restructuring was announced, Paz and his planning team had not informed the rest of his cabinet or the public of the direction in which they were moving, knowing that it would be met with mass protest and strike action. One member of Paz's economic team compared their approach to the bombing of Hiroshima with nuclear weapons. The reforms were in many ways the opposite of what Paz had represented to his voters. As a result, the policies were met with protest. In the months following the announcement of Decree 21060, a curfew was imposed on citizens, travel throughout the country restricted, universities and opposition meetings were raided, and hundreds of union leaders were kidnapped and taken to prison camps in the Amazon until strikes were called off. The readjustment policies—conducted to a large extent by Paz Estenssoro's vigorous Minister of Planning, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, who was later to serve as President of Bolivia—came to be known as the New Economic Policy (NEP). The latter restructured the bulk of the hitherto-statist Bolivian economy and transformed it into a neo-liberal, privatization-oriented one. However, Bolivia remained the poorest country in South America and anti neo-liberal forces began to grow as a result of his liberal economic policies leading to the election of socialist Evo Morales in 2005. Paz finished his term and finally retired from politics upon leaving office in 1989. He died by his home in Tarija on 7 June 2001. References Sources Book Rags Bolivian government profile of Paz Estenssoro 1907 births 2001 deaths 20th-century Bolivian lawyers 20th-century Bolivian politicians Bolivian exiles Bolivian expatriates in Argentina Bolivian expatriates in Peru Bolivian expatriates in Uruguay Bolivian people of Basque descent Bolivian people of Spanish descent Bolivian Roman Catholics Candidates in the 1947 Bolivian presidential election Candidates in the 1951 Bolivian presidential election Candidates in the 1960 Bolivian presidential election Candidates in the 1964 Bolivian presidential election Candidates in the 1978 Bolivian presidential election Candidates in the 1979 Bolivian presidential election Candidates in the 1980 Bolivian presidential election Candidates in the 1985 Bolivian presidential election Collars of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Grand Crosses Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Government ministers of Bolivia Higher University of San Andrés alumni Leaders ousted by a coup Leaders who took power by coup Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Bolivia) Finance ministers of Bolivia Order of