Bolivia, Evo Morales and the story of the imaginary coup

Evo Morales ran a personal campaign as the victim of a coup that removed him from power in 2019 when he attempted win the fourth consecutive term. But in Bolivia that year there were no military uprisings, no proclamations or communications terminating the constitutional powers. Nor generals in dirty uniforms arresting civilian commanders.

There was a social upheaval originating from an abuse of legality committed by the fallen president himself. Morales ran for office on October 20, 2019 to seek that fourth term violate the plebiscite ruling in which his own bases voted against such a possibility.

The leader argued that this ban resulted in a proscription even if it were a constitutional provision.

The elections took place but the votes did not seem to confirm the support the president had expected. The provisional tally predicted that Morales would win but without avoiding a runoff which ensured his defeat with the unified opposition. But suddenly the campaign group’s systems shut down without further explanation.

When the counting resumed a few hours later, Evo had reached the ten point difference needed to win in the first round. THE re-election was saved.People on the streets, especially youth sectors who had been the president’s base, reacted with fury to the maneuver perceived as a further mockery of the violation of the plebiscite.

All this was happening in a country that was losing its economic momentum, undermining popular support for Morales, including that of the indigenous peoples of the Bolivian Amazon. expelled from their lands by the government to expand the agricultural frontier. Even the president who bragged about his indigenous ancestry did these things.

Vote manipulation was detected by the OAS. The organization’s general secretary, the Uruguayan Luis Almagro, had been the only international diplomat to support the endless fervor for Evo’s re-election. The Bolivian leader He called him “brother”. But that company was limited by the curious technical blackout and the change in results. Almagro denounced the manipulation.

Increasing violence in the streets and government interrogation have triggered a void of power which led the then Defense Minister, Eduardo Zavaleta, to warn that they were one step away from “total lack of control (and) at any moment the dead would begin to be counted by the dozens.” He wasn’t wrong.

The tension was such that in that collapse the Confederation of Bolivian Workers, the historic and legendary COB, He proposed that Morales resign to ease the crisis.

“If this is certainly an action and a measure to pacify the people, fellow president, we invite you to reflect on whether it is possible to take on this responsibility. If there is a need to resign, to pacify the people, we do it“We say this from the Bolivian Workers Central to pacify the country,” the head of the central Juan Carlos Huarachi told him on November 10, 2019.

The next day Evo resigned. Shortly before, after the union’s declaration, a close friend of Morales, the head of the Armed Forces, Williams Kaliman, later demoted by the provisional government that left the Senate, had put forward the same proposal. Evo left for Mexico in the first stage of the exile that followed in Argentina. In those capitals he conceived the opportunist story of the fictional military coup.