Politicians Aligned With Evo Morales Warn About ‘Imminent Political Crisis’ in Bolivia (+Primaries)

Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—A group of politicians and personalities involved with the Bolivian ruling party Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and close to former President Evo Morales published a statement expressing their view on the current schism within MAS and highlighting “the threat to democracy represented by the current government” led by President Luis Arce.

The statement, titled What is Happening in Bolivia: Open Letter from Bolivia to the International Community and published on May 12, has been signed by several MAS politicians who held important public positions during Morales’ terms, such as former minister Juan Ramón Quintana, former parliamentarian Adriana Salvatierra, former head of ALBA-TCP Sacha Llorenti, and cultural figures such as María Fernanda Rada who made a documentary on the 2019 coup against Morales, Fue Golpe, and purportedly warns about “an imminent political crisis” in the country.

Addressing “our comrades throughout the world,” the signatories stated that “currently, in Bolivia, we are going through an alarming situation that manifests an imminent political crisis” due to differences within the ruling party. “These are not superficial differences, they are of an ideological, programmatic, and ethical nature, and have direct repercussions on the way of doing politics and, above all, on what and for whom politics is done.”

The signatories went on to claim that Luis Arce, who became the president in the 2020 elections after the people of Bolivia defeated the coup, has “betrayed the people’s trust.” They accused the Arce government of bringing about an economic crisis for “having abandoned the economic model that made Bolivia an example for the entire region.” They further alleged that the president has created a serious institutional crisis “within the social organizations due to acts of nepotism promoted by the government, adoption of repressive measures against left-wing members, and the threat of proscription of our party and disqualification of the most important political leader of the popular camp: Evo Morales Ayma.”

According to the statement, President Arce is bypassing the Legislative Assembly and appropriating parliamentary powers since last year, violating the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. Among these alleged violations, the statement highlighted the issue of the government “declaring as state secret the agreements signed on the exploration of lithium.” Bolivia has the largest known reserves of this highly demanded metal, and there were indications that one of the principal objectives of the 2019 coup was to make way for foreign multinationals to get hold of Bolivia’s lithium.

Moreover, the signatories accused President Arce of “repeating neoliberal practices” of trying to coopt the social movements that form the base of the MAS party, as well as of unleashing a “judicial persecution” against MAS politicians who are not aligned with the current president. In this regard, they highlighted the government’s intentions of disqualifying Evo Morales from next year’s presidential race in collusion with the judiciary, and questioned the impartiality of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. They compared this situation with the infamous lawfares against left-wing leaders in Latin America, including Brazil’s Lula da Silva, Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa.

“Bolivia has entered a very difficult stage and it is very likely that the result of these betrayals will be the return of the right wing,” the statement warned. “To avoid this tragic outcome, comrade Evo Morales Ayma and the parent organizations of our organization have proposed that everything should be resolved through democratic means in primary elections, as the law states, because we believe that this is the most sensible way for the membership of our political organization to not only decide the candidacies but also to guarantee the unity of the Bolivian popular movement.”

In conclusion, the statement asked all those who support the Bolivian process “to accompany us in the vigil for the fulfillment of democratic forms in Bolivia. Let us prevent the setback that an eventual victory of the right wing would mean for our country, and let us guarantee the continuity of our Process of Change.”

This statement comes in the wake of the national congress of MAS’ Unity Pact, convened by Luis Arce, held in El Alto during May 3-5. This Unity Pact congress elected the new leadership of the party and left out of the leadership positions people close to Evo Morales. This event was the latest addition to the controversy within the ruling party of Bolivia that has been going on for more than a year.

Commenting on the Unity Pact, Evo Morales accused Arce of “executing an imperialist plan” cooked up by the United States. “The world is seeing how this government, betraying the political party that brought it to power, has become the worst government in our democratic history,” he said.

This Tuesday, May 15, Morales posted on social media a message along the same lines of solving the MAS infighting via primaries.

“If President Luis Arce seeks unity, as he says, the first thing he must do is publicly commit at the national and international level to resolve this situation in a democratic manner, through primary elections to define our candidates, not to outlaw the MAS-IPSP and no longer try to disqualify Evo for those elections,” wrote Evo Morales on social media. “Unfortunately, as in neoliberal times, there are two confederations. For this reason, all leaders should present their certificate of militancy and organic life in our political instrument and, based on this, let us convene the national congress. That is the organic, democratic and transparent way to resolve these conflicts.”