| Methodist activist joins cabinet of new government in
Bolivia
Jan. 25, 2006
By United Methodist News Service
The recipient of the 2003 World Methodist Peace Award has been named minister
of justice for the new government of Bolivia.
Casimira Rodriguez Romero has become part of the cabinet of President Evo
Morales, who was inaugurated Jan. 22 in La Paz. She attends Emmanuel Methodist
Church in Cochabamba.
Rodriguez is chief executive of the National Federation of Household Workers,
a union that successfully lobbied the Bolivian Parliament to pass the Household
Workers Law in 2003. Since 2001, she also has headed the Confederation of
Household Workers of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Even as a teenager, she was an active advocate of workers’ rights. The union
struggled for 12 years to get the Household Workers Law passed. Of the 132,000
household workers in Bolivia, 99 percent are women.
Morales, an Aymara Indian, is leading the first indigenous administration in
Bolivia’s history. His cabinet also includes David Choquehuanca Cespedes, an
Aymara named as foreign minister. Rodriguez is a Quechua Indian.
The Rev. Gustavo Loza, a Methodist pastor and mentor to Rodriguez, wrote
about the optimism that has resulted from the election of Morales in a
reflection titled, “Winds of Hope Among the Bolivian People.”
He noted that past governments have spoken about hope “while they continued
to fill their coffers with the suffering and pain of this people, and the sale
of natural resources, a blessing of God, changing hope into desperation.
“Today we feel very differently because this wind of hope blows with vigor,
surging through our bodies, spirits and our communities. We want to say that we
feel so very good.
“This hope is being manifested in our lives in a passion for achieving what
we now believe is possible, because we believe in the God of promise who renews
our lives through a living hope,” he wrote.
Rodriguez is scheduled to speak May 6 during the May 4-7 United Methodist
Women’s Assembly in Anaheim, Calif.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
2005 Interview with Casimira Romero
"It's been like going up a mountain."
"Social justice and the gospel have to go together."
Related Articles
Líder metodista es flamante Ministra de Justicia
Bolivia?s new leader vows change
Bolivian combines faith with fight for rights of household workers
Bolivian activist to receive Methodist peace award
Resources
Global Connections: Bolivia
Bolivia Mission Projects
CIA Factbook: Bolivia
| 
