Former president of Bolivia Evo Morales (2006-2019) described this Thursday as “unconstitutional” and “illegal” the ruling of the Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP) that validated a party congress held by the ruling faction related to the Government of Luis Arce that took away the ownership of the ruling Movement towards Socialism (MAS).
In a publication in to the MAS Governments.
According to the former ruler, the Executive pressured “Constitutional Chamber IV to give it the MAS-IPSP acronym through an unconstitutional, illegal and illegitimate sentence.”
“How can a court ruling end up settling something that corresponds to the democratic decision of the party members?” he questioned.
For Morales, the Government “no longer needs the other powers of the State”, since “Constitutional Chamber IV” is enough, which issued the ruling “to eliminate adversaries, establish authorities, appropriate political structures, suspend electoral processes, help their partners by annulling criminal sentences and even giving them state lands.”
“That is the level of deterioration of democracy in Bolivia,” added the former president, who presided over the ruling party for almost three decades.
TCP magistrates Gonzalo Hurtado and René Espada signed a ruling known on this day that validates “all acts of execution, including the Ordinary National Congress of the MAS-IPSP held in El Alto, department of La Paz, from May 3 to 5, 2024″.
This implies recognition of the election of the peasant leader Grover Garcia as the new president of the MAS, replacing Morales.
The congress held in the city of El Alto by sectors related to Arce was after another held by Morales loyalists in October 2023 in the central area of the Cochabamba Tropics, the political and union stronghold of the former president.
Arce and the vice president of the country, David Choquehuanca, They did not attend the congress in the Tropics considering that the social organizations that make up the MAS were not properly represented.
In his absence, Morales was re-elected president of the MAS and proclaimed its “sole candidate” for the 2025 general elections.
The electoral body did not recognize either of the two congresses because they did not meet some requirements of the call and urged both official blocs to hold one in “consensus” so that it could be validated, which did not happen.
The Morales bloc tried on several occasions to carry out an own congress in the Tropics of Cochabambaalthough without the endorsement of the electoral body, while the faction related to Arce activated legal resources to have the meeting in the city of El Alto recognized.
The magistrates who signed this new ruling are the same ones who a few days ago issued a ruling ratifying that elected authorities in the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches can only have two terms, continuous or discontinuous, which affects Morales’ intention to return. to apply in 2025.
The struggles for the presidential candidacy and control of the MAS aggravated the division in the ruling party, which has been going on since the end of 2021 after the rift between Morales and Arce.
(With information from EFE)
