Since Luis Arce He won the elections and assumed the presidency in November 2020. It was known that it would not be so easy for him to turn the page on Bolivia’s latest institutional crisis. There were many analysts who pointed out that the person who would make it most difficult for him would not be the dispersed Bolivian opposition or other power factors but rather his own mentor, the former president. Evo Morales, who was never willing to give up an iota of control over his party, the MAS, or absolute power over the coca-growing area and other social and union organizations that extend over Bolivian territory. So it was.
The more than three years of the current MAS government were marked by economic difficulties, price increases, growing fuel shortagesbut above all because a fierce power war between Arce and Morales that have been said publicly about everything. The fierce internal conflict became dramatic since the Constitutional Court ruled that Morales cannot run as a presidential candidate in 2025. Morales was already head of state for three terms and in 2019 he ran for a new re-election, violating the text of the Constitution reformed under his government. The close elections and allegations of fraud led to protests and street clashes with dozens of deaths until Morales, abandoned by his own cabinet and the labor union, resigned and left the country denouncing a coup d’état.
For the new elections the following year, he blessed the nomination of his former Minister of Economy, who triumphed comfortably. But the jealousy and quarrels Because of spaces of power between the former allies, they emerged from the beginning and deepened.
Despite the wear and tear of his government, Arce intends to seek re-election next year. Morales, on the other hand, believes that it is time for his return. The struggle is ruthless and is suffered by Bolivians in the midst of the collapse of a faltering economy, a Parliament paralyzed in the midst of skirmishes with the Judiciary and the growing protests in the streets, which many believe were fueled by Morales.
In this context, cracks are appearing within all state institutions, including the Armed Forces. Morales has long denounced that the commander Juan José Zúñiga Macías He leads a faction that tries to persecute the coca leaders and assassinate him himself. Zúñiga, a commander very close to Arce, declared on Monday that Morales “can no longer be president of this country” because he is disqualified and that “if necessary,” the army would not allow “him to trample on the Constitution, to disobey the mandate of the town”.
Before these statements, Morales demanded that the authorities disavow the military immediately or else he would understand that Arce was plotting a “self-coup” to perpetuate himself in power. The former president would also have turned to those close to him in the Puebla Group to add pressure on Arce.
In the final hours of Tuesday, rumors grew that the military leadership had ordered Zúñiga’s displacement. But he appeared on Wednesday morning at an official event and in the afternoon he led the advance of troops aboard tanks and military vehicles on Plaza Murillo, the geographic center of power in La Paz, raising all the alarms. Arce denounced the “irregular mobilizations of some units of the Bolivian Army” and asked to respect democracy, while Morales called for a popular mobilization to prevent the coup d’état.
Already in the Plaza, Zúñiga rejected the plea of government ministers and even Arce himself to abandon his attitude and redoubled his bet. He took the microphone and outlined his government program. He promised “end the political elite of Evo Morales and Carlos Mesa“, free the “political prisoners” like former president Jeanine Añez and Carlos Fernando Camacho and assured that the Army “He does not lack balls to establish democracy and ensure the future of our children”.
A while later his dismissal was officially announced and shortly afterwards he was arrested. But the political crisis is far from over. Bolivia is once again reeling under a ruthless power struggle.
