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EXCLUSIVE: After decades of strained relations, Bolivia is seeking a new partnership with the U.S. as it repositions itself in the region and works to reduce its dependence on China.
The country’s pro-business conservative President, Rodrigo Paz, was sworn in last month and made quick work of pivoting his country away from alliances with China and Venezuela and toward Western nations.
Foreign Minister Fernando Aramayo spoke with Fox News Digital as he visited Washington this week to sign an agreement reestablishing diplomatic ties with Israel, which had been cut off during the war in Gaza by the previous government.
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Bolivia’s new Foreign Minister, Fernando Aramayo Carrasco, spoke with Fox News Digital about his goals for the US relationship. (AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty Images)
“We are looking for a long-term relationship with U.S., relations based on the same values and interests that we share, for democracy and to create a new alliance in South America,” Aramayo said.
Paz’s victory followed the unraveling of nearly two decades of leftist rule under Evo Morales and Luis Arce, whose MAS party fractured amid economic crises, corruption scandals and mounting public anger over alleged narcotrafficking networks embedded in the state. The collapse of that political machine opened the door for a conservative, pro-business candidate — a dramatic turn for a country that had been one of China and Venezuela’s closest ideological allies in the region.
A truck crosses the flooded southern Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia, where vast lithium reserves have drawn Chinese investment, but the new government is seeking to shift toward the U.S. and break up what it calls China’s “monopoly” on mining its natural resources, particularly lithium. (Ablo Cozzaglio/AFP via Getty Images)
Aramayo said his nation would institute new laws and regulations…
