Peace.- A mass march against the Bolivian government, led by former president and former ally Evo Morales, reached the gates of La Paz on Monday without encountering resistance, even amid applause, after the violent clashes on Sunday that left around twenty people injured.
The seven-day walk poses a tough challenge to President Luis Arce, his mentor and now rival, to find a solution to the economic crisis and recognize Morales’ leadership (2006-2019) at the head of the fractured ruling party, as well as his qualification as a candidate for the 2025 presidential elections.
It is the most serious crisis facing the fractured Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) that has governed the country for 17 years, according to analysts. Arce and Morales are fighting for leadership and control of the party apparatus ahead of the presidential elections.
Tension seemed to be running high on the streets of downtown La Paz on Monday as Arce supporters gathered in Murillo Square, where the government house and legislature are located, ahead of the expected arrival of the march. They carried white flags calling for dialogue, a different attitude from Sunday when they tried to forcefully stop Morales’ march that was trying to reach the city center on Monday.
Several public offices and banks were closed and school work was suspended for fear of possible clashes.
Both leaders accuse each other of worsening the economic situation and promoting violence. Arce said a few days ago that Morales only seeks to impose his candidacy “by fair means or foul” and accused him of a “boycott” in the legislature to stop the approval of international loans that would reactivate the economy.
Morales said during the march that Arce sent “paid shock groups and public officials to attack this peaceful march.”
Efforts to settle the differences between the two pro-government leaders have not borne fruit in more than two years of disputes, and the call for dialogue has not been successful in recent days. The Bolivian Ombudsman was trying to open a negotiating table.
The so-called “march to save Bolivia” is demanding that Arce find solutions to the economic crisis and, above all, that the government and authorities recognize Morales as the sole leader of the ruling Movements Towards Socialism (MAS) and allow him to run in the 2025 elections after he was disqualified by a ruling by the Constitutional Court at the end of last year.
Opinions were also different in the streets of El Alto, one of the poorest cities, and in La Paz, where the bureaucracy and a large part of the middle class are concentrated.
“Arce is ungrateful, he has betrayed Evo. With Evo we were fine; now we are bad, everything is going up,” said Santusa Ramos, a street vendor who applauded the passage of the column. “The MAS is a cancer that does not want to leave power. It must be removed. Their fight worsens the crisis,” said Luz Ramos, a resident of a residential neighborhood in this capital.
It is also the country’s worst political crisis since 2019 after a controversial election denounced as fraudulent by the Organization of American States (OAS) in which Morales was seeking a third re-election, which caused a social explosion with 37 deaths that forced Morales to resign and go into exile.
“This seems to be a terminal crisis for the MAS, which no longer has a proposal for the country and is demonstrating an inability to renew itself,” said analyst and university professor Marcelo Silva.
“The crisis is structural and goes beyond the fights,” said Javier Zabaleta, a former minister under Morales.
Meanwhile, the center-right political opposition, divided and weakened, is watching the fight within the MAS from the sidelines without a proposal, according to analysts.
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2024-09-26 08:47:14
