tuesday, november 12 , 2019. the washington post eZ sU A
BY ANTHONY FAIOLA
AND RACHELLE KRYGIER
Bolivians, leaderless and dazed
after weeks of protests, confront-
ed a gaping power vacuum and
the outbreak of more violence
Monday following the resigna-
tion of longtime president Evo
Morales, the leftist icon who was
forced from power a day earlier
amid accusations his party stole
last month’s election.
As new protests erupted from
both the right and the left — s ome
peaceful, some not — Mexico’s
foreign minister announced that
Morales had accepted that coun-
try’s offer of asylum, and Morales
tweeted that he was en route
there for sanctuary. In La Paz, a
cross section of politicians strug-
gled to find a solution to a consti-
tutional crisis of leadership. Au-
thorities requested military help
as Morales supporters attacked
police stations.
A protracted period without a
legal head of state, some feared,
could deepen the violence and
stall attempts to hold fresh elec-
tions.
All four officials in the consti-
tutional line of succession — the
president, the vice president and
the heads of the senate and cham-
ber of deputies, all socialists —
resigned on Sunday. That left
remaining lawmakers scram-
bling to cobble together a quo-
rum to appoint a new leader —
something they appeared unable
to do Monday. O pposition leaders
tried to reassure their socialist
counterparts of their safety
should they return to chambers.
Senior U.S. State Department
officials said they expected a new
interim leader to be named by
Tuesday.
Jeanine Añez, the fiercely anti-
Morales second vice president of
the senate, said she would accept
a caretaker presidency if offered,
and some opposition officials ral-
lied around her. My “only objec-
tive would be to call elections,”
she told reporters.
As S outh America’s poorest na-
tion processed the fast-moving
events, its citizens confronted a
key question: Had democracy
failed or prevailed?
Morales, who transformed Bo-
livia during his nearly 14 years in
office, described t he pressure that
forced him out on Sunday as a
“coup.” Hours before his resigna-
tion, the Organization of Ameri-
can States said it had found “clear
manipulation” of the Oct. 20 elec-
tion in which he claimed to win a
fourth term. Violence that had
simmered since the vote escalat-
ed. The heads of the armed forces
and police withdrew their sup-
port, and the opposition u nfurled
a wave of attacks on Morales’s
socialist allies.
Carlos Mesa, the former presi-
dent who finished second to Mo-
rales last month, rejected theword “coup.” Speaking to report-
ers Monday, he called the events
of the previous 24 hours a “demo-
cratic popular action” to stop a
government that had committed
election fraud to install itself as
an authoritarian power.
Mesa said no one from Mo-
rales’s Movement for Socialism
(MAS) should be picked as inter-
im leader, but he insisted that
MAS members should not fear
persecution.
“The clear will of the demo-
cratic opposition is to build a new
democratic government, respect-
ing the constitution,” he said.
The U.S. government hailed
Morales’s departure. Officials
said there had been no “coup” but
an expression of “democratic
will.” They cited the OAS finding
of fraud and noted that Moraleshad sought a fourth term despite
losing a 2016 referendum to ex-
tend term limits. (He later won a
court ruling that enabled him to
run.)
“The United States applauds
the Bolivian people for demand-
ing freedom and the Bolivian
military for abiding by its oath to
protect not just a single person,
but Bolivia’s constitution,” Presi-
dent Trump said in a statement.
“These events send a strong sig-
nal to the illegitimate regimes in
Venezuela and Nicaragua that
democracy and the will of the
people will always prevail. We a re
now one step closer to a com-
pletely democratic, prosperous,
and free Western Hemisphere.”
Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s for-
eign minister, said Morales had
accepted the country’s offer ofasylum.
“A f ew m inutes ago we received
a call from President Evo Mo-
rales,” he said at a news confer-
ence. “He responded to our invi-
tation and is verbally and formal-
ly requesting asylum in our coun-
try.”
Ebrard said Mexico had of-
fered asylum “for humanitarian
reasons and because of the ur-
gent situation in Bolivia where
his life is at risk.”
Bolivia remained without a
clear leader. The OAS, a U.N.-like
body made up of countries of the
Western Hemisphere, said it
would reject “any unconstitu-
tional resolution of the situation.”
“The General Secretariat calls
for peace and respect for the Rule
of Law,” t he organization said in a
statement. It urged the Bolivianlegislature to install new election
officials and “guarantee a new
electoral process.” It also called
for legal action against those
responsible for election fraud.
Bolivia was confronting deep
divisions and lingering violence
— with the strong possibility of
more. Sunday night, opposition
protesters looted and burned the
homes of socialist politicians in-
cluding Morales. At least 20 MAS
officials sought asylum at the
Mexican Embassy. La Paz Mayor
Luis Revilla Herrero, a Morales
critic, said 64 city buses were
burned. Schools and businesses
were closed Monday, and trans-
portation was shut down.
The homes of Morales critics —
including a journalist and aca-
demic — were also torched.
Morales urged doctors, nurses
and teachers to “go back to offer-
ing services to the population.”
But he continued to denounce his
ouster as illegal and expressed
sympathy for his backers who set
up roadblocks, attacked police
stations and protesters in La Paz,
El Alto and elsewhere. He
claimed some of his supporters
had been killed.
Some Morales critics were
clearly out for vengeance against
a government that had ruled Bo-
livia since 2006. Right-wing lead-
er Luis Fernando Camacho called
Sunday evening for two more
days of protests and said he
would present proposals for the
prosecution of Morales, former
vice president Alvaro Garcia Lin-
ares and MAS legislators.
One key question was whether
the right-wing opposition, now
clearly in control of the country,
would allow the socialists to field
a candidate in new elections after
the OAS found evidence of elec-
tion fraud. Morales claimed a
10 percent margin of victory in
the Oct. 20 vote — just enough to
avoid a second round, in which
his chances of losing would have
been high.
M orales, who won past elec-
tions in landslides, had worn out
his welcome. He ran for a fourth
term despite losing a national
referendum on term limits. But
the socialists still command sig-
nificant support in Bolivia, and a
decision to bar them would risk
more conflict.
[email protected]
[email protected]Bolivia, after upheaval, finds itself i n a leaderless limbo
natacha Pisarenko/associateD Press
A couple holding a Bolivian flag embrace in La Paz on Monday after spending the night celebrating the resignation of President Evo
Morales. As protests, some violent, continued in Bolivia on Monday, Mexico said Morales had accepted the country’s offer of asylum.Nation faces q uestion:
Was Morales’s ouster a
coup or democratic will?