Former President Evo Morales could be left out of Bolivia’s ruling party, which he led for more than three decades, in a crucial party congress that began this Friday and was organized by followers of his political heir and now adversary, President Luis Arce.
Most of the unions and social organizations related to the ruling Movement towards Socialism (MAS), which support Arce, called a congress to elect Morales’ successor with the support of a constitutional court that has installed an electoral body.
Morales, who has remained in the minority and only retains the support of the coca growers, could be left without opportunities to run for the 2025 presidential elections.
The Supreme Electoral Court declared illegal the congress that re-elected him as head of the MAS last year and the new congress that the former president called for June has no legal backing.
“We made a mistake with Lucho (Arce). He destroyed the economy and is destroying democracy. At this rate, with the support of judges, he is going to extend his position. Any conflict that arises will be his responsibility,” Morales said on Friday from a coca growers radio station, whose union he has led for four decades.
At the same time, he threatened to call for protests against whoever was the Minister of Economy during his presidency (2006-2019).
For Arce, the Morales faction represents the “new right” that has joined the “traditional right” to destabilize his government “due to the ambitions of a single person (Morales) who only seeks to satisfy his thirst for power,” said the president on Wednesday at the Labor Day march.
“Arce does not want to be head of the party, he is interested in being a MAS candidate and Morales is reaping what he has sown, that is, a corrupt justice system submitted to power,” said political analyst Paul Coca.
Arce has told his supporters that “social movements have no owner,” while Morales’ followers brand Arce a “traitor.”
The divorce in the ruling party began more than two years ago and left the Arce faction in the minority in the Legislative Assembly. Morales’ followers have blocked the approval of new credits and the government attributes the worsening of the economic crisis to this legislative blockade.
Arce faces a difficult economic moment, criticism for alleged corruption and accusations of alleged collusion with judges. The drop in export income is exacerbating the shortage of dollars in the market and the cost of living has risen, according to various studies.
More than an internal crisis in the ruling party, we are facing an exhaustion of the populist model that Morales embodied in 2006 after the collapse of the traditional parties, said analyst and university professor Roger Cortez.
Meanwhile, internal divisions and trials promoted by the government due to the 2019 crisis — which led to Morales’ resignation — have reduced the political strength of the divided center and right-wing opposition, according to experts.
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