La Paz (AFP) - Bolivia's interim President Jeanine Anez on Tuesday named former senator Oscar Ortiz as the Latin American country's new economy minister, just two months before elections.
Ortiz replaced Jose Luis Parada, who has been economy minister since Anez was sworn in last November after ex-president Evo Morales resigned.
The government gave no reason for Parada's removal.
At an event at the government palace in La Paz, Anez said the new minister would "work for Bolivian families" to alleviate the economic effects of the coronavirus.
The virus has so far infected more than 40,000 people and killed more than 1,400 in the country.
Ortiz, who came in fourth in last year's presidential elections, said his priorities would be "to work for economic stability and for jobs."
Right-wing interim leader Anez is running for president in the September 6 elections, but is trailing in opinion polls behind the frontrunner Luis Arce -- handpicked by the exiled Morales to run for his Movement for Socialism party, and centrist former president Carlos Mesa.
Ortiz has previously been minister for economic development.
