Ex Miss Bolivia becomes president’s envoy in fiefdom’s most hostile region
By ANIMonday, June 28, 2010
LONDON - A former Miss Bolivia has now become a special envoy for Bolivian President Evo Morales.
Jessica Anne Jordan Burton, 26, who takes her surname from her English father, was handpicked by Morales, 50, to be his personal representative in one of his fiefdom’s most hostile regions.
Her job as the new development chief for the border province of Beni, a restive jungle backwater plagued with right-wing separatists, ethnic Indian militants, and Colombian narco-traffickers, entails lavishing cash on the region.
She will now be managing a budget of 700 million dollars to build highways, schools, hospitals and sanitation, and the job means that she will be at risk of assassination from Morale’s political enemies.
“I don’t fear for my safety although my family is afraid of what might happen,” the Telegraph quoted her as saying.
“I feel that the people want to work with me that they have confidence in me. I feel like I’m in my place. It’s my destiny,” she stated.
She insists that she always had ambitions to hold office, and that for her the catwalk was merely a conduit.
“I was always more interested in politics than in becoming a beauty queen,” she insisted.
“I saw the title of Miss Bolivia as a step ladder towards a political career. Being a beauty queen in Bolivia is very important. You learn a lot. You become a sort of ambassador,” she added. (ANI)
