrest, whom he described as “mafia oligarchies.” Faced with them, he argued, the president “must take on a very difficult task: not to use violence,” but rather “to enforce the Constitution” and put an end to the cycle of blockades and mobilizations that “weaken governments.”

MacLean made it clear that with the current team surrounding the president, it will not be possible to consolidate the change the government is trying to implement: “I believe the government has to radically change its team. They must find people who believe in the new model and who are capable of carrying it forward,” he stated.

Without such a change, MacLean believes the situation is very difficult, since he thinks “we are heading down the wrong path because we are compromising the reform we must carry out simply to gain a few more days, weeks, or perhaps months in government.” In that context, he added: “Because of that difficulty (of not having people willing to make decisions), governments have been rising and falling. We have Armed Forces and a police force that have a constitutional mission, and they are not fulfilling it.”

Finally, he offered a piece of advice as a warning: “There is something Dr. Paz (former president Víctor Paz Estenssoro) used to say: ‘I hope people like you, even better if they respect you. But if they neither like nor respect you as a government, then they must fear you.’”

BD/MZS