caption birth_place party birth_date term_start spouse image article_title term_end name
rubén costas on december 2007 santa cruz de la sierra , bolivia verdad y democracia social 6 october 1955 2006 sonia vincenti Égüez ruben costas.jpg rubén costas
 present rubén costas
rubén costas

rubén armando costas aguilera -lrb- born october 6 , 1955 in santa cruz de la sierra , santa cruz -rrb- is a bolivian politician and the current governor of bolivia 's santa cruz department for the truth and social democracy -lrb- verdes -rrb- party .
in 2013 , he founded the social democrat movement party to participate in the 2014 presidential and parliamentary election .
previously he served as prefect -lrb- the same office , which has been renamed by the 2009 constitution -rrb- on behalf of the autonomy for bolivia party .
he was one of the nine bolivian prefects directly elected in the general elections of 2005 .
this election was the result of several negotiations and large , peaceful public demonstrations in santa cruz .
the 1967 bolivian constitution said that prefects can only be appointed by the president , but because of the negotiations and popular desire , the bolivian congress approved law 3015 to formalize the prefect election process .
since he took office , he has been strongly critical of the government of president evo morales because of political , ideological and regional differences , also , his supporters claim that morales is opposed to give the country 's eastern departments more autonomy , as voted in a 2006 referendum , however , as it was written in the referendum 's ballots the autonomy has to be approved and legislated by the constituent assembly .
the constituent assembly produced a draft constitution which is rejected by large sectors of the population , especially in the eastern departments , and therefore tension between costas and morales has increased significantly .
shortly after the 2008 recall vote , costas caused controversy when he attacked morales , calling him a `` dictator '' and using the slur `` macaco '' -lrb- monkey -rrb- .
he receives support mainly from the departments of pando , beni , santa cruz , and tarija .
