Second Deputy Speaker of the Senate, Jeanine Añez proclaimed herself interim President of Bolivia on Tuesday, November 12, despite the absence of a quorum in Parliament. The senator argued "the need to create a climate of social peace" in the country shaken by a serious political crisis since the presidential election in late October.
From Mexico where he exiled, former President Evo Morales quickly reacted, saying that "the most astute and most heinous coup d'etat in history [has] taken place".
In Mexico City, where he arrived in the afternoon by military plane after a fantastic journey of sixteen hours at the mercy of the orders and counter-orders of the Latin American countries overflown, Evo Morales promised to continue "the fight", saying that he would not stop doing politics.
After three weeks of violent protest against his reelection to a fourth term in late October, the former president of Bolivia announced his resignation Sunday, released by the army. He was the most senior incumbent leader in Latin America, in power since 2006.
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"It hurts me to leave the country"
"Brothers and sisters, I'm leaving for Mexico," tweeted Monday the socialist leader. "It hurts me to leave the country for political reasons, but (...) I will come back soon with more strength and energy," he promised.
Mexico sent a military plane to evacuate Evo Morales from Bolivia. He who for a long time embodied a symbol of emancipation for the indigenous populations of a country considered unstable, which he led for nearly 14 years, now lives in exile.
When he came to power in 2006, Evo Morales was the country's first indigenous head of state. At just 60, he was one of the last representatives of the "pink wave" that swept through the region in the early 2000s.
Since then, the left has been defeated in Brazil, Chile and Ecuador, while it has just returned to power in Argentina. As for Venezuela, a country with which the Bolivian president had close relations, it is experiencing the worst political and economic crisis in recent history. Evo Morales was also strongly supported by Cuba, which was also embroiled in a serious economic crisis. "Bolivia is different, we're fine," said the football fan like a mantra, echoed by his supporters of the Movement to Socialism (MAS).
The former shepherd became president
This former lama shepherd, born October 26, 1959 in a poor village in the Oruro region (center), could boast of many economic successes: maintaining high growth, strong poverty reduction, record level of reserves in foreign currency. The country has also increased international investment agreements for the exploitation of natural gas and especially lithium, which it hopes to become the fourth largest producer by 2021.
"In recent years, the Bolivian economy was in good shape under Evo Morales", explained recently Michael Shifter, president of the think tank Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. "But with the fall in commodity prices, the government has been forced to borrow more and draw on reserves.The Bolivian economic model (based on the exploitation of raw materials), which has worked for years, does not is more tenable. "
"Bolivia, my life"
His opponents denounced the stubbornness of the former union leader of coca growers, who prevents him from recognizing his mistakes. Critics accused him of establishing an undemocratic government and abandoning the values he has long symbolized, including the defense of the environment and the natives, making his star pale.
Reelected in 2009, Evo Morales won a third term in 2014 thanks to a controversial interpretation of the Constitution, which allowed only two consecutive terms. The Constitutional Court then considered that this was his first re-election, the Constitution having been amended in 2009.
Some Bolivians do not forgive him for having run for a fourth term, despite the fact that voters voted against it in a referendum in 2016. He overruled it, thanks to a new and highly contested decision of the Constitutional Court. "I do not want to (continue), but I can not disappoint my people," he had justified.
With AFP