{"id":21332,"date":"2026-08-08T16:50:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/?p=21332"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:50:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:50:30","slug":"aramayo-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/aramayo-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Aramayo in the World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Turning on its head the phrase repeatedly invoked like a mantra by President Rodrigo Paz, \u201cBolivia in the world…,\u201d former Foreign Minister Aramayo spent eight months enthusiastically traveling across the globe and signing vague \u201ccooperation agreements\u201d and useless \u201cletters of intent\u201d that have yielded nothing concrete because they amount to little more than empty gestures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The now former foreign minister\u2019s incessant globe-trotting is an affliction common among novices. He simply could not sit still, as though someone had stuck a hot pepper up his backside. He would appear alongside officials from different countries in photographs taken at various locations around the world, images in which his limited professional stature was plainly evident, without any benefit whatsoever to Bolivia; quite the contrary, all of this came at an exorbitant cost to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aramayo was always ready to answer the call of the United States government. He never fully matured professionally, and the position fit him like an older brother\u2019s suit. Not even standing on platforms as tall as China Supay could he rise to the level of the international policy we so urgently need. He was unable to devise one, or even patch up the nonexistent one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heard Aramayo utter absurdities similar to those voiced by his mediocre predecessors under the MAS governments. He said, for example: \u201cWe are criticized for having taken six months to appoint ambassadors, but if we have to take another six months, we will take as long as necessary\u201d (I quote from memory). Then, upon leaving office, he made another equally absurd statement: \u201cWe cannot appoint ambassadors before we have a defined foreign policy,\u201d as though he himself had not been responsible for designing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This bewildered public servant, with no notion of what public service entails, has no idea what he is talking about, and for eight months the country has been without representatives in the nations most important to Bolivia, with excuses as trivial as \u201cthere is no money to repatriate the MAS ambassadors\u201d or \u201cto appoint new ambassadors.\u201d Yet the trips undertaken by the tourist foreign minister and his entourage\u2014almost every week\u2014have cost us a fortune and could have covered the salaries of at least six or seven ambassadors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is inconceivable that a country whose government supposedly promised a major shift in its domestic and international policies should have no new representatives accredited to foreign countries and international organizations; in other words, professionals willing and able to step forward and represent the country with dignity. In the course of so many pointless trips, the diminutive foreign minister achieved nothing. Perhaps his only objective was to build his personal strategy and his ridiculum vitae<\/em> for a future international post, milking the State\u2019s scarce dollars for all they were worth\u2014and he will have to answer for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The damage inflicted on the country over these eight months has been enormous, because we are back at square one, with no foreign policy whatsoever\u2014unless the barely perceptible former foreign minister understood foreign policy to mean obeying Marco Rubio\u2019s orders around the clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States\u2019 encroachment into Bolivia is evident. What is even more striking, however, is that there is no reason for it, given that our principal trading partners are in Asia, not the United States\u2014a country now lashing out politically across the globe thanks to a psychopathic president who governs through social media and makes decisions at three in the morning during bouts of insomnia, yet sleeps soundly through cabinet meetings in full view of the cameras. A shameful global embarrassment, redundant though that may sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only apparent reason for bending over for Trump is that he can order the IMF to lift the red card hanging over Bolivia\u2014in the same shameless way he did with FIFA during the World Cup\u2014and can do the same with other organizations that obediently and unquestioningly follow the dictates of the nouveau riche boor who presides over the United States government (hopefully only until November, if the Democrats finally show some backbone).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The absence of a coherent foreign policy in Bolivia, however, is not solely the responsibility of a mediocre foreign minister. Responsibility also lies with the President himself, who should establish the broad outlines of that policy and put someone capable in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Unfortunately, Rodrigo Paz\u2019s erratic behavior offers little reason for optimism about the future. He is like a member of a carnival troupe who cannot keep in step with the beat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBolivia in the world\u201d does not exist, nor does \u201cthe world in Bolivia.\u201d It is nothing more than an empty slogan, devoid of any real substance\u2014cheap advertising rhetoric like that used to sell ultra-processed products even when they are packed with toxic ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some try to explain the government\u2019s regrettable deterioration as a consequence of the legacy of masismo<\/em> embedded within Rodrigo Paz\u2019s administration, which undoubtedly benefited from Evo Morales\u2019s call to vote for the \u201clesser evil.\u201d Paz received votes from MAS supporters against his presidential opponent, the recalcitrant showman of the \u201cold right,\u201d but he could have adopted a moderate social-democratic position instead of dissolving into blandness\u2014neither one thing nor the other\u2014as he drifts along with no horizon in sight. By failing to take a clear ideological position, he opened the door to nefarious figures from previous regimes who are now bringing everything to a standstill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight months after taking office, the government is shooting itself in the foot, and disillusionment is mounting both among the public and within the Executive Branch itself. Some of its members are waiting for the first opportunity to distance themselves from a process deplorably managed by an Argentine adviser who is a professional poker player, and further driven by a host of MAS leeches who continue to control positions of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing has changed here, which is why many are wondering whether a government with no sense of direction can make it to the halfway point of its term or whether it will be removed from office for incompetence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aramayo is said to be the MAGA man; that is, someone installed by Marco Rubio, mediocre enough to be easily manipulated in the interests of Donald Trump\u2019s government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After eight months as foreign minister, there can be no doubt about his inadequacy. But what use could someone so mediocre possibly be to U.S. foreign policy? Now that Aramayo has taken the place of the best minister Rodrigo Paz\u2019s government had, Jos\u00e9 Luis Lupo, it appears that the American strategy is to weaken the entire Bolivian government by filling it with incompetents, thereby isolating it even further from the international community and, above all, from any possibility of rebuilding dignified and independent alliances in Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage in its moral decline as a world power, the United States needs smaller, compliant countries for its \u201cshield.\u201d At the United Nations, we will be like the Marshall Islands, dutifully voting in favor of whatever outrage the United States chooses to commit, without the slightest independence of judgment. Countries such as Chile and Colombia show greater judgment, despite the right-wing governments that recently took office there\u2014governments that nevertheless have greater respect for their domestic institutions and pursue more independent foreign policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

@Alfonso Gumucio is yet another citizen disgusted by the government\u2019s mediocrity.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source:<\/strong> Br\u00fajula Digital – \u201cAramayo en el mundo\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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English translation by<\/strong> Traductores United<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An opinion column examining Bolivia\u2019s foreign policy, the diplomatic travels of former Foreign Minister Aramayo, and the author\u2019s criticism of their costs, priorities, and results.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80,66],"tags":[131,132,130,134,133],"class_list":["post-21332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columnas-de-opinion","category-portal-de-noticias-bolivianas-en-ingles","tag-bolivia","tag-bolivian-diplomacy","tag-bolivian-politics","tag-english-translation","tag-opinion-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21332"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21338,"href":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21332\/revisions\/21338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traductoresunitedbolivia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}