Bolivia’s ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS) party exiled Former President Evo Morales stepped down from party leadership on Sunday, seven months after ousting incumbent President Luis Arce.
Morales had Arce. Banned He withdrew from the MAS party in October amid a power struggle between the two parties to appear as a MAS candidate on the ballot for the 2025 presidential election.Morales is Limited time According to Bolivia’s constitution, he cannot run for president, but Bolivia’s Constitutional Court upheld that ban in January. His tenure in government from 2006 to 2019 was cultivation Coca, the plant used to produce cocaine.Pedophilia accusations involving Morales become a father Children with minors. And persecution of political opponents is rampant.
morales resigned After “winning” the last standard presidential election, he voluntarily fled to Mexico in 2019. He fled the country along with much of MAS’s pro-Morales leadership after the Organization of American States (OAS) revealed evidence of election fraud.
Since then, he has repeatedly claimed that he is the victim of a “coup” and is eligible to run for a fifth term, despite Bolivia’s constitution stipulating a maximum of two terms for president and vice president. I’ve done it.Mr. Morales has been able to circumvent constitutional term limits in the past through a series of courts. judgmentOne of them essentially tells him “free” 1 term that did not “count” towards the 2 term limit.
Mr. Morales this weekend insisted he would vote regardless of the law and threatened to organize mob action if the government enforced the law.
Morales said at an event in Cochabamba on Saturday ahead of his removal from the MAS leadership. declared He’s running for president.”A las buenas o las maras”, this idiom roughly translates as “by hook or crook” or “by any means necessary.” Morales threatened to organize riots and roadblocks if the country respected the constitution and kept him from voting.
Morales falsely claimed that “up until now we are legally and constitutionally qualified to be president, but that is not up for debate.” “What they’re doing is trying to see how they can eliminate me and disqualify me with the self-aggrandizement they seek. That’s the fight, and they can’t do it. .”
Morales also claimed that he was supported and “protected” by “leftist governments in Latin America,” including Brazil’s radical leftist president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva and Venezuela’s He pointed out that socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro is one of his allies.
trout held The three-day event over the weekend drew more than 6,000 members to a sports center in El Alto, a city adjacent to Bolivia’s capital La Paz. The event, which ended on Sunday evening, was promoted by the splintered pro-Arce faction of the Socialist Party and led to the election of trade union leader Grover Garcia as MAS’s new president.
García, head of the pro-government trade union Uniform Confederation of Peasants and Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB), declared when he took over as MAS’s new leader that “blaming and discrimination are over.” He announced that a new MAS convention will be held within the next 90 days to change the party constitution and “re-establish” the party. resound The phone call Mr. Arce made just before Mr. Garcia was selected.
“Evo Morales is the former president of the MAS organization. I am the new president,” García declared to local media.
“I can’t be with Evo Morales. He is a former president and should definitely be in Chapare.” [drug trafficking cartel]we intend to cooperate with social organizations and strongly support Lucho’s regime [Arce’s local nickname],” he continued.
García condemned Morales’ threat to blockade, saying, “The mobilization is against our people and our families, and it is not right.”
After Morales’ dismissal, Arce said: Said “Our political instruments should never again be used to satisfy the aspirations of individuals or groups, and our social institutions should never be expelled from their own political projects,” he said in a social media post. It must not be done.”
In recent months, a rift between Morales and Arce has split the ruling MAS party into factions supporting former President Morales and those supporting Arce, the current president and Morales’ “disowned” successor.
The rift between Mr. Arce and Mr. Morales lies at the heart of Mr. Morales’ decision to force his way onto the ballot in 2019. Court favoring Morales in 2017 control It argued that presidential term limits were a “violation” of Morales’ human rights, which allowed him to run for president again in October 2019. It is widely believed that Morales forced the court to issue the 2017 verdict.
Morales allegedly “won” the 2019 election fraudulently, sparking international condemnation and local protests, and ultimately leading to his resignation. After his resignation, Morales fled to Mexico with most of his cabinet members.
Jeanine Áñez, a conservative senator and second vice president of Bolivia’s Senate Chamber at the time, became president because she was the highest-ranking person left in the line of succession who had not fled to Mexico.
Senate Vice President Jeanine Anez waves from the balcony of the Quemado Palace in La Paz after declaring herself the new interim president in a Congress that lacked a quorum on November 12, 2019. (AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty)
Áñez chose not to vote in the 2020 elections, which returned MAS to power and elected current socialist president Luis Arce.
Mr. Arce’s election set off a chain of events that culminated in Mr. Morales returning to Bolivia and Mr. Áñez. declared The ruling Socialists sentenced him to 10 years in prison for allegedly participating in a “coup” against Morales.
The Bolivian Constitutional Court (TCP) issued the following judgment: ruling Hours before the end of 2023, a ruling was handed down overturning a controversial 2017 ruling, saying the concept of indefinite presidential re-election is “not a human right.” Despite this, Mr. Morales continued to assert his desire to run for president again in 2025, ordering his supporters to riot and cause mass incidents. blockade Demand for a new Supreme Court judge in Bolivia.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan writer who chronicles life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
