2023-10-06 23:57:10
The Bolivian Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada (EFE)
The Minister of the Presidency of Bolivia, María Nela Prada, said this Friday that the announcement of the “single” candidacy of former President Evo Morales is an “imposition” and pointed out that the ruling Movement towards Socialism (MAS) must go to primaries without “restrictions” to define his candidacy in the 2025 elections.
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“The Constitution speaks of a participatory democracy where we can really debate and make decisions, how that is not going to be applied within our own political instrument, a single candidacy is already determined and that means an imposition (…) without there being a broad deliberation of the people,” he stated.
The MAS held a national congress this week in which the “sole” candidacy of former President Morales (2006-2019) was ratified, who days before indicated that he was “forced” to run for the Presidency to “save once more” the country .
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Prada lamented that “a resolution is reduced to proclaiming a single candidacy of former president Evo Morales; what is happening, no single candidacies can be proclaimed at this time. We are not yet in an electoral process, but furthermore, we are not in a process where we are entering primaries, which is what it should be.”
The minister pointed out in statements to the media that participation must be “expanded so that there is the possibility of other candidates, to “primaries without any type of restrictions” and that this “candidate is the one who has the most support from all the Bolivian people.”
The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, with the former Bolivian president and leader of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS), Evo Morales, in an archive photograph (EFE/Jorge Ábrego)
The MAS congress further deepened the division that the ruling party has been dragging since the end of 2021 between “evistas, related to Morales, and “arcistas”, close to the president of the country, Luis Arce, who opposed the event and demanded that it be held in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, and not in the Tropics of Cochabamba, the political bastion of the former president.
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Specifically, the MAS, which Morales has led since 1990, was notified this Thursday of a constitutional protection presented by a leader of the “arcist” bloc once morest the congress, whose legality will be analyzed in a court hearing on October 23.
The minister also referred to the MAS’ decision to “self-expel” President Arce and his vice president, David Choquehuanca, for not attending the congress, and said that such a determination “does not exist either in the statute (of the party) or anywhere.” ”.
“It is understood what the underlying intentions really are, figures are sought to want to remove many of us from our political instrument since we are militants and we have been here with commitment, with conviction, without any personal appetites,” he stated.
The “lists of traitors are a disastrous practice for democracy and typical of fascism,” which “does a lot of damage to the political instrument,” he added and expressed solidarity with the more than twenty congressmen, assembly members and other authorities who “were expelled” in the MAS congress accused of being “traitors”.
The vice president of Bolivia, David Choquehuanca (EFE)
On the other hand, the vice president of Bolivia, David Choquehuanca, said this Friday that the Bolivian people “know who” abandoned them “in the most difficult moments,” in an allusion to the departure of Evo Morales and his closest collaborators from the country following his resignation during the 2019 crisis.
Choquehuanca pointed out that “it is not convenient for some brothers to talk regarding betrayal” because, in his opinion, “they have lost all moral authority.”
“The Bolivian people know who have betrayed the Bolivian people, the Bolivian people know who have abandoned us in the most difficult moments,” he stated during an event for the anniversary of the factory confederation. He also pointed out that “it is not convenient for some to talk regarding loyalty because loyalty is not something that is declared, it is exercised.”
The vice president seemed to allude to the fact that following the questioned 2019 elections that were annulled due to irregularities amid allegations of fraud in favor of the then president, Morales resigned from the Presidency claiming to be the victim of a “coup d’état” and went to Mexico, then to Argentina and returned a year later to Bolivia.
Choquehuanca questioned that “some leaders” have kept the country “convulsed” and “divided” by the “greed for power” and assured that Bolivians “are tired of division,” “authoritarianism” and the “cult of personality.” , something that the opposition has always criticized Morales for.
He also considered that in recent days “many are losing their reason, their sanity, their respect, their balance” and pointed above all to those who call President Luis Arce a “traitor”, who, however, must be “treated with mercy.” so that they regain their sanity.”
Leaders of social sectors met with President Luis Arce in La Paz last Tuesday, October 3, the date on which the MAS congress was also held in the Tropics of Cochabamba (EFE)
Minister Prada added that “social organizations are the ones that gave birth” to the MAS and “they are the ones that must take command of their political instrument.”
The so-called Unity Pact, made up of social, indigenous and peasant organizations related to the ruling party, called for a march and a meeting on October 17 in the city of El Alto to define their position once morest the MAS, whose congress they rejected because they considered it “illegitimate”.
“We have always been and will be at the call and calls of social organizations that are the heart of our political instrument, which is born from social organizations, it is the political arm of social organizations,” Prada said when confirming the participation of the Government of Arce at that meeting.
He recalled that the organizations did not attend the meeting of the ruling party “because they are not being protagonists within their own political instrument” and mentioned that “of the 200 delegates that each one might have” from the social, indigenous, peasant and union confederations in the call From the MAS this figure was “reduced to only five.”
No official from the Arce Government attended the meeting of the ruling party, nor did the legislators considered “arcistas” or “renovators”, however, the president of the Chamber of Senators, Andrónico Rodríguez, and some congressmen, governors and mayors were present. loyal” to Morales.
Arce and Morales, who is the top leader of the MAS, are estranged amid the internal tensions in the ruling party that began at the end of 2021 due to the former president’s requests to change some ministers that the president has ignored.
(With information from EFE)
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