{"id":562,"date":"2020-10-20T16:46:46","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T15:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/coca-cocaine-bolivia-peru\/?p=562"},"modified":"2020-10-20T16:58:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T15:58:49","slug":"mas-regains-bolivian-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/coca-cocaine-bolivia-peru\/mas-regains-bolivian-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"New article by Linda Farthing: MAS Regains Bolivian Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"
BY LINDA FARTHING <\/a><\/span><\/h5>\n

This story is republished from\u00a0NACLA<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A<\/span>fter a year of turmoil, political repression, and corruption, Bolivians overwhelmingly voted back into office the same progressive political party that was ousted a year ago. Former Finance Minister Luis Arce Catacora and his vice-presidential running mate, former Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca, from the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), are predicted to have over 52 percent of the vote once all the polls report.<\/p>\n

Midday on Monday, October 19, their closest rival, former president Carlos Mesa, expected to come in a distant second with about a third of the vote,\u00a0conceded defeat<\/a>. Conservative interim president Jeanine \u00c1\u00f1ez also recognized the MAS victory. In an ironic\u00a0tweet<\/a>\u00a0given the anti-democratic behavior of her government, she wrote, \u201cI congratulate the victors and ask them to govern thinking of Bolivia and democracy.\u201d Later that day the Trump administration recognized Arce and Choquehuanca\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n

Third place in the election, at about 14 percent of the vote, went to the far-right candidate Luis Fernando Camacho, who was instrumental in the ouster of President Evo Morales on November 10 last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results of this election signal a robust repudiation of their project,\u201d said Kathryn Ledebur of the\u00a0Andean Information Network<\/a>, referring to the \u00c1\u00f1ez government. \u201cPeople may have been too scared to speak out against the \u00c1\u00f1ez government repression and corruption, but this result shows they voted their conscience.<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n

Evo Morales handpicked Arce, 57, as the presidential candidate from Buenos Aires, over the objections of a considerable contingent of grassroots MAS party members. In contrast to Aymara activist and Vice President-elect David Choquehuanca, Arce, a UK-trained economist, lacks any history in the country\u2019s social movements. Rather, he successfully managed the Bolivian economy for almost 14 years in a period of unprecedented growth and poverty reduction.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0told the\u00a0New York Times<\/em><\/a>, \u201cI have no interest in power. I want to move the country forward, leave it in the hands of young people, and I\u2019ll go.\u201d Arce promised to\u00a0\u201cgovern for all Bolivians\u201d and \u201cbuild a government of national unity.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

After weeks of mounting tension and at least 41 incidences of political violence,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights, voting on Sunday October 18 was remarkably peaceful. Election observer Doug Hertzler of Academics for Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean reported that in the city of Santa Cruz, \u201cin some pro-Camacho neighborhoods MAS could not get people to volunteer as delegates at tables, but they still pulled in 30 percent of the vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fears of repression spiked when police illegally picked up Argentinian national deputy Federico\u00a0Fagioli<\/a>\u00a0when he arrived in Bolivia as an electoral observer. He was subsequently released. \u00c1\u00f1ez repeatedly called the former MAS government a\u00a0\u201cdictatorship\u201d and Morales a \u201ctyrant\u201d leading up to the elections.<\/a><\/p>\n

Trust in the electoral process was already low with a\u00a0poll<\/a>\u00a0published October 10 showing that only 40 percent of Bolivians believed that the electoral tribunal is honest. The day before the October 18 election, repeated accusations of fraud led the tribunal\u2019s president Salvador\u00a0Romero to cancel<\/a>\u00a0the quick count system, further\u00a0undermining public confidence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since Evo Morales\u2019 ouster last November, after weeks of protest following the contested election, Bolivia has been more polarized than since its return to democracy in 1982 after 18 years of military dictatorship. Morales fled the country after the Organization of American States (OAS) deemed that the 2019 elections showing him the winner were fraudulent. Subsequent statistical research found the OAS\u00a0accusations of fraud dubious<\/a>\u00a0at best.<\/p>\n

The far-right installed Jeanine \u00c1\u00f1ez in the presidency after the police mutinied against Morales.\u00a0The \u00c1\u00f1ez government proceeded to unleash weeks of repression against MAS supporters in the name of pacifying the country.<\/span>\u00a0The scars of massacres in Senkata, El Alto and in Sacaba that left at least 26 dead and 700 wounded remain raw. \u201cThe military and police immediately started firing,\u201d said an older woman in Senkata who did not want her name used. \u201cI saw more than 25 people shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numerous corruption scandals plagued the interim government, including a\u00a0fraudulent multi-million dollar purchase of ventilators<\/a>\u00a0that forced the resignation of the health minister in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. \u00c1\u00f1ez repeatedly used the pandemic to consolidate her own political project and as an excuse to\u00a0delay elections<\/a>. But her government was so unstable that in less than a year, she had 34 different cabinet ministers. \u00c1\u00f1ez\u2019s right-hand, Minister of Government Arturo Murillo, threatened to destroy the MAS by any means possible, peddling a toxic brew of racism and neoliberal economic orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

Arce and Choquehuanca will take over a country in dire economic straits. With the Covid-19 pandemic, the economy had\u00a0contracted by 7.9 percent<\/a>\u00a0by the end of September, the deficit had mushroomed, and unemployment skyrocketed.\u00a0Before Covid-19 hit, the country grew at an annual rate of\u00a0over 4 percent per year<\/a>\u00a0from 2008 on, thanks to a boom in commodity prices and increased taxes on natural gas.<\/p>\n

Arce has announced plans to confront the current crisis by expanding biodiesel production and industrializing Bolivia\u2019s lithium reserves, which are the world\u2019s largest. Both these options raise the kinds of environmental concerns that plagued the Morales government, particularly in later years. Biodiesel can worsen deforestation and Bolivia already\u00a0suffers the highest rates in South America<\/a>. Lithium production\u00a0requires elevated amounts of water<\/a>. But Juan Carlos Pinto, who worked in the vice presidency for five years under Morales and has not taken a role in the new government, believes the administration will bring the MAS discourse in favor of the environment in greater harmony with actual policies. \u201cWe really want to advance in developing alternatives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Keeping the charismatic and powerful Morales in check may prove a significant challenge. His decision to run for a fourth term, in violation of Bolivia\u2019s constitution and a 2016 referendum on the issue which he lost, provoked the crisis after the November 2019 elections. \u201cHe should have resigned and then he would have been a hero,\u201d said Cochabamba nurse Maria Rodriguez. \u201cBut he wouldn\u2019t give up power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Arce and Choquehuanca\u00a0have said repeatedly<\/a>\u00a0that Evo and his ministers will have no part in their government. Juan Carlos Pinto says, \u201cWe must strengthen mid-level leadership to succeed.<\/span>\u00a0We need many Evos, not just one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several immediate challenges face Arce and Choquehuanca when they take office November 14. First, and perhaps the most worrying, is that the right-wing firebrand and third-place finisher Luis Fernando Camacho has not yet recognized the results. The other wildcards are the police and the military, who were critical in the ouster of Morales last November. Camacho has\u00a0openly bragged that he bribed<\/a>\u00a0the police with promises of increased retirement pay and that his father\u00a0convinced<\/a>\u00a0the military to abandon Morales. The\u00a0Bolivia Information Forum<\/a>\u00a0estimates that 4,000 more troops were in the streets for this election than the one a year ago.<\/p>\n

The resounding victory is a clear signal of what type of government Bolivians want going forward. \u201cWith David by my side\u2026and with the social organizations we are responsible to\u2026we promise to put an end to the uncertainty of the past 11 months,\u201d Arce said on election night at his campaign headquarters. \u201cWe are going to restart our process of change without hate\u2026and by recognizing and overcoming the mistakes we have made in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linda Farthing<\/em>\u00a0is a journalist and researcher. She is co-author of\u00a0three books on Bolivia and\u00a0has written for the Guardian, the Economist, Latino USA, Al Jazeera, and the Nation.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks to Amy Booth in La Paz for her help with this article.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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