Nadia Cruz

Nadia Alejandra Cruz Tarifa (born 10 December 1982) is a Bolivian lawyer and politician serving as vice minister of equal opportunities since 2022. Cruz developed her career practicing law in La Paz and El Alto, during which time she became an active member and advisor to various human rights NGOs. Starting in the 2010s, Cruz began serving as a public official in the Ombudsman's Office, where she exercised a multitude of minor functions before being appointed deputy ombudsman for the defense of and compliance with human rights. Following the intra-term resignation of David Tezanos Pinto in 2019, Cruz was among three deputy ombudsmen in the line of succession and was considered the only viable candidate to assume the position.

Though intended to serve as acting ombudsman for just ninety days, procedural delays and a year-long political crisis led Cruz's tenure to drag on, even exceeding the expiration of Tezanos Pinto's original term. When the process for electing a new ombudsman was reinitiated in 2022, Cruz sought to be elected to a full term, but her candidacy was blocked by the legislative opposition, who had long-criticized her alleged partisan affinity toward the ruling Movement for Socialism. Cruz's extended tenure, surpassing the ninety-day mandate for acting authorities and the expiration of her predecessor's original six-year term, prompted legal ambiguity, with many constitutional experts regarding her final months in office to be a violation of the Constitution.

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