<\/p>\n
Bolivia\u2019s hugely popular and controversial<\/a><\/span> former leftist president, Evo Morales<\/a><\/span>, on Monday called on supporters to take to the streets in protest against his bitter political rival, current President Luis Arce<\/a><\/span>, who hours earlier accused Morales on national TV of trying to overthrow him.<\/p>\n Morales\u2019 appeal to Bolivia\u2019s farmers, miners and peasants followed President Arce\u2019s unprecedented televised speech late Sunday lambasting his former mentor. Accusing Morales of trying to sabotage his administration and undermine democracy, Arce escalated a high-stakes power struggle that has pushed Bolivia to the brink<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n \u201cEnough, Evo!\u201d Arce exclaimed on state TV. \u201cUntil now, I have tolerated your attacks and slander in silence. But putting the lives of people at risk is something I cannot tolerate.\u201d<\/p>\n Arce, who has faced a series of mounting crises<\/a><\/span> with his ruling party riven by disagreements, alleged that Morales\u2019 attempts to mobilize support<\/a><\/span> and run against Arce in next year\u2019s presidential election was \u201cputting democracy at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou are threatening the entire country,\u201d Arce said, claiming that Morales sought to return to power by \u201cmeans fair or foul.\u201d<\/p>\n His dramatic speech in the Andean nation of 12 million dredged up the chaos and bloodshed of 2019<\/a><\/span>, when Morales ran for an unconstitutional third term and won<\/a><\/span>. After accusations of fraud sparked mass protests<\/a><\/span>, Morales resigned under pressure from the army, in what his supporters call a coup. At least 36 people were killed in the ensuing crackdown<\/a><\/span> by security forces.<\/p>\n Morales, who served as Bolivia\u2019s first Indigenous president, has vowed to unleash unrest if he is stopped from running in the August 2025 elections.<\/p>\n Ever since the constitutional court last year barred the charismatic leader from the race, coca cultivators<\/a><\/span>, Indigenous tribes and workers \u2014 whom Morales represented during his presidency from 2006 to 2019 \u2014 have come to his defense with street protests, marches and road blockades.<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters, Morales encouraged the international community to follow his so-called \u201cMarch to Save Bolivia\u201d on Tuesday from the southeast village of Caracollo to Bolivia\u2019s administrative capital of La Paz. He described the march \u2014 85 kilometers (53 miles) by foot along a highway \u2014 as a natural expression of protest against the failure of Arce\u2019s government to fix the worsening economic crisis.<\/p>\n Firing back at Arce on Monday, Morales insisted that he had no selfish ulterior motives.<\/p>\n \u201cThe march is the response of a people fed up with their unthinking government, which has maintained absolute silence in the face of the crisis, corruption and the destruction of stability,\u201d Morales wrote on social media platform X. \u201cPresident Arce is not only desperate, but also confused.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the past year, the Arce-Morales rift has polarized Bolivia, tainting the country\u2019s politics and creating a sense of turmoil that soldiers sought to seize<\/a><\/span> upon in June in an alleged coup attempt<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n Anti-government protesters on Monday flocked to the main road leading to Bolivia\u2019s tourist hotspot of Lake Titicaca, convening and calling on Arce to resign under the watchful gaze of riot police. Some demonstrators piled dirt at the entrances of other roads in the La Paz area, impeding traffic.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an incompetent government that we have, and it won\u2019t solve the economic crisis,\u201d said Pablo Merma, a peasant leader of the so-called Red Ponchos, radical Indigenous activists from the high plains who rallied Monday against the president. \u201cWe are not afraid of you, Arce.\u201d<\/p>\n Another protest leader, Ponciano Santos, warned Arce that the social movement would hold him responsible for whatever happened on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you tear gas us, if you interfere with our march, the government will fall,\u201d Santos told reporters.<\/p>\n Although Arce<\/a><\/span> was Morales\u2019 former economy minister and his candidate<\/a><\/span> in Bolivia\u2019s 2020 elections<\/a><\/span>, the erstwhile allies began vying for power after Morales\u2019 return from exile and political comeback<\/a><\/span> the same year.<\/p>\n Bolivia\u2019s political stagnation and economic quagmire<\/a><\/span> \u2014 with fuel scarce and the central bank dangerously short on foreign currency reserves<\/a><\/span> \u2014 has caused some Bolivians once outraged over Morales\u2019 strongman tendencies to grow nostalgic for the ex-leader\u2019s transformation of the economy and remarkable reduction of poverty.<\/p>\n – Paola Flores, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bolivia\u2019s hugely popular and controversial former leftist president, Evo Morales, on Monday called on supporters to take to the streets in protest against his bitter political rival, current President Luis Arce, who hours earlier accused Morales on national TV of trying to overthrow him. Morales\u2019 appeal to Bolivia\u2019s farmers, miners and peasants followed President Arce\u2019s unprecedented televised speech late…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":8898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/1286eb3\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5537x3556+0+0\/resize\/2720x1746!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fe3%2F97%2Faa57d77cc902e498278045611580%2F6accfd242e35404da19b1e6a93bb6eee","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8899,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8896\/revisions\/8899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}