A gold cross with deep family significance has been returned to the family of Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz, fulfilling a promise made in 1990 by then-U.S. President George H. W. Bush. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented the heirloom to Paz at a regional summit in Florida over the weekend, closing a diplomatic episode that had stretched across three and a half decades.
The cross belonged to Paz’s father, former Bolivian President Jaime Paz Zamora. During a 1990 visit to Washington, Zamora presented it to Bush as a personal gift. Bolivian media later recalled that the piece was no ornamental display item but a family heirloom crafted in delicate gold filigree, worn to a distinctive patina by age and handling. Zamora described it as “a symbol of friendship and faith between two nations.”
Bush hesitated. He recognized the cross as something the family valued far beyond its material worth and was reluctant to accept it permanently. He agreed to take it on a single condition: if Zamora’s son ever became president of Bolivia, the cross would be returned to the Paz family.
The Bush library kept the promise alive
The commitment might easily have been forgotten. Bush died in 2018. Zamora’s son spent years in Bolivian politics without reaching the presidency. The cross sat in the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas.
When Rodrigo Paz won Bolivia’s presidential election in November 2025, library staff remembered. They contacted the U.S. State Department, flagged the promise, and sent supporting documentation.
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Rubio said staff “still remembered the promise after all these years.” When they briefed him, his response was immediate: “I said, well then let’s return it today.”
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau later released a handwritten letter from Bush confirming the commitment. Bush had written that he would keep the cross “in a very special, honored place” at the library and return it if Zamora’s son ever took office.
Landau observed that the most moving aspect of the story was that Paz could now sit with his 86-year-old father and recount it in person. Bolivian media reported that the cross will ultimately be installed at the Paz family’s historic residence, El Picacho, in the southern city of Tarija.
The return of the cross landed at a consequential political moment. Paz took office in November 2025, ending nearly 20 years of dominance by the leftist Movement for Socialism, which had governed Bolivia under former presidents Evo Morales and Luis Arce. During that period, Bolivia cultivated ties with countries including Iran that maintain adversarial relationships with the United States.
Spain’s El País reported that Paz has set out to guide Bolivia “back into the international community.” Within hours of his inauguration, he announced the restoration of diplomatic cooperation with the United States and made clear his intention to build a new strategic partnership with Washington.
A ceremony at Trump’s Florida summit
The handover took place at the “Shield of the Americas” summit, hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in Florida. Twelve Latin American leaders attended. Agenda items centered on dismantling transnational drug cartels and reducing the influence of outside powers throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Trump called Bolivia “a great people” during the proceedings. Paz, in a statement released by his presidential office, said the remark resonated precisely because it was directed at his country rather than at him personally.
“That was not praise for me as an individual, but recognition of our people,” Paz said. “When you come to an international gathering like this, people want to see not just a person, but a country.”
He returned to that thought in his closing remarks.
“It was Bolivia that came here, a country that is also part of a truly great continent.”
