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Bolivia: Resignation of Evo Morales

2019-11-11T07:19:51.295Z


Evo Morales provided stability in Bolivia. Now the president has been forced by the military to resign. He plunged his country into chaos because he wanted to stay in power at all costs.



When the military prematurely forces a democratically elected president to resign, as it is now in Bolivia, it is usually called a coup. But what if a popular movement supports the overthrow of the president because he owes his recent re-election to a manipulation at the polls?

Not only Bolivia is divided over these issues, the conflict tears all over Latin America. The military-backed resignation of left-wing President Evo Morales has plunged Bolivia into institutional and political chaos. An insurmountable gap has opened up between the predominantly middle-class Morales opponents and the social movements that support him.

Morales himself helped: he acted against the constitution when he was elected for the fourth time in October. The vote count was rigged, the Organization of American States (OAS) said on Sunday. The first indigenous president in Bolivia's history had become an autocrat in office.

Video: Morales' resignation announcement in the original sound

Video

Freddy Zarco / DPA

Morales could have entered the history of Bolivia as a great president if he had renounced reelection after three mandates. But his power drive was stronger. After Venezuela and Nicaragua, Bolivia is now the third Latin American democracy to be destroyed from the inside because a left caudillo wants to perpetuate itself in power.

In the case of Bolivia, this is particularly tragic because Morales had given his country one of the longest periods of political stability and economic well-being in its history. In the almost 14 years of his tenure, he has stabilized the wretched country in the heart of South America, which was once shaped by military coups and enormous social inequality.

Through a clever economic policy, which sought to redistribute the riches of the resource-rich country, he has reduced the social chasms in the country - many saw him as a role model.

Dangerous power vacuum

The indigenous majority population, which was suppressed for centuries, was first politically and economically integrated under Morales. Now, out of arrogance and obsession with power, he has helped eradicate these achievements in the maelstrom of political and economic chaos.

Aizar RALDES / AFP

Carlos Mesa: He has lost control of the protest movement

Clean elections under international supervision would be a first step towards the restoration of democratic conditions. But it is naïve to assume that elections are enough to stabilize the country, especially since the opposition wants to exclude Morales from a new candidacy.

Morales' resignation has left a dangerous power vacuum, as the vice president and presidents of the Senate and the House of Representatives have resigned. Powerful political and economic interest groups exploit the chaos.

During the protests over the past few weeks, ethnic, regional and economic conflicts have flared up, which seemed to have been temporarily overcome under Morales. In the October elections, Carlos Mesa ranked second, a historian and journalist belonging to the ancient elite of La Paz. Presumably, he had enough votes to force Morales into a runoff election, which he would probably have lost - so, Morales supporters have manipulated the count.

Mesa is considered an honest and upright intellectual, but he has lost control of the protest movement. The opposition is now raging a power struggle between democratic and ultra-reactionary groups based in the economic metropolis of Santa Cruz. Right-wing demagogues sense their chance to hijack the political system.

Bolivia was always torn between the indigenous-dominated highlands with the seat of government La Paz and dominated by large farmers and industrialists lowlands with the secret capital Santa Cruz. This conflict has broken out again with the fall of Morales.

Quarrel between lowland and plateau

The Santa Cruz elite is more economically and socially closer to farmers in neighboring Brazil and its ultra-right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, than the old bureaucratic ruling class of La Paz. Morales' social movements and indigenous peoples view them with hatred and contempt. Their leader is Luis Fernando Camacho, president of the Citizens Committee of Santa Cruz.

He wanted "neither Mesa nor Morales," he announced a few days ago. Camacho seeks an emergency government of the military and police - this would be the way to dictatorship mapped out.

Ten years ago, the conflict between the lowlands and the plateau had once brought Bolivia to the brink of civil war. The farmers of Santa Cruz had set up militias at that time, even Morales' followers were not squeamish. His power base is the union of coca growers, whose leader he used to be.

They've given refuge to Morales now. On Sunday, he had fled to the coca-growing region of Cochabamba, a stronghold of his followers. Mexico has offered him asylum, but apparently he wants to stay in Bolivia and fight for his return to power.

Morales must be involved in the search for a political solution, otherwise Bolivia will not rest. He has proven once in a while that he can paralyze the country for days if he considers it necessary: ​​in 2005, his followers blocked the streets until incumbent President Carlos Mesa, unnerved, declared his resignation.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2019-11-11

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