Former Bolivian President Evo Morales, who returned from exile barely a week ago, announced on Tuesday that he had taken the reins of the great left-wing party that won the presidential election, the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) led so far by the new president Luis Arce.
“By evaluating the results of the elections and other issues, we have decided by consensus that from that moment on Evo will assume the presidency of the Movement towards Socialism,” Evo Morales himself said at a press conference. in the city of Cochabamba, its electoral stronghold in the center of the country.
Read also: In Bolivia, the dolphin of Evo Morales promises change
He announced that he had convened a meeting of the MAS on November 21 to discuss the candidates for the departmental and municipal elections next March.
The MAS, a party it created in 1997 before being elected president from 2006 to 2019, won the presidential election in the first round on October 18.
Until then, it was chaired by Luis Arce, former Minister of the Economy of the governments of Evo Morales who, from Argentina where he was a refugee, led his electoral campaign.
In the October 2019 election, Evo Morales proclaimed himself the winner of the presidential election for a fourth term, but the opposition cried out fraud.
After weeks of protests, he resigned and fled Bolivia, let loose by the police and the army.
An interim government had been put in place pending new elections won hands down by the MAS.
Since his triumphant return to his native lands last week, acclaimed by thousands along the 1,200 km road between Argentina's border and his stronghold of Cochabamba, Evo Morales has been excessively active in the country's political affairs.
Installed in a community of coca growers in the province of Chapare, the former president has assured in recent days that he coordinates the affairs of the state with President Luis Arce.
