An ambassador bishop

Bottom of photo (eugeniopoma) Bishop Eugenio Poma of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Bolivia

Eugenio Poma was the first layperson appointed as bishop in the Evangelical Methodist Church of Bolivia.  As a language professor in La Paz, Eugenio was appointed bishop in 1986 through a lay movement that broke the practice that only an ordained pastor could be appointed bishop.  In this way Bishop Eugenio exercised the episcopate in the Evangelical Methodist Church of Bolivia from 1986 to 1990.  In 1995 he began work in the Indigenous Program of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland.  He returned in 2003 to La Paz.  Since then he has coordinated the Indigenous Peoples Program of the World Council of Churches and the Latin American Council of Churches.  In the beginning of May of this year, Bishop Eugenio was appointed ambassador for the Bolivian government in Denmark. Eugenio is the third indigenous person named as an ambassador by the Bolivian government.

For the Ambassador Bishop, representing Bolivia is a difficult task because of the diversity of the Andean society.  “I am Aymara, but I have to see Bolivia as a country with many nationalities, with different cultures and interests.  In Bolivia there are 37 people groups.  The most numerous are the Quechuas, Aymaras, and Guaranis.  Those 37 people groups make up 70% of the population, according to the 2000 Census.  And that number is growing because of the national movement to retake indigenous identity and mainly because the image of President Evo Morales,” says the ambassador bishop.

The diplomatic representation in Denmark also corresponds to Norway, Sweden, and Finland.  In those countries there is also an indigenous presence, called the Sami peoples (Lapps).  They are peoples who are characterized by their practice of breeding reindeer.

Evo Morales’ government and the Methodist Church are very close.  For the Ambassador Bishop this closeness is because of the unity and the excellent articulation that the Aymaras have.  “We are a people with the most visible presence in Bolivian society.  What’s more, an Aymara, although he or she might migrate, will always return to his or her original community.  It is not that way with the Quechuas.  I believe that this is an important facet which brings about more unity between the Aymaras,” stresses Eugenio.

Concerning the process of nationalizing hydrocarbons in Bolivia, Eugenio says that “Sánchez de Lozada’s government practiced a process of capitalization in which the ‘family riches’ (state owned monopolies) were delivered with the utmost generosity to foreign investment (that is, they were given many favorable conditions and at a high payoff).  Recently Evo Morales’ government defended the decree which makes YPFB [Bolivia’s former state-owned oil and gas company] the only exporter of petroleum and unleaded gasoline and which limits extraordinary earnings of foreign companies.”

In the name of CLAI, we want to congratulate Eugenio Poma, Ambassador Bishop.  May God give you much wisdom and bless you in this important task.