Former Bolivian president Evo Morales, one of the great political dinosaurs of the Americas, has been given his own medicine. The Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP), based on the opinions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), has annulled the indefinite presidential reelection to establish that the president can only exercise his mandate for two continuous or discontinuous periods. It would therefore not be a “human right”, as the Constitutional Court held six years ago.
The same court and the referendums that Evo once forced to re-elect himself for three terms have now turned against him, as this decision would prevent the revolutionary leader from running for president in 2025. In addition, it also opens the door for his great enemy, the president Luis Arce, can run for re-election. Both leaders of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and their supporters are involved in a fratricidal war for power.
“The political sentence of the self-extended TCP is proof of the complicity of some magistrates with the black plan that the Government executes by order of the empire and with the conspiracy of the Bolivian right. As they did in 2002 when they expelled us from Congress, the neoliberals unite to try to outlaw the MAS and eliminate them politically and even physically. No fear. The fight continues!” Morales counterattacked as soon as he learned of the judicial barrage against his aspirations for power. The justices made this momentous decision 48 hours before he finished his six-year term.
It was precisely Morales’ desire to perpetuate himself at the head of the country that precipitated the 2019 crisis and his fall. The former president ignored the will of the people in the 2016 referendum, when 51.30% of Bolivians said no to his intention to remain at the head of the country. Evo also used the courts to open the possibility of going to the polls.
The crisis broke out when the revolutionary candidate did not achieve a sufficient number of supports in the first round of October 2019, but the ruling party orchestrated an electoral operation to twist the national will. The Organization of American States (OAS) discovered the fraud and agreed with those protesting in the street. A succession of uprisings ended with Morales fleeing the country, who went into exile in Mexico and Argentina.
In the presidential elections a year later, Arce, supported by Morales, clearly won the race, surpassing 50% of the support. The return of the indigenous revolution to power also made it possible for Morales to end his exile. A few months later, friction between both political sectors began.
Evo’s followers were not daunted by the judicial decision and announced that they will nominate their leader, confident in what the Supreme Electoral Court decides. In the fight to win the presidential nomination, both candidates have made constant accusations. For the evistas, the TCP ruling is part of a plan developed by the Ministry of Justice. On the other hand, the Arcistas, who have their own parliamentary bloc in the Legislative Assembly, are firm when it comes to defending the re-election of their president.
One of the main people claimed by the TCP is the former opposition presidential candidate, Carlos Mesa, since this sentence ratifies what has already been denounced: “Morales violated the Constitution, international norms, the laws and the decision of the people when he imposed his candidacy in 2019 with the complicity of the TCP. They stole the presidency from us with a monumental fraud and corrupted democracy. There can be no impunity for those who did so much damage to the country or for their accomplices.”
“The TCP puts an end to Evo Morales’ delirium of being re-elected forever,” added former president Jeanine Áñez from prison, now a political prisoner of the revolution.