Found an error?
Report now
Former president Evo Morales chews coca.
AP Photo/Juan Karita/Keystone
For his supporters, the socialist and former coca farmer Evo Morales is still a savior. Elsewhere, his messages are less effective.
Bolivia's former head of state Evo Morales wants to return to power and is promoting himself with a well-known recipe. Other politicians in recent years have brought nothing but misery to the people of the country, he says. It is time for a return to the past.
His supporters are looking to him for salvation - after five turbulent years that followed his forced resignation in 2019. Morales, who was the country's first indigenous president, is praised above all for his economic and social policies. In his almost 14 years in office, he ensured strong growth and used the country's natural resource wealth to improve the situation of the poor, healthcare and other social services.
His critics blame him above all for his attempts to remain head of state for longer than the two terms of office permitted by the constitution. He has also made the economy too dependent on natural gas reserves. Morales, they say, is largely responsible for the chaos he deplored in the years following his fall from power.
One of Morales' strongest opponents is his former economy minister and one-time protégé, the current president Luis Arce. The two are engaged in a fierce battle to see who will lead their long-dominant party, the Movement for Socialism (MAS), into the election in August 2025. The Constitutional Court - not least at Arce's instigation - has banned Morales from standing as a candidate and stripped him of his position as leader of the MAS, the party he co-founded in the 1990s.
And recently, the public prosecutor's office charged Morales with sexual intercourse with a minor: He had a child with a 15-year-old when he was 56 and president. He does not deny the relationship, but accuses Arce of organizing a nasty smear campaign against him.
An inscription on a wall in Colomi promotes Evo Morales as president for 2025.
AP Photo/Juan Karita/Keystone.
Since rumors of an arrest warrant against him emerged in September, Morales has been holed up in Bolivia's coca-growing region of Chapare, surrounded by loyal supporters. From here, the 65-year-old fiery head of the coca growers' union, to which he himself once belonged, is planning his political comeback. Few outsiders are allowed to enter his stronghold in Bolivia's hot and humid lowlands, but the AP news agency was invited to visit behind the barricades in November. "We are in a state of total siege, morally, legally and politically," Morales told the AP at the time. Those in power wanted to prevent his candidacy.
The journey from Cochabamba, Bolivia's third-largest city, to Chapare takes four hours, interrupted by intimidating sentries - Morales' henchmen - at several checkpoints. Some have batons on their belts. As the van rumbles along the steep roads, Pedro Cepita, a guide assigned to accompany the AP reporters, points out Morales' accomplishments in Chapare, which has been stigmatized for years - university buildings, cell phone towers, an airport, a 25,000-seat football stadium.
The face of the ex-president - who is considered one of the last left-wing leaders of the "pink wave" that once dominated Latin American politics - adorns many murals, alongside cult heroes such as Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. "Evo 2025-2030" slogans are emblazoned on brick buildings. "We are in la Tierra de Evo", says Cepita - in the land of Evo.
Regular security forces rarely come here anymore; activists from Morales' coca union have chased them out of the area. The coca farmers are loyal to Morales, he is one of them. "Brother Evo was with us in these fields," says 39-year-old José Luis Calicho, pointing to a plot of land belonging to Morales. "He knows that we are not criminals, not drug dealers."
In October, armed men shot at his convoy of cars, and since then Morales - who was unharmed - has been sleeping on the fortress-like property of his coca growers' union. He speaks of an assassination attempt by the government. The government rejects this. Outside the high walls, dozens of Morales supporters lie and sit on tarpaulins, blocking the road. Some are resting after their night watch, others are observing the surroundings.
Evo Morales weeding his plantation near Shinahota.
AP Photo/Juan Karita/Keystone
But what is the situation in the rest of the country with its 12 million inhabitants? "When I came to power in 2005, the nation was suffering and I transformed it," says Morales. "Now our crisis is even bigger. We have no fuel, we have no dollars." Most Bolivians, who are struggling with high inflation, agree. But apart from that, their attitude towards Morales is very different from that of the people in Chapare. In the upscale districts of La Paz, the seat of government, residents say they are disgusted by Morales' actions. "Would you vote for a pedophile?" asks a freshly painted graffiti.
Casual polls in La Paz suggest that two or three in ten Bolivians would vote for the ex-president - if they were given the opportunity. Beyond his legal problems, it is unclear whether Morales can regain his position in the party or even the top job in the country. His supporters say he will find a way around the court ban - perhaps by forming a new party.
But the enthusiastic crowds of years ago no longer exist. At a recent MAS congress in Chapare, Morales was declared the "only legitimate candidate", but a chant of "Viva Evo!" quickly died away in the half-filled auditorium. Nevertheless, Bolivia's right-wing opposition is fragmented and protests against Arce's inability to stop the collapse of the currency are on the rise.
Morales himself is not known to give up easily. Recently, on a hot and humid day, he was cutting down weeds in his field, tirelessly, even after everyone else around him had long since disappeared. His work, he said, was far from done.
30.12.2024, 23:31
