▲ The vice president of Bolivia, David Choquehuanca, protects himself from objects that Morales sympathizers threw in the Plurinational Assembly.Photo Afp
Ap, Xinhua and Europa Press
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, November 9, 2024, p. 20
La Paz., The Constitutional Court of Bolivia ratified its ruling against the continuous presidential and legislative reelection for more than once, which closes the possibility of former president Evo Morales running again in the 2025 elections.
Meanwhile, he lifted his hunger strike, while Evista legislators prevented President Luis Arce from presenting his fourth government report to the Plurinational Assembly. They threw tomatoes at him and caused destruction.
The ruling released yesterday, which threatens to deepen the internal struggles in the divided ruling party, indicated that the term of office is for two periods, whether continuous or discontinuous, without the possibility of extending it to a third.
The Bolivian constitution only allows for continuous reelection, which Morales already accomplished in his 14 years of government (2006-2019). The court had already issued the ruling in December 2023, and this time it ratified it at the request of a amendment and extension requested by the opposition deputy of Creo José Carlos Gutiérrez. Senator Lucy Escobar, close to the president, announced a disrespect to the decision that comes from a court that is not independent.
Until the closing of this edition, Morales had not spoken. When the sentence was announced last year, he accused Arce of plotting a black plan to remove him from the presidential race, in complicity with some magistrateswhich triggered a fierce political struggle between both leaders, dividing the ruling Movement towards Socialism.
Within the framework of that fight, last Monday the police deployed a major operation to clear the roads after a 23-day blockade by followers of Evo Morales, whose purpose was to demand the suspension of the judicial investigation for alleged abuse of a minor, with who had a daughter when he was president, and to be qualified as a presidential candidate. They later added Arce’s resignation to their demands.
After the unlocking, Morales withdrew his people and began a hunger strike in his political bastion of Chapare, demanding dialogue from the government and the release of those detained in the protests. On Thursday night he suspended his fast, without having managed to have his demands met, as an opening gesture to achieve dialogue, reported coca grower leaders close to the former president.
President Arce celebrated four years in power yesterday and was preparing to present his report before the Plurinational Assembly, when Evista legislators burst in and, between shoving and insults, destroyed floral arrangements and threw tomatoes at him; The security team covered him with a sack. After the attack, he gave his report from a balcony of the presidential palace before hundreds of followers in Plaza Murillo, in the center of La Paz.
He said he never imagined that a systematic, progressive and permanent siege his management would come from Morales for imposing his candidacy and for achieving impunity; He also expressed that sabotage is the greater adversity that his government faces.