The former president of Bolivia Evo Morales warned that there will be a “convulsion” in the country if his presidential candidacy for the 2025 elections is disqualified and blamed the government of Luis Arce, with whom he maintains a fight despite belonging to the same party.
“If they disqualify Evo there will be a convulsion. If he wants that, well, that will be the responsibility of the government. That is my calculation, I am sincere,” said the leader of the ruling Movement towards Socialism (MAS), in an interview with the EFE agency.
Morales considered that “this type of struggle can only be won with mass action,” and said that he heard that various sectors They anticipate “difficulties” in the event that his presidential candidacy is annulled.
At the end of last year, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling in which it mentioned that indefinite reelection “is not a human right” and that it is only applied once, continuously or discontinuously.
According to Morales, this should be understood as “an insinuation of a possible disqualification of his candidacy.”
The three-time president of Bolivia (from 2006 to 2019) insisted that he is “legally and constitutionally enabled” to be a candidate, according to the consultations he himself made to “national and international experts.”
The fight with Luis Arce
The ruling Movement towards Socialism turns 29 this Thursday and it is the first time that there are two separate celebrations.
In the city of La Paz, headquarters of the government and the Legislature, the ‘arcista’ bloc, which supports President Luis Arce, celebrates, while this Saturday it will be the turn of the ‘evista’ wing, similar to Evo Morales, in the town of Yapacaní, in the department of Santa Cruz.
Last year Morales and Arce coincided on the party’s anniversary in the Tropics of Cochabamba, the former president’s political stronghold, where there was friction between MAS militants.
At that event, Morales questioned the management of his former Economy Minister during his government, while Arce urged the MAS not to be afraid of “pluralism” of ideas.
Morales pointed out that Arce “made a big mistake” by pointing out that “we should not be afraid of pluralism of ideas” since, in his opinion, this marks an “ideological difference” with the ‘arcist’ sector, since the MAS than It is by tradition “anti-imperialist.”
The former president also questioned that the Arce Administration has not fulfilled two of the main mandates that it received when it came to government in 2020, such as “prosecuting and imprisoning the coup plotters and genocidaires” due to the 2019 crisis, when Morales had to resign and leave the country in the midst of a popular revolt after his disputed victory in the elections.
Morales resigned from the presidency in November 2019 after considering that he was the victim of a “coup d’état” after the frustrated elections that year, between opposition allegations of electoral fraud in his favor for a fourth consecutive term.
Jeanine Áñez assumed interim command of the country as second vice president of the Senate on November 12, 2019, two days after the resignation of Evo Morales and all officials in line for presidential succession.
“I thought that if (I) returned (to be president of Bolivia) it would be to give me justice (…) because they have given me a coup (d’état),” he said.
Added to the division over the MAS anniversary is the fight over the legality of the MAS congress, which was held last year in the Cochabamba region, and in which Morales was proclaimed the “sole candidate” for the 2025 presidential elections. .
The pro-government sectors related to Arce called for another congress, to be held in May, after the electoral authority determined that a new meeting should be held.
Morales insisted that the congress that re-elected him as top leader of the MAS met all the requirements and that the electoral body acted “illegally”, while the call for the “arcistas” is made by those who “are not militants” in that game.
The former president confirmed that the MAS “is united at the grassroots level” and that a few leaders decided to distance themselves in exchange for alleged “bribes” offered to them by the government.