Bolivia Appeals for New Breed of Diplomats As Pony-tailed Journalist Goes to Us

Evo Morales, Bolivia's president, has asked the public to nominate people they feel would make good ambassadors for the country. The aim is to show a different face of Bolivia to the world than the one represented by career diplomats.

His latest appointment, to the key post of ambassador to the US is Gustavo Guzmán, a pony-tailed campaigning journalist who covered the anti-government riots that led to the departure of the previous president. A Quechua-language singer, Luzmila Carpio, has been made ambassador to France.

"The policy is to have inclusive diplomacy," said Pablo Osslo, Bolivia's chargé d'affaires in London, yesterday. "In the past diplomats only came from white European backgrounds. The aim now is to show that Bolivia is a multiethnic country where everyone can have an opportunity. President Morales has asked social movements to nominate suitable people."

Mr Guzmán, 49, was seen as an unexpected choice as he has been a journalist all his working life and reportedly speaks little English. He told Associated Press that he was surprised to get the call from Mr Morales. "I said, 'Evo, my friend, please,"' adding that he had asked why Mr Morales thought him capable of such a delicate role. "He answered: 'Did you ever imagine I had the capacity to be president?'"

He said his aim would be to explain to the US the new society that is being created in Bolivia by the Morales government. So far Washington's reaction to Mr Morales, part of the leftwards trend of Latin American politics and an ally of Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, has been frosty.

Mr Guzmán joked that he would be prepared to make a few concessions to the diplomatic life. "If I have to put on a tie, I'll put on a tie," he said. "But I'm not going to cut my hair."

In 2003 Pulso, the magazine that Mr Guzmán edited, called for the resignation of then president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada who fled to the US and now lives near Washington. One of his tasks will be to seek the former president's extradition.