Morales' Return: Bolivia's Future?

Bolivia's former president, Evo Morales, returned to the country in November 2020 after a year in exile. Morales, who was the country's first Indigenous president, resigned in 2019 after allegations of irregularities in the vote count. He fled to Argentina, returning to Bolivia after his former finance minister, Luis Arce, was elected president. In 2024, Morales led a march to the capital, La Paz, as he seeks to run in the 2025 presidential election, causing clashes with supporters of the current president, Arce.

Evo Morales returned to Bolivia in November 2020 after a year in exile

Morales's return to Bolivia came a year after he fled the country. He had been president from 2006 until his resignation in 2019. Morales was the country's first Indigenous president and was widely regarded as a champion of indigenous rights, anti-imperialism, and environmentalism. His supporters lauded his implementation of left-wing policies, which focused on the legal protections and socioeconomic conditions of Bolivia's previously marginalized indigenous population.

Morales's resignation came after mass street protests and counterprotests in response to claims of electoral fraud. There was an unexplained 20-hour break in the transmission of results, and Morales was not leading by a large enough margin to avoid a runoff. The final count gave Morales 47.08% of the votes, with 36.51% for runner-up Carlos Mesa. Morales asked the Organization of American States (OAS) to conduct an audit of the vote count and said he would call for a second-round runoff if the OAS found evidence of fraud.

In June 2020, a group of independent researchers published a report stating that the OAS's conclusion about the voting trend indicating election fraud was false and based on statistical errors and incorrect data. The researchers concluded that there was "no statistical evidence of fraud" during the 2019 elections. However, other studies have found evidence of electoral fraud, and in October 2020, the Bolivian government commissioned a report from the Bisite Deep Tech Lab Research Group of the University of Salamanca, which found no manipulation of data in the official count or the transmission of preliminary results.

Morales returned to Bolivia on November 9, 2020, crossing a border bridge into the town of Villazon, where he was greeted by hundreds of supporters. He told the cheering crowd that he "didn't expect to return so soon." However, Morales still faced charges of treason and sedition lodged by prosecutors under the conservative interim government. A judge had canceled the arrest warrant, and Morales apparently felt confident returning home after his former finance minister, Luis Arce, was sworn in as president.

Morales's return to Bolivia came amid a backdrop of political tension and division in the country. In September 2024, supporters of Morales clashed with followers of Arce ahead of the 2025 election. Both men are vying to lead the long-dominant socialist party, known as MAS, into the 2025 vote. The power struggle between the two has paralyzed the government and fueled street protests.

Morales was forced to resign in 2019 amid allegations of election fraud

Evo Morales, the former president of Bolivia, was forced to resign in 2019 after allegations of election fraud. Morales, a left-wing union leader and former coca farmer, had claimed victory in the October 2019 national elections, stating that he had won a fourth term outright. However, preliminary results indicated a need for a second-round runoff with his right-wing rival, Carlos Mesa.

The live vote-counting showed Morales in the lead but just short of the 10% margin required to win outright. When the electoral board abruptly suspended the vote count for 24 hours and resumed, the results showed Morales with just enough votes to avoid a runoff. This turn of events sparked accusations of fraud from the opposition, a claim supported by the Organization of American States, whose observers reported "clear manipulations" of the voting system.

The allegations of election fraud triggered weeks of violent protests across Bolivia, with Morales' critics and supporters clashing in the streets. At least three people were killed in the protests, and several hundred were injured. There were also reports of an arson attack on a government minister's home and a brutal attack on a pro-Morales mayor.

Faced with escalating tensions and calls for his resignation from the military and police leaders, Morales first offered to hold new elections. However, he ultimately chose to resign, stating that he was stepping down to prevent further bloodshed and to fulfil his obligation as the indigenous president to seek peace.

Morales went into exile after his resignation, fleeing to Mexico and later moving to Argentina. He returned to Bolivia in November 2020, ending his year-long exile after his former finance minister, Luis Arce, was inaugurated as president.

Morales was Bolivia's first indigenous president

Evo Morales, born in 1959 in the small rural village of Isallawi in western Bolivia, is a Bolivian politician, trade unionist, and former cocalero activist. Morales is ethnically Aymara and is regarded as the country's first president to come from its indigenous population. Morales served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019.

Morales' road to the presidency began in the early 1980s when he became active in the regional coca-growers union. In 1985, he was elected the group's general secretary, and in 1988, he was elected executive secretary of a federation of various coca-growers unions. In the mid-1990s, Morales helped found a national political party—the leftist Movement Toward Socialism (MAS)—while also serving as the titular leader of the federation representing coca growers.

Morales won a seat in the House of Deputies in 1997 and was the MAS candidate for president in 2002, narrowly losing to Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. During the 2005 election, Morales was elected president, winning 54% of the vote and becoming the country's first president of indigenous descent. He was also the first Bolivian president since 1982 to win a majority of the national vote.

Morales' presidency focused on implementing left-wing policies, prioritizing the legal protections and socioeconomic conditions of Bolivia's previously marginalized indigenous population, and combating the political influence of the United States and resource-extracting multinational corporations. He increased taxation on the hydrocarbon industry to fund social spending, emphasizing projects to combat illiteracy, poverty, and racial and gender discrimination.

Morales also worked to reduce Bolivia's dependence on foreign influence, particularly that of the United States, by building relationships with leftist governments in Latin America. He opposed neoliberalism and moved Bolivia towards a mixed economy, reducing its reliance on institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In addition to his focus on indigenous rights, anti-imperialism, and environmentalism, Morales is credited with overseeing significant economic growth, poverty reduction, and increased investment in schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. However, critics argue that his policies did not always align with his environmentalist and indigenous rights rhetoric, and his defense of coca production contributed to illegal cocaine manufacturing.

Morales resigned as president in November 2019 amid allegations of electoral fraud and fled into exile in Argentina. However, he returned to Bolivia in November 2020, ending his year-long exile after his former finance minister, Luis Arce, was inaugurated as president.

Morales has been barred from running in the 2025 election

Bolivia's first Indigenous president, Evo Morales, has been barred from running in the 2025 election. Morales was first elected in 2006 and was popular until he tried to seek a fourth term in office in 2019. He won the 2019 vote but was forced to resign amid deadly protests over alleged election fraud. He then fled to Mexico and Argentina, where he spent a year in exile.

Morales has since returned to Bolivia and has been leading thousands of supporters in a week-long march to the capital, La Paz. He wants to run as the candidate for the ruling MAS party in the 2025 presidential election. However, Bolivia's Constitutional Court has disqualified him from running for re-election, reversing its ruling in 2017 that allowed him to seek a fourth term. The court stated that term limits provide "an ideal measure for ensuring that someone does not perpetuate themselves in power."

The court's decision means that individuals in Bolivia can serve no more than two terms as president, either consecutively or not. This decision was based on criteria from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which does not view re-election as a human right. The ruling also entails a change in the Constitution, which previously only banned more than two continuous terms.

Morales denounced the court's ruling as political and accused the judges of being complicit with what he called "the black plan" of the government of current President Luis Arce. He claims that Arce, his former economy minister, is seeking to disenfranchise him for the next elections. Morales and Arce have fallen out, and Arce's supporters have taken to the streets to protest against Morales and his followers.

Morales is leading a march to the capital, La Paz, to save the country

Evo Morales, Bolivia's former president, is leading a march to the capital, La Paz, to save the country. The march is a week-long, 190-kilometre (118-mile) journey from Caracollo to La Paz, where thousands of Morales's supporters are expected to arrive on Monday. This protest march reflects a split in the ruling left-wing party, with Morales and current President Luis Arce vying to be the party's candidate in the 2025 presidential election.

Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president, was in power from 2006 to 2019. He fled the country in 2019 after being forced to resign due to accusations of fraud in the election that granted him a third term. He returned to Bolivia in 2020 after his former finance minister, Luis Arce, was elected president. However, both men now seek to represent the Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas) party in the upcoming election, causing a rift within the party and its supporters.

The march to La Paz has been met with opposition from Arce's supporters, resulting in violent clashes between the rival groups. Protesters and counter-protesters have thrown firecrackers, homemade explosives, and stones at each other, while police have fired tear gas. The situation has escalated to the point where the country's ombudsman and Morales have accused Arce's government of deploying paramilitary groups to incite violence.

Morales and his supporters have presented the government with a list of demands, including the rejection of any measure to disqualify Morales from the 2025 election. They have vowed to continue their march into La Paz, despite the opposition, stating that they want to give the government seven days to solve the country's massive problems.

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