Evo Morales defends his candidacy for the presidency: “If they disqualify me there will be a convulsion” in Bolivia

Former Bolivia President 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 continues to quarrel despite belonging to the same match.

“If they disqualify Evo there will be a convulsion. If he wants it, well, it will be the government’s responsibility. This is my calculation, I’m sincere,” said the leader of the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS). in an interview with the EFE agency.

Morales believes that “this type of struggle can only be won with mass action,” and said he has heard this from several sectors “Difficulties” are expected if his presidential candidacy is cancelled.

Late last year, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling in which it stated that indefinite re-election “is not a human right” and that it applies only once, continuously or discontinuously.

According to Morales this should be understood as “an insinuation of a possible disqualification of his candidacy”.

Bolivia’s three-time president (2006 to 2019) insisted he was “legally and constitutionally qualified” to run, according to consultations he carried out with “national and international experts”.

The clash with Luis Arce

The Movement to Socialism in power turns 29 this Thursday and it is the first time there have been two separate celebrations.

In the city of La Paz, seat of the government and legislature, the ‘Arcista’ bloc, which supports President Luis Arce, celebrates, while on Saturday it will be the turn of the ‘Evista’ wing, similar to Evo Morales, in the city of Yapacaní, in the department of Santa Cruz.

Last year Morales and Arce celebrated the party’s anniversary in the tropics of Cochabamba, the former president’s political stronghold, where there was friction between MAS militants.

On that occasion, Morales questioned the management of his former Economy Minister during his government, while Arce urged the MAS not to be afraid of the “pluralism” of ideas.

Morales underlined that Arce “made a big mistake” underlining that “we must not be afraid of the pluralism of ideas” since, in his opinion, this marks an “ideological difference” with the “arcist” sector, since the MAS compared to IS traditionally “anti-imperialist”.

The former president also questioned whether the Arce administration did not fulfill two of the main mandates it received when it came to government in 2020, such as “prosecuting and imprisoning coup plotters and genocidaires” due to the 2019 crisis, when Morales he had to resign and leave the country in the midst of a popular uprising after his disputed election victory.

Morales resigned from the presidency in November 2019 believing he had been the victim of a “coup d’état” following frustrated elections that year, including accusations of electoral fraud by the opposition in his favor for the fourth consecutive mandate.

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 gave me a coup (d’état),” he said.

Adding to the division over the anniversary of the MAS is the struggle 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.

Pro-government sectors linked to Arce have called for another congress, to be held in May, after the electoral authority decided that a new meeting will be held.

Morales insisted that the congress that re-elected him as leader of the MAS meets all the requirements and that the electoral body acted “illegally”, while the appeal to the “arcistas” is launched by those who are “not militants” in that game.

The former president confirmed that the MAS “is united at the grassroots level” and that some leaders have decided to distance themselves in exchange for alleged “bribes” offered to them by the government.

Source: EFE