The indigenous revolution falls to blows. A filtered audio with a series of diatribes by Evo Morales has confirmed what was already vox populi: the former Bolivian president wants more internal power. The three-way struggle between his relatives, the group of the president, Luis Arce, and that of the vice president, David Choquehuanca, keeps the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) in suspense, precisely when international criticism against the arrest of the governor of Santa Cruz, the radical opponent Luis Fernando Camacho.
“In the field it is widespread: How long are we going to put up with Lucho (Luis Arce)? What is he doing, when are we going to get him out?” Morales is heard, who has denounced the “manipulation in bad faith” of his words. This scandal arose when the most radical voices of the indigenous revolution demanded that Arce change course, even considering forcing a revocation of his mandate, something highly improbable in the current circumstances.
“Internal right-wing political operators are trying to use against us to affect the unity of the MAS. We again denounce the persecution and espionage of those who use lies to divide us,” Morales himself reacted.
The reality is that Morales is the protagonist of a political phenomenon often seen in Latin America: a leader who bets on a successor but who later wants to maintain power. It has already happened in Colombia with Álvaro Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos and in Ecuador with Rafael Correa and Lenin Moreno.
Morales also fights to whiten his public image after starring in the 2019 electoral fraud and various scandals surrounding his personal relationships. Evo is the great ally of the three Latin American dictatorships and one of the main defenders of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Peruvian Congress has just declared him persona non grata for his unconditional support for the coup leader Pedro Castillo.
“There are no deep ideological differences, what we do notice is that President Arce, who presented himself as a more moderate version, has turned out to be a very closed person to listen to other voices, he has never wanted to meet with businessmen or industrialists. He is a person Lonely, surrounded by mediocre people, unlike Evo, who elected prominent intellectuals and professionals, including independents, until 2010. This has caused unnecessary confrontations, such as with the census, the education curriculum, the politics of the pandemic, and repression. that he is a political animal, he wants to prevail in agrarian affairs and external relations and that is where they collide. He has not managed to include his trusted people in Arce’s cabinet either, “the historian Lupe Cajías explains to EL MUNDO.
The fight has even reached the official parliamentary group, divided between radicals and renovators. One of them, the expelled Rolando Enríquez, attacked Evo after the publication of the controversial audio: “Our hands will not tremble to prosecute Mr. Morales for the crimes of conspiracy and attacking President Arce.”
On the other side, the hardest wing, the followers of the Quechua Morales mercilessly attack the Aymara Choquehuanca, whom they accuse of speaking ill of MAS and trying to outlaw it.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
