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President Evo Morales launched a call for dialogue on Saturday, 9 November, which was immediately rejected by the opposition. Incidents continued into the night in a high voltage Bolivia, with mutinies of police units and the occupation of state media by protesters.
Bolivia has been experiencing a major political crisis for three weeks. Part of the police are now on the side of the protesters, who still demand the cancellation of the presidential election, they deem fraudulent. The opposition remains mobilized, while Evo Morales, the president in the reelection is challenged, denounces a coup . The Bolivian ambassador to France resigned, demanding " the pacification of the country and the reunion of the Bolivian people ".
On the evening of Saturday, incidents were still taking place in El Alto, a city bonded to the capital, La Paz, and considered a bastion of the head of state. Groups of pro-government protesters blocked the toll on the highway connecting the two cities, while the facilities of a private television channel, Unitel, were destroyed, according to the latter. According to Morales, the governor's house in Oruro, in the west, was set on fire, like that of his own sister.
" I call for dialogue with the parties that won seats in Parliament in the last general elections, four parties, " said Evo Morales, renewed on October 20 in the first round to head the country for a fourth term during a speech to the nation calling the mutinous police to end their movement. The indigenous leftist leader has been in power since 2006. The opposition no longer recognizes him and is demanding his resignation.
Invitation to dialogue already rejected
The wave of protest that erupted the day after the poll has killed three and injured 200 in recent weeks. For Evo Morales, the situation is serious: he called Saturday the international community, and even Pope Francis, to monitor the current crisis in the country. If he invited major political parties in the country to the dialogue, Carlos Mesa, the main opposition leader, rejected the offer: " I have nothing to negotiate with Evo Morales, " he said Saturday.
The invitation of the president leaves aside all the civic committees, unions and associations of citizens, who claim to belong to no party but who have been on the streets for almost three weeks, says our correspondent on the spot, Alice Campaignolle . Faced with the concern of Bolivian citizens of a possible intervention by the army, because of the withdrawal of the police, the commander of the armed forces sought to reassure the population on Saturday.
" We will guarantee the union between our compatriots, that is why we pledge never to confront the people, to whom we are indebted, " he said. Because Bolivians have memories of terrible moments in their history, where the army had intervened to suppress demonstrations, at the cost of dozens of deaths. This Sunday, opponents of Morales continue to occupy the streets and violent clashes still erupt in the country.
What role for the police now?
Since Saturday, several large cities have been the scene of police mutinies. Some policemen climbed onto the roof of their barracks to wave the Bolivian flag while others took to the streets to join the protests. On Sunday in La Paz, police signaled their support for the mutineers by withdrawing from a central square in the country's capital. A strong symbolic gesture, explains the sociologist Claude Le Gouill.
" What might have been a rather symbolic act in the beginning is becoming a major force-stroke," said the associate researcher at the Americas Research and Documentation Center and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Foundation. , in Paris. Because the policemen of La Paz have shown themselves to be mutinous and have abandoned the occupation of Murillo Square, which is the central square where the main official buildings are located. "
" There is a real race to conquer this place, knowing that the main opponent, Luis Fernando Camacho, indicated that Monday he would be in the same place to give a letter of renunciation to Evo Morales. So, there is really a real challenge to its conquest. The fact that the police of La Paz is no longer present in numbers is worrying enough. The government calls on everyone to take responsibility , "explains Claude Le Gouill.