During a break from his permanent campaign of more than a quarter of a century, Juan Evo Morales Ayma (Oruro, 64 years old) turns on a computer in his house in the city of Cochabamba, in central Bolivia. On November 10, 2019, after denouncing a coup d’état and resigning from the presidency, that house was attacked. In a video that recorded broken glass, wine sprayed on the floor, walls with the legend Son of a bitch and murderer written in red spray can be heard in the background. off the comment of the person filming. “The Excellency had a gym,” says the voice when the camera shows the treadmill. Morales repaired the damage and turned it into his go-to place for meetings, appointments and video conferences.
From that house he spoke to EL PAÍS about the topic that has dominated public conversation in Bolivia for two years: the conflict with his former Minister of Economy and former successor Luis Arce Catacora, the current president. He also spoke about the military action that on June 26 made Bolivia world news again and the alleged plans of the Government to ban him.
Ask. Why do you say that there was a self-coup in Bolivia?
Answer. At eleven in the morning, some soldiers told me that there was a suspicious barracks and I reported it. At three in the afternoon, Twitter announced that there was a call for an indefinite general strike with roadblocks. When I saw the tanks in Plaza Murillo, [la principal del centro de la ciudad de La Paz y a escasos metros de la Casa del Pueblo, el edificio presidencial] and I saw the minister [de Gobierno Carlos] Del Castillo, caressing the tanks, asked myself: What kind of coup is this? Minutes later, the coup plotters were already talking to those who had been beaten. And the Minister of Government was talking to the general, laughing. If there is a coup, there is fury. There is no laughter. It seems like a show put on by them. When will the OAS [Organización de Estados Americanos] Or the US Embassy defends a leftist government? Here the US Embassy suspiciously condemns the coup and the OAS calls an emergency meeting. This is proof of Lucho Arce’s rightward turn. The coup is a staged show.
On Wednesday, June 26, Army Chief Juan José Zuñiga arrived in a tank from the armored division at Plaza Murillo. The previous Sunday, Evo had warned on his radio program that Zuñiga planned to eliminate him. The military man replied on Monday that “he cannot be president of this country any longer” and that “if the time came, he would not allow him to trample on the Constitution,” a veiled threat against his candidacy. When Zuñiga crashed his tank into a door of the Palacio Quemado, Arce called Evo to warn him of the military coup and to take shelter. Evo was walking at that moment through the land where he farms fish.
P. What would be Arce’s objective with a self-coup?
R. Some military personnel who worked in the Ministry of Defense told me that the self-coup was anticipated. In a ministry, on Wednesday morning, the 26th, an official gathered his trusted workers and told them that Lucho was going to leave the presidency to a military junta. He told them: “Evo cannot win, he cannot be president.” And they announced that that afternoon there would be conflicts in Plaza Murillo. He was prepared. On Saturday the 22nd, Lucho’s chief of staff [Marianela Prada] He publicly destroyed me: “Evo is going to shorten Lucho’s mandate”, “Evo is destroying Bolivia”. On Monday night, the 24th, the commander of the Army [en referencia a Juan José Zúñiga] He says that Evo cannot be a candidate and if he is a candidate he could arrest him. If Lucho were strong, he would have fired him the next day. But he does not deny or disavow his commander. I think that is where everything comes together and General Zúñiga gets ahead of himself with the self-coup.
P. In November 2019, upon arriving as a refugee in Mexico City, he fought, despite internal resistance, for Arce’s candidacy because he considered him loyal, a good technician and capable of reaching urban sectors. What is the reason behind the conflict with President Arce?
P. We have ideological, programmatic, ethical and even organic differences. Ideological ones. In March of last year, Lucho said that we should not be afraid of ideological pluralism. What was he telling us? Do not be afraid of the right in the MAS-IPSP (Movement Towards Socialism-Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples). For me there are no independents or neutrals or those who are in the middle. We are either poor or rich. Pragmatic differences. When he took office as president, Lucho eliminated the ministries of Energy, Sports, Communication and Culture. Reduce Culture? Reduce Energy? Please. I thought, at that first moment, that he could move to the right, but I was not sure. That recipe that he applied is the recipe of the World Bank and the IMF to reduce the State. Who invests? Only the transnationals. Lucho says that in order to avoid inflation or fiscal deficit, we must not invest, but what that generates is economic contraction. What are the ethical issues? In 2021, it was said that Arce’s son [el ingeniero Marcelo Arce Mosqueira] He was involved in lithium business. Where I am sitting now, Lucho came to visit me and I asked him: “President, in Santa Cruz there is a lot of talk that your son is involved in… That is going to wear you down, it is going to wear us down politically.” Arce got upset with me. He told me “don’t mess with my family ever again.” I also told him that there was corruption, that there was protection for drug trafficking by some commanders. Despite that, there was nothing at all in response. In 2021, I organized the defense of Arce’s presidency and I endured, endured and endured the attacks for a long time. On the first Sunday of September 2022, I said enough. If I didn’t do that, the MAS-IPSP would be sunk like Lucho is sunk now. Lucho is an addition that subtracts.
Two isms are pulling at the Process of Change, one known, the evismo, and another unexpected, given the President’s traits, the arcismo. Arce hardly gave interviews and the times he spoke at events he avoided mentioning his former boss. What in 2020 began as an electoral strategy to secure the moderate vote became the guiding principle of his policy: ignoring Morales even in the conflict. “He will use everything, even question the failed coup, because of his personal political aspirations,” he said in a recent interview with EL PAÍS.
On the contrary, Morales rarely refrained from critically examining Arce: he said that he was wrong to propose him as a candidate and that he was the worst president since the restoration of democracy in 1982. The internal division of the Process of Change was transferred to all levels: to parliamentary work, to trade union and social organizations and to the very structure of the MAS. On May 5, 2024, a party Congress held in El Alto with an Arcist majority excluded Morales from the new national leadership. Morales, who a semester earlier held his own MAS Congress in Chapare without the Arcists, announced a legal battle that would be resolved out of court and would depend on the pressure of demonstrations and blockades.
P. Arce’s argument is that his rush to return to the presidency is affecting governability.
R. When I came back from exile in Argentina, I said that if Lucho did a good job, he would have to be ratified. When they kept insisting, I said that I could return for a matter of justice. Now I say that I have to return for a political matter. In 2021, the Government was already in the Lucho 2025-2030 plan. They developed a strategy [muestra un documento con un gráfico] with a map of what Bolivia’s politics were like in which I am on the left, [Luis Fernando] Camacho [el gobernador de Santa Cruz, hoy detenido y acusado de participar en el golpe de Estado contra Morales] and [el expresidente Carlos] Table on the right. And in the middle, Lucho. That is the proof of the right-wing turn. They talk about the hunger for power, that I am desperate, but they were already campaigning for 2025 in 2021. They had a dark plan to destroy me. I showed Lucho this paper that I am showing you now and he got upset.
P. This government does not seem very willing to allow the candidacy. What options do you have if you cannot compete?
R. I don’t know [hace una pausa]My calculation, and I could be wrong, is that if I am disqualified, people will rise up. This is discrimination against the largest political movement in history.
P. Is there no room for negotiation? Can differences not be settled in internal elections?
R. I said we should go to primaries, but Lucho doesn’t want to. Celag’s survey [Centro Estratégico Latinoamericano de Geopolítica) nos da ganadores. Ellos quieren eliminar las primarias. Si no hay primarias, el único candidato sería Lucho.
P. ¿Y entonces cómo se puede resolver?
R. Ojalá sea vía asamblea, sino va a ser con movilización. Ellos no tienen un plan económico para salvar a Bolivia. En estos momentos estamos peor que en tiempos neoliberales. En 2005, último año del Gobierno neoliberal, había combustible, había dólares, había reservas internacionales, había oro y ahora vaciaron todo. El único plan que tiene es cómo eliminar la candidatura de Evo o quitarnos la sigla del MAS. Esa es la batalla legal que va a venir ahora. Lamento mucho que haya un Tribunal Supremo Electoral sometido, subordinado.
P. ¿No teme que esta pelea habilite un candidato de ultraderecha en Bolivia, como ya sucedió en Argentina con Javier Milei?
R. Estados Unidos habla ahora de la recolonización, que es crear un candidato outsider para los comicios de 2025 para adueñarse de los recursos del litio.
P. ¿Cuánto contribuye la pelea con Arce a que parte de la sociedad boliviana se aleje del MAS?
R. El pueblo sabe que este Gobierno es de derecha. Incluso me busca gente de la derecha, que tal vez son golpistas arrepentidos, y me dicen ‘contigo había estabilidad y crecimiento económico. Evo tu nos decías dónde va y dónde no va. Donde no va, no nos metemos. Donde va, nos metemos y ganamos plata’.
P. Al final de su última presidencia hubo una dificultad para ofrecer un discurso de futuro. ¿Qué es lo nuevo que tiene para ofrecer?
R. Hoy estamos debatiendo con sectores populares y el frente campesino un nuevo plan de Gobierno. También con empresarios, comerciantes y transportistas, que son los que saben de economía y luchan por una verdadera reivindicación. Por ahora yo no estoy lanzando mi programa, lo estamos debatiendo en lo político, lo económico y lo social.
P. En 2006, cuando asumió la presidencia por primera vez, había una propuesta muy clara de nacionalizaciones de los recursos naturales, nueva Constitución. ¿Cuáles serían las prioridades de una nueva presidencia?
R. La tesis del congreso [del MAS-IPSP] Last year, the revolution was to recover in order to save Bolivia. Many popular sectors tell me ‘Evo, you have saved Bolivia’. I have not saved Bolivia, the political instrument and the vote of the united people have saved Bolivia.
Follow all the information from El PAÍS América on Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter.
#Evo #Morales #president #Bolivia #plan #Arce #government #eliminate #candidacy