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evo morales, The
President of Bolivia,
fled to Mexico on
Nov. 12, and his
country now faces
an uncertain future.
Morales had little
choice. Evidence that he had tried to
steal his country’s latest presidential
election pushed hundreds of thousands
of protesters onto the streets of Bolivia’s
largest cities in recent days. The
critical moment came on Nov. 8, when
a number of police officers joined the
demonstrations. When a report from the
Organization of American States gave
credibility and specificity to the charges
of cheating, members of the President’s
party began to resign, and the
head of Bolivia’s military then
appeared on television to call
on Morales to quit. Now, the
sun appears to have set on his
nearly 14 years in power.
In 2006, Morales made
history as Bolivia’s first
indigenous President. The
country’s voters, fed up with
chronic inequality and a
political elite almost entirely
of European descent, opted instead for
a farmer and union leader who looked
and sounded like the country’s majority.
Morales rewarded their confidence with
a remarkable accomplishment: he used
a global commodities boom to boost
economic growth and used the gains
to narrow Bolivia’s gap between rich
and poor, in part by nationalizing some
energy companies and directing revenue
from gas, metals and soybean meal to
social-welfare programs and regional
authorities. These programs helped
Morales win re-election twice.
BuT success encouraged the
President to believe he could undermine
Bolivia’s democracy by, for example,
stacking the courts with political
loyalists. As he ran up against term
limits that he himself had enacted, he
launched a public referendum he hoped
would extend his mandate. When voters
rejected his proposal, he took the matter
to court. When the largely loyal judges
agreed these limits violated his human
rights, he defied the public by again
standing for election. In the middle of a
tight race, with Morales’ lead just under
the 10 points he needed to avoid a runoff,
election authorities stopped publishing
vote tallies for 24 hours. When reporting
resumed, Morales had just enough votes
to win outright. The resulting wave of
anger forced him into exile because he
lost the support of the police and the
army. His ally in Venezuela, Nicolás
Maduro, who has committed far more
egregious authoritarian oversteps and
has less popular support than Morales,
has remained in power only
because of the military.
The international response
to these events is divided.
Leaders from the left like
Maduro, Argentina’s newly
elected President Alberto
Fernández, Cuba’s Miguel
Díaz-Canel and even Britain’s
Labour Party leader Jeremy
Corbyn say Morales has been
ousted by a military coup.
Donald Trump and Brazil’s President
Jair Bolsonaro say it was Morales who
repeatedly undermined his country’s
democracy.
But it’s the polarization inside Bolivia,
the violence it has provoked, and the
uncertainty it has created that are most
concerning. Morales says he is the victim
of a conspiracy with roots both inside and
outside his country. “Soon I will return
with greater strength and energy,” he
tweeted. His defiance has encouraged
supporters, as well as opponents, to
commit acts of violence. With Bolivia’s
Vice President, President of the Senate
and President of the Lower House having
all resigned, the opposition party’s
Jeanine Áñez, the Senate’s second vice
president, is the interim replacement.
She promises a new election by Jan. 22.
The apparent end of the Morales era is
unlikely to end the crisis. □
THE RISK REPORT
How Bolivia’s President brought
about his end
By Ian Bremmer
Election
authorities
stopped
publishing
vote tallies
for 24 hours
SOCIETY
Marriage:
still not dead
Is there really any difference
between being married and
living together? If a new
report from a nationally
representative Pew
Research survey of almost
10,000 Americans is to be
believed, yes.
For one thing, married
couples reported more
trust than the unmarried
couples who cohabit. Two-
thirds of spouses trusted
their partners to tell them
the truth; only half of the
unmarried did. About
three- quarters of married
folks trusted their partner
to act in their best interest,
compared with fewer than
60% of the unmarried. And
56% of spouses believed
their partners could be
trusted to handle money
responsibly, but only 40% of
cohabitants felt the same.
Married people were also
less irritated by the usual
chafing points— parenting,
chores, work-life balance
and communication. Sex,
though, was a wash: 36% of
married couples and 34%
of cohabitants were very
content with this aspect
of their lives. This finding
surprised the researchers.
“Cohabiters tend to be
younger and therefore more
satisfied with their sex
lives,” says Juliana Horowitz,
one of the report’s authors.
“But that’s not what we
found.” —Belinda Luscombe
Putting a ring
on it changes
things, a
study shows
GETTY IMAGES
