Supporters of the former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales (2006-2019), announced this Friday a mobilization in Peaceheadquarters of Government and the Legislativeto defend their candidacy for the 2025 general elections and demand the release of more than a hundred detainees during the blockades they led for 24 days.
The decision was made after a meeting of more than eight hours in Lauca Ñin it Tropic of Cochabambapolitical and union bastion of the former president.
Morales met with parliamentarians and like-minded unionists to plan actions in response to the failures of the Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP)which disqualified his candidacy and removed him from the leadership of the ruling party Movement to Socialism (MAS) after almost three decades at the helm.
”We determine the organization of a great national mobilization in the city of La Paz to demand the freedom of our brothers and sisters unjustly detained by the regime of (the president) Luis Arce and (the vice president) David Choquehuanca“, they stated at the meeting.
Sectors related to Morales They insist that this “continues to be legally, legitimately and constitutionally the president of the BUT”. They allege that the Bolivian Constitution and an advisory opinion from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IAC Court) issued in 2021 support his qualification as a presidential candidate for 2025.
In addition, they demanded respect for a law recently promulgated by the president of the Senate, Andronico Rodriguezsimilar to Moraleswhich dismisses the magistrates of the TCP. This occurs while the president Arce is located in Brazil participating in the G20 Summit.
Both the followers of Morales and the opposition question the Constitutional magistrates, accusing them of extending their mandate beyond December 2023, when it should have concluded according to current regulations. The holding of the judicial elections, scheduled for next December, is at the center of the controversy.
The confrontation between Arce y Morales intensified this year due to the renewal of the national leadership of the BUTaggravating a relationship already fractured since the end of 2021 due to differences over the management of the Executive and the party.
At the meeting of Lauca Ñthe allies of Morales they rated the president Arce as a “traitor” and stated that an eventual re-election of the president would not be successful because “the political instrument belongs to Morales”.
During road blockades led by followers of Moralesdemanded the withdrawal of a criminal investigation against the former president for crimes of statutory rape and human trafficking, which they consider part of political persecution. He Government of ArceOn the other hand, he accused these sectors of seeking to destabilize the Executive.
In response, the Police unblocked the roads after clashes that left agents and journalists injured, in addition to the capture of more than 121 people, according to complaints from followers of Morales.
The former president’s supporters also plan to go to international organizations to denounce alleged human rights violations and demand guarantees for due process for detainees.
The internal struggle in the ruling party shows the fracture in the BUTwhile Bolivia faces a political landscape marked by polarization and uncertainty ahead of the 2025 elections.
(With information from EFE)
