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Bolivia\u2019s former leader Evo Morales<\/a><\/span> has a campaign pitch for 2025 that has worked elsewhere: Other politicians of recent years have brought you nothing but misery. It\u2019s time for a return to the past.<\/p>\n His supporters are looking to Morales for a rescue from the five tumultuous years<\/a><\/span> since his 2019 resignation. The country\u2019s first Indigenous president, Morales is credited with spreading the wealth of a commodities boom<\/a><\/span> and ushering in a rare stretch of social and economic stability<\/a><\/span> during his nearly 14 years in office.<\/p>\n His detractors say Morales \u2014 who built an economy uncomfortably dependent on natural gas reserves and sought to stay in power longer than Bolivia\u2019s constitution allows \u2014 bears responsibility for much of the turmoil that followed his tenure<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n An ally turned rival<\/strong><\/p>\n A bitter political battle is looming between Morales, 65, and his former economy minister and once-prot\u00e9g\u00e9, President Luis Arce<\/a><\/span>, over who will lead their long-dominant leftist Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, into the August 2025 election.<\/p>\n Arce has unleashed allies in the judiciary against Morales, with the Constitutional Court disqualifying Morales\u2019 candidacy and ousting him from the leadership of MAS, a party he helped found in the 1990s.<\/p>\n Prosecutors in mid-December charged Morales with statutory rape<\/a><\/span> for fathering a child with a 15-year-old girl when he was 56 and president. Morales didn\u2019t deny the relationship but accused Arce of deploying a \u201cdirty, odious\u201d campaign to undermine him.<\/p>\n Fighting from the tropics<\/strong><\/p>\n Since talk of his arrest warrant surfaced in September, Morales has been holed up in Bolivia\u2019s coca-growing region of Chapare, ringed by loyal supporters<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n Here, the former coca farmer and fiery union leader \u2014 long considered one of the last of the so-called \u201cpink wave\u201d of leftist leaders who once dominated Latin American politics \u2014 is planning his comeback.<\/p>\n Few outsiders are allowed inside his stronghold in Bolivia\u2019s steamy lowlands<\/a><\/span>, but The Associated Press was invited last month for a look from behind the barricades.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t want me to be the candidate because they know I\u2019ll win,\u201d Morales told the AP. \u201cWe\u2019re in a state of total siege, morally, legally and politically.\u201d<\/p>\n The four-hour drive to Chapare from Bolivia\u2019s third-biggest city of Cochabamba is steep and slick with mist.<\/p>\n A narcotics checkpoint from the U.S.-financed war on drugs that wreaked havoc<\/a><\/span> across this jungle is far less intimidating than the makeshift checkpoints manned by Morales\u2019 followers.<\/p>\n In the \u2018Land of Evo\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n As the van rumbled on, Pedro Cepita, a guide tasked with accompanying the AP, pointed out Morales\u2019 accomplishments in the long-stigmatized Chapare \u2014 university buildings, cell towers, an airport, a 25,000-seat soccer stadium.<\/p>\n Morales\u2019 face adorns murals alongside cult heroes like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. \u201cEvo 2025-2030\u201d slogans blanket brick houses.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in la Tierra de Evo,\u201d Cepita said \u2014 the Land of Evo.<\/p>\n At sandbagged checkpoints, Morales\u2019 supporters \u2014 some with batons on their belts \u2014 waved the van through only after recognizing Cepita.<\/p>\n Security forces, chased out by Morales\u2019 followers, rarely venture here. Door-knocking census workers \u2014 even emergency rescuers responding to a deadly landslide last month \u2014 said they were harassed and kicked out by Morales\u2019 coca union activists.<\/p>\n Earlier this month and after 40 days of negotiations, police began trickling back.<\/p>\n Almost divine reverence<\/strong><\/p>\n Coca farmers drying their leaves proudly recount how Morales kicked out U.S. anti-drug agents almost in the same breath as they extoll the benefits of the coca plant, cherished by Indigenous communities and maligned by the West as the raw material for cocaine.<\/p>\n \u201cBrother Evo was in these fields with us,\u201d said Jose Luis Calicho, 39, nodding toward Morales\u2019 own plot of land. \u201cHe knows we\u2019re not criminals, we\u2019re not narco-traffickers.\u201d<\/p>\n Since October, when gunmen opened fire at his convoy<\/a><\/span>, Morales, who was unharmed, has slept inside the fortress-like compound of his coca-growing union. He says the shooting was an assassination attempt and blames Arce\u2019s government, which denies involvement.<\/p>\n Outside the high walls, dozens of his followers lounge on tarps blocking the street. Some rest after all-night security shifts, others keep watch, their cheeks bulging with wads of coca \u2014 a mild stimulant.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s our responsibility to Evo, we can\u2019t take chances,\u201d said Reyna Pen\u0303aloza, 44. \u201cWith us, he\u2019ll return to power.\u201d<\/p>\n A stark disconnect<\/strong><\/p>\n Those who believe Morales\u2019 comeback can close the door on years of political and economic paralysis<\/a><\/span> are less clear about the kind of future he could bring.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I came to power in 2005, the nation was suffering, and I transformed it,\u201d Morales said. \u201cNow our crisis is even worse. We don\u2019t have fuel, we don\u2019t have dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n Most Bolivians, stinging from surging inflation and waiting in long lines<\/a><\/span> to fill their tanks, agree on that.<\/p>\n But attitudes toward Morales are starkly different in his remote redoubt in Chapare and the rest of the country of 12 million \u2014 especially when it comes to the 2016 statutory rape case that indelibly tarnished his reputation.<\/p>\n In the upscale districts of La Paz, the capital, residents say they\u2019re repulsed by his actions. Freshly painted graffiti asks: \u201cWould you vote for a pedophile?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe political damage to Evo\u2019s good image is devastating,\u201d said Romer Alejo, a criminal lawyer in La Paz.<\/p>\n Informal efforts to gauge public opinion in La Paz suggests that two or three out of every 10 Bolivians would vote for him.<\/p>\n His critics condemn Morales\u2019 constitution-bending efforts to hold onto power longer than any leader in Bolivia\u2019s modern history.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re at a breaking point,\u201d said Mart\u00edn Sivak, the author of a biography on Morales. \u201cThere\u2019s a verdict from Bolivians on this idea of staying in power for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n A long way to go<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Legal troubles aside, whether Morales can reclaim his party and the country\u2019s top job is unclear. His supporters say he\u2019ll find a way around the court ban \u2014 perhaps by launching a new party.<\/p>\n But the packed crowds of 2014 are no longer there.<\/p>\n A recent MAS congress in Chapare declared Morales was the party\u2019s \u201conly legitimate candidate,\u201d but a \u201cViva, Evo!\u201d chant faded quickly in the half-full auditorium.<\/p>\n Still, Bolivia\u2019s right-wing opposition is fractured. Protests are mounting over Arce\u2019s failure to halt a currency collapse. Morales\u2019 supporters threaten to convulse the country if he\u2019s not on the ballot.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll win through our struggle,\u201d Morales loyalist and lawmaker Alina Canaviri Sullcani said. \u201cThere\u2019s no alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if Morales has become too divisive, without him, many fear the long unstable Andean nation could veer back toward chaos.<\/p>\n Morales\u2019 2019 ouster elevated a right-wing interim president, Jeanine \u00c1\u00f1ez<\/a><\/span>, who cracked down on her political opponents<\/a><\/span> and sought to purge Morales\u2019 legacy<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n On a hot, sticky morning last month, Morales emerged from his hideout with heavy security, to check on his fields. As he hunched over to cut weeds, his aides pulled out their smartphones to film him \u2014 a throwback to the early 2000s, when videos of the son of llama famers in his humble alpaca sweater were a magnet for foreign media.<\/p>\n But Morales didn\u2019t seem to notice. When everyone had gone, he kept on working. He said he wasn\u2019t close to finishing.<\/p>\n – Isabel Debre, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n Bolivia\u2019s former leader Evo Morales has a campaign pitch for 2025 that has worked elsewhere: Other politicians of recent years have brought you nothing but misery. It\u2019s time for a return to the past. His supporters are looking to Morales for a rescue from the five tumultuous years since his 2019 resignation. The country\u2019s first Indigenous president, Morales is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":9169,"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\/0bbff1e\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5616x3744+0+0\/resize\/1440x960!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fd1%2Fc8%2Fef1dfb7ef1fd99fe8e0e38b0f1f2%2F848106679b784570bb5074ae51ec093c","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9167","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=9167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9170,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9167\/revisions\/9170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n\n