LA PAZ, BOLIVIA - In any country, the youthful good looks and brains of this president would be noteworthy. In tempestuous Bolivia, where presidents traditionally seize power at the head of a military column and, well within living memory, one unfortunate chief executive was hanged from a lamppost outside the presidential palace, Jorge Quiroga is a modern phenomenon.

Last August, as vice president, he stepped into the shoes of Gen. Hugo Banzer, the ailing and aging former dictator. It was a sea change for Bolivia. The Texas A&M industrial engineering graduate with a master's degree in business administration and 10 years at IBM launched his presidency with an anti-corruption campaign. The boyish-looking 41-year-old demonstrated that he meant business by issuing a detailed financial statement revealing all his assets - unprecedented in Bolivia, at that time rated the second most corrupt nation in the world by Transparency International.

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