“Historic mistake”, Evo Morales doubles criticism of the Bolivian president, who belongs to his own party, and his dispute over power grows

The census law requested by Santa Cruz de la Sierra, to update the elements and also the number of legislators, has become the new excuse for the attack of the former president of Bolivia, Evo Moralesto the current president Luis Arcewho was his economy minister and is within his own political party.

Last Saturday, the Bolivian Chamber of Deputies partially sanctioned the Census law, for which the ruling party called for the suspension of protests and the interruption of activities in the province of Santa Cruz, a stronghold of the opposition, and Evo exploded with anger with strong criticism: “Revolutionaries don’t negotiate with the right“.

“The promulgation of the census law by our brother president Luis Arce will be a historic mistake as it is the first time that a president signs a law that makes his own decree superfluous.Could this consequence have been premeditated by the coup opposition?“Evo Morales wondered this Friday in advance.

And he added: “We warn that behind the return of the neoliberal pactocracy hides the pact of impunity in exchange for governability. The opportunism and ambitions of a few have subjected our elected government with 55.11% to the control of the minority the right”.

However, hours later the Bolivian president promulgated the census law and Morales again expressed criticism on Twitter: “Our brother Satuco clarifies that the census law was unnecessary because it changes absolutely nothing. If the law does not change anything, why ?” do they promulgate it? If it’s perfume, as you say, it must be due to the bad smell of the pact with the right coup. Always loyal, never treacherous.”

And he concluded: “We are sorry that the image advisors of our brother President Luis Arce are obsolete. He promulgated the law on the census when the Bolivian people awaited a message on the waters of Silala. Early Christmas gift for Tuto Quiroga, Camacho and Mesa ” .

Evo Morales’ reference is due to the fact that on Thursday the International Court of Justice (ICJ) thus put an end to the legal dispute between Bolivia and Chile over the waters of the Silala River. The ICJ rejected a complaint by Chile over Bolivia’s alleged violation of its obligation to cooperate, as well as another by Bolivia over access to the surface waters of Silala.

Protests in Santa Cruz to demand a census law

On October 22, a “civic movement” that brings together organizations and entrepreneurs from Santa Cruz called an indefinite strike to demand that the census take place in 2023, instead of 2024 as proposed by the national government, given that it determines the distribution of resources between the regions of the country.

The population and housing census, established by the Bolivian Constitution to be carried out every 10 years, was initially scheduled for November 16, 2022, but was postponed for technical reasons to 2024, in a meeting between President Luis Arce and the regional authorities.

When the half-sanction was approved on Saturday, 36 days had passed since the start of the strike in Santa Cruz, a stronghold of the opposition to the Arce government, to demand a redistribution of resources and parliamentary seats that depend on the census.

This law approved by Deputies establishes a “new distribution of resources in tax sharing starting from the month of September 2024”.

The regulation also orders the National Statistical Institute to send the official data of the future census to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal so that a bill can be drawn up for the distribution of seats based on the data and which would be in force in the next general election scheduled for 2025.

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