The Bolivian President Evo Morales demonstrated force. His march “to save Bolivia for the second time” filled La Paz, the political capital of the country, of thousands of supporters who protested to “enroll Comandante Evo” as a candidate for president. The protesters, the majority peasants, showed the power of the call that Morales retains and collapsed the traffic until they were evicted by the police in the vicinity of the Electoral Court, where the lists of candidates are being received. Several uniformed and a journalist who covered the facts were injured. The Government arrested Ponciano Santos, an important peasant leader and blamed for violence to the “evidence.”
The president of the Electoral Tribunal, Oscar Hassenteufel, told the press that it was possible to register Morales if he had a party to represent. He also clarified that this registration would not necessarily imply that the former president competes in August. Even if registered, the electoral authorities would evaluate in the following days the arguments for and against their participation.
Against, and to set the duration of the presidential management of any Bolivian citizen in a maximum of ten continuous or discontinuous years. This sentence disables Morales, who has already ruled the country three times. If the electoral authorities fulfill it, as expected, it could not run even registered.
A judicial maneuver snatched the ex -president the control of his party, the Movement to Socialism (MAS), which ended in the hands of President Luis Arce, with which Morales is. While the most has run out of candidate for the decline of Arce, whose image suffers a serious deterioration because of the country’s economic crisis, Evo Morales, which is much better positioned in the surveys, lacks the party.
The indigenous leader has approached several small organizations, abundant in the Bolivian political system, which are empty of militancy, but have the right to participate in elections. Until now, however, it has not closed a public agreement with any. Morales denounced that the ruling was cornering these parties with the threat of prosecuting them for different reasons if they “accept Evo.”
So so far it is not clear if the indigenous leader has the most basic requirement to apply: an organization with legal status. . This will only know for sure on Monday, May 19, when the registration process ends.
“Below the traitors”
Throughout this Friday, thousands of Morales supporters entered the center of La Paz from the outskirts of the city in two columns that collapsed the traffic and received the support of some neighbors and the rejection of others. “Long live Evo Morales!”, “Peace supports them”, “Down the traitors”, “down the right”, both the marchers and those who had come to receive them shouted. The former were cocaleros, peasants of the Paceñas provinces, cooperative miners who protested for the lack of fuel for the operation of their machinery, merchants and members of other sectors. Several groups wore indigenous clothing and accompanied musicians with quenas, drums and pututos (wind instruments that indigenous people originally used in their battles).
Most of the crowd paraded for hours by the main avenue between El Alto, the city of immigrants in which “evism” remains very strong, and peace, the adjoining city and headquarters of political power.
The protesters arrived at the San Francisco Square, where the historical concentrations of the Bolivian workers have occurred and continued towards the offices of the Electoral Court, which were strongly protected by police. There they were contained with tear pumps.
“We are going to enroll. “With its provocation they make us stronger,” said another manager covered with a paper mask with Morales’s face. There were many disguised like him. The Evistes had announced that their leader would be in the march, but that their exact location would be a secret to prevent him from being arrested by the police for not appearing to declare in a trial against him ,. There is no report that it has been seen in La Paz. Since he is prosecuted, Morales lives locked in the Cocalera del Chapare area, his political bulwark, surrounded by a union guard that protects him from police actions.
What would be the “Plan B” if Morales was out of the elections? According to Freddy Mamani, former president of the Chamber of Deputies and high leader “Evista”, “Plan B is even more mobilizing the people; this march is only a sample of what can happen. If the people disable it, the people are going to be raised. Disable to evil Evo is to disable the people. The people are going to rise without measuring consequences; when the people get angry, it is not possible to control; What do, ”he said. “How can there be a democracy without him participating? How does the government that win are stability?” He asked.
