Latin America: Bolivia votes in peace after a year of hiatus
Latin America: Bolivia votes in peace after a year of hiatus
The parenthesis only lasted one year for the Movement
Toward
Socialism
(MAS) in Bolivia.
The indigenous revolution broke perspectives and polls to surprisingly sweep away the opposition in the presidential and legislative elections held on Sunday,
the second elections on the continent since the pandemic broke out.
Two exit polls found that Luis Arce will preside over Bolivia
after obtaining more than 50% of the votes
, with a very small abstention of around 15%.
Twenty points of advantage over Carlos Mesa, centrist candidate of Comunidad Ciudadana, and 35 points over radical Luis Fernando Camacho.
In this way, Arce breaks even the roof of the last electoral duels starring Evo Morales.
Both the interim president, Jeanine Áñez
, and the defeated candidate recognized this.
"I give a very heartfelt thanks to the Bolivian people for their democratic commitment. We have to be the head of the opposition. We will honor Bolivia," Mesa wrote in his networks after remaining silent throughout the election night.
After these results
, Luis Arce becomes the man of the year in the Andean country
.
Not only did he lead an electoral campaign that toured cities and countryside in the midst of the pandemic, but he also made his debut as virtual president-elect with a moderate and reconciling speech, so far removed from the one used for 14 years by his leader.
He was so careful with the forms that he did not even name and cite former President Morales.
"We are going to govern for all Bolivians, we are going to build a government of national unity," Arce emphasized in a conciliatory tone, determined to overcome "our mistakes"
and to redirect "the process of change without hatred
.
"
The former Minister of Economy of Morales, architect of the economic miracle of the revolution, announced that his first measure
will be the implementation of the bonus against hunger
, as well as strengthening domestic demand.
Its vice president, former foreign minister David Choquehuanca, declared in similar terms, confirming what they already advanced during their electoral campaign.
In this way, a new political time is inaugurated, as repeated by several spokespersons of the MAS in the interior of the country, in the face of the voices that came from the surroundings of Evo Morales in his exile in Buenos Aires.
The leftist party starts with a majority in the Senate thanks to the 19 seats attributed to it in the polls,
compared to 13 for the centrist Citizen Community
and 4 for Creemos, led by the radical Camacho.
A lot of dialogue to carry out the most important initiatives, which need 2/3 of the chamber, but also not to disappoint Bolivians.
"
The people do not want more hatred
, we must look forward, not backward," prophesied Sebastián Michel, spokesman for the winning party, who insisted on the change of style and on dialogue with the opposition, cornered and persecuted during the Morales era .
The big question that now hangs in the air is what will Evo's strategy be to return to his country, despite being immersed in various processes.
"
It is a matter of time, sooner or later we will return,
" he announced from Argentina.
On the other hand, from La Paz, Eva Copa, president of the Senate and emerging leader in the MAS, bet because that moment has not yet come.
"He still has issues to fix," he said.
"One of the keys was the self-critical reading that Arce and Choquehuanca had, both of Evo and of his close circle. To this we must add that in the last week Arce's message was based on hope and joy to mobilize a vote positive.
However in the antimasismo a bitter struggle between Mesa and Camacho lived
, as
well as the insistence on the 14 years of the masismo when people are preoccupied with the economy ,
"sums for the world political scientist Marcelo Arequipa.
"People have not liked this together with the internal battles," says the analyst, also convinced that we are facing a triumph of "masism" over "evism."
"The deep country has spoken, not only the indigenous, but also the rural and the marginal, which are still very present. An ignored population," adds historian Lupe Cajías, who also intuits that these sectors, in the midst of the pandemic and the economic crisis, they value the stability that MAS can bring to the country.
"It doesn't matter what you do, how
immoral you can be if you feed me,
" concludes Cajías, referring to the accusations of authoritarianism, corruption and even pedophilia that have been made against Evo Morales.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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Bolivia
Evo Morales
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