Not many papers in La Paz covered this (I only saw it in Página Siete, but it doesn’t have a website), so I almost missed it yesterday. But an odd piece of news from Cochabamba yesterday: the new governor of Cochabamba dismissed the sub-prefects & corregidores in all 16 provinces. The sub-prefects & corregidores have already complained, though they’ve been promised new positions somewhere w/in the administrative structure.
Of itself, it’s not a significant development: The various provinces are themselves divided into municipalities (which have their own autonomous governments). There is worry about how this will affect the new governor’s administration of the department (Cochabamba is the country’s third most populous). This is especially problematic since the sub-prefects & corregidores were the nexus between the prefecture (now autonomous government) & local communities—particularly when it came to resolving issues of indigenous/communitarian law. Some also question why the governor could unilaterally make such a move, w/o consulting his regional assembly—especially since the body has not yet drawn up a regional statute (like the kind the media luna departments did in 2008).
The new governor of Cochabamba, Edmundo Novillo, was elected April 4, 2010. He was elected to the national legislature as a uninominal (single-seat district) deputy from MAS in 2005 & became president of the lower legislative chamber. He was also a former mayor of Totora.
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