La Paz, Feb 20 (EFE).- Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales (2006-2019) announced Thursday that he will run in the presidential elections with the political party Front for Victory (Frente para la Victoria, FPV), after losing the leadership of the ruling Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement for Socialism, MAS).
“We now have a party to participate in this year’s elections,” said Morales from the Tropic of Cochabamba, his political and union stronghold, which he has not left since Oct. 24, 2024, and where he is protected by his ers to avoid an arrest warrant against him for a case of aggravated human trafficking.
The agreement signed between Morales’ movement and the FPV states that the former head of state would be the “only candidate” for the presidency.
The FPV promoted the candidacy of the Korean-Bolivian evangelical pastor Chi Hyun Chung in 2020, amid criticism that it was copying the government plan of a Peruvian party.
Morales and his ers claim he has the right to run for president again, despite a 2023 constitutional ruling that says re-election in Bolivia is “one time only,” and Morales has already led Bolivia three times (2006-2009, 2010-2014, and 2015-2019).
Court rulings in 2013 and 2017 allowed him to run a third and fourth time, but in 2019, after declaring he had won the election, he was forced to resign and go into exile in Argentina after allegations of fraud led to massive protests against him.
President Luis Arce ran for Morales’ party in the 2020 election and allowed him to return to Bolivia, but the two leaders became estranged in late 2021 and have been fighting for control of the ruling MAS party ever since.
After nearly three decades at the helm of the MAS, Morales ceased to be president of the party following the validation by judicial and electoral authorities of an internal congress held in May 2024 by Arce’s ers.
Although Arce has not yet confirmed whether he will be up for reelection, the Bolivian president appears to be the MAS’s main option due to his control of the state apparatus and the fact that no alternative leader has emerged.
Authorities are investigating Morales for statutory rape and aggravated human trafficking for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl that resulted in her becoming pregnant in 2016 – when he was 57 and Bolivia’s president – and for offering political favors to the girl’s parents in exchange for access to her. EFE
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