Manuel Canelas speaking at Victory Institute’s Latin America and Caribbean regional conference in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, April 2017
Manuel Canelas is a member of the Movement for Socialism party (MAS) in Bolivia, the country’s largest and currently in-power party. Formerly a Congressman of the MAS party, on February 1, 2018, he was been appointed as Vice Minister of Planning and Coordination, under the Ministry of Development Planning. The Minister of Planning, Mariana Prado, has stated that one of Canelas’s main tasks as Vice Minister will be to carefully review and revise the “2025 Patriotic Agenda”. The Agenda is a plan developed by President Evo Morales’ administration which contains 13 development goals for the country to reach by 2025, setting out key challenges and achievements for each. Canelas will work towards improving and modernizing the plan.
Canelas most recently attended and spoke at Victory Institute’s “Meeting of Political Leadership in Latin America and the Caribbean” regional conference in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in April 2017. His appointment as Vice Minister, as an openly gay man, demonstrates the growing acceptance and political participation of LGBTQ people in Bolivia. Appointments like these are necessary to achieve equal representation and strengthen democracy through diversity, and will pave the way for further LGBTQ inclusion.
