Former Maid Bolivia’s New Justice Minister
LA PAZ, Bolivia Ñ At age 13, Casimira Rodriguez left her ardscrabble rural home, hoping to escape poverty by taking a job as a housemaid in the city. What she got instead was a nightmare of virtual slavery, and a first-hand view of the injustice many poor Bolivians experience.
Barely an adolescent herself, Rodriguez cooked, cleaned and looked after the children for an extended family of 14 people. She was not paid and was allowed out only to buy groceries down the street, she says.
After two years, Rodriguez escaped and brought her case for wages owed before a rural court. The judge asked her to be patient. A quarter century later, she’s still waiting.
It’s possible Rodriguez might finally get some satisfaction.
She is Bolivia’s new justice minister, intent on overhauling one of Latin America’s most overburdened, corrupt and inefficient judicial systems.
The 40-year-old former domestic workers’ union leader and Quechua Indian has no law degree or legal training. She would be a striking figure in any government: She wears her hair in traditional Indian braids and layers of velvet skirts under fitted cotton blouses.
Nearly three months after taking office, she has yet to offer a plan for overhauling Bolivia’s judiciary.
Her detractors say she lacks the necessary experience _ a maid for 18 years, she earned a high school degree at night and has studied anthropology in college while running the union. The National Association of Bolivian Lawyers, which represents Bolivia’s 30,000 attorneys, has demanded her resignation.
Evo Morales, the left-leaning president who appointed her, says he has no intention of letting that happen.
Rodriguez is unfazed. She says she hopes to humanize and build trust in the judiciary while strengthening traditional Indian justice systems that depend on community elders rather than courts.
“I know the laws and all their articles, but life has forced us to also live injustice and we can feel the pain and thirst for justice of every Bolivian sister and brother,” Rodriguez told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
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