Total war between former allies: Road blockades in Bolivia led by Evo Morales suffocate Luis Arce’s government

For 11 days, Bolivia’s main highway, which links the administrative capital La Paz to wealthier Santa Cruz de la Sierra, has been blocked by farmers following former President Evo Morales. There are also less significant cuts on other roads in the country. The protests led to fuel shortages, rising prices and an estimated economic loss of $600 million. They have put in the dock President Luis Arce, who was once considered “Brother Lucho” and is today considered a “traitor” to the movement led by Morales. The government does not want to suppress what it considers “part of the country’s political culture”. They believe that they will dissolve on their own when Carnival, a very important holiday for Bolivians, approaches. The demands relate to the disqualification of the former president from running for candidacy in 2025 by the Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP), the institution against which the protesters are descending.

In recent days, “Avista” farmers want to “radicalize”, that is, increase the number of cuts in order to increase pressure on the authorities, who for their part have denounced that most of the blockade points were set up by coca. . Growers from the coca-growing region of Cochabamba and Chapare, Morales’ stronghold, were “carried away” by their leaders. According to the government, her power has reduced to what it was in the 90s, when she was the leader of COCA and had not yet formed the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).

One of the protesters declared on television, “We are tired of Bolivia’s justice system, which only betrays.” The adjacent road was filled with stones thrown recently to stop vehicular movement. In other places, actions such as blocking roads with stones are considered a crime, but not in Bolivia. At least, so far. Amid the current conflict, the trade association presented a bill to make roadblocks punishable by prison, as they prevent the transfer of goods and cause serious harm to producers and traders. Additionally, Gustavo Torrico, Deputy Minister of Government Coordination and Management, declared that “Road blockades are, almost, a part of Bolivia’s culture. The problem is why it crashes. For example, if it happens during a dictatorship. If it’s against, people have every right to stop it, but if it’s a personal matter, like the disqualification (of Evo Morales), then it’s wrong.

The protesters are demanding the resignation of all judicial courts in the country, an initiative initiated by the TCP. As for the government, they are actually looking for a way to revoke Constitutional Decision 1010/2023, approved in December last year, which prevents a president from ruling more than twice consecutively or consecutively. The clause removed Morales, who has already held power three times, from the electoral game.

The request for general resignation of the High Courts is based on the fact that the mandate of its members constitutionally ended on December 31, 2023. Shortly before this date, the TCP approved the sentence disqualifying Morales and issued other decisions that benefited the government; Finally, he ordered the extension of his and other jurisdictions until the Parliament could manage to organize judicial elections.

These were to take place in 2023, but the Legislative Assembly was unable to convene them. The “Evistas” believe that the continuance of the magistrates is illegal and this is the price they have exacted in exchange for Morales’ disqualification.

In the heat of the standoff, a multi-party legislative commission, which the ruling party reluctantly entered, began debating a consensus law to hold elections as soon as possible. At the time, the TCP hindered the multiparty effort with a ruling ordering lawmakers not to consider the legislation without court-ordered consent to the extension. Since the question of whether or not to accept this extension disproportionately separated the parties seeking a solution to the conflict, a compromise was reached. The opposition considers this action an expansion maneuver for the TCP. This wouldn’t be the first. Disregarding the principle that a judge should not rule on cases that could affect him, the Bolivian TCP has blocked with a series of unconstitutional rulings various measures adopted by the legislature to hold judicial elections. The opposition believes that he has actually worked to stop them. And interested in maintaining Arce’s influence on justice, the government has helped him.

Following the TCP’s latest measure, strong accusations were made against the “dictatorship of the Constitutional Court” and an attempt to subjugate the Parliament to its will. Former president and opposition leader Carlos Mesa wrote, “He has crossed all limits of legality, morality and rationality.” We cannot allow this aberration, unprecedented in history, which puts the democratic system at grave risk,” he posted.

Bolivia has held judicial elections every six years since its new constitution was approved in 2009. It is the only country in the region that elects its senior judges in this manner. Elections scheduled last year were canceled because the Legislative Assembly did not have the necessary majority, two-thirds vote, to approve the call. This majority became unattainable as the once-dominant MAS split into two factions, one under Morales and the other behind Arce. The opposition, including “Avismo”, has joined various initiatives and, despite this, managed to hold elections, but has not been able to overcome the resistance of the ruling party in the parliament and the magistrates themselves, who questioned the constitutionality of the country. Control.

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