TheEconomistOctober 17th 2020 271L
ast october, after an election marred
by accusations of fraud, Joan Fernández
joined thousands of Bolivians in protests
that toppled the socialist government of
Evo Morales. His joy quickly gave way to
disillusion. After Mr Morales, who had
been seeking a fourth term, resigned on
November 10th and fled to Mexico, Jeanine
Áñez, a right-wing senator, became presi-
dent. Her only goal, she said, was to pre-
pare fresh elections. Instead, she became a
candidate, used the justice system to go
after her rivals and flubbed the govern-
ment’s response to the pandemic.
“They used us to get rid of Evo and then
they abandoned us,” says Mr Fernández, a
college student from Villa Armonía (Har-
mony Town), a working-class neighbour-
hood in La Paz, the administrative capital.
With new elections scheduled for October
18th, the plaza is decorated with flags from
rival political parties, a loudspeaker an-
nounces free rabies jabs and families chat
as they wait with dogs on leads and cats in
blankets. The harmonious scene is decep-tive. People are stocking up on food in an-
ticipation of post-election protests, says
Mr Fernández, stroking his cocker spaniel.
Bolivia is again bitterly divided between
supporters of Mr Morales’s Movement to
Socialism (mas) and backers of Carlos
Mesa, a centrist former president who ran
last year. Polls predict a runoff, which
would be held on November 29th. Mr Mesa
would probably win that. But the mascan-
didate, Luis Arce, an ex-finance minister,
could win in the first round. Either result
would give Bolivia a chance to lessen the
rancour left by Mr Morales’s 14-year rule
and Ms Áñez’s interregnum. “The only
thing I want is stability,” says Mr Fernán-
dez, who is betting on Mr Arce to deliver it.
But the gulf is wide. An economic crisis will
make it harder to narrow.
In 2016 Bolivians voted in a referendum
to deny Mr Morales, the first indigenous
president, the right to run again. He ig-
nored them. On election night last October
a pause in the rapid count fuelled suspi-
cions of vote-rigging. An audit by the Orga-nisation of American States (oas) appeared
to confirm an attempt to manipulate the
results. Anger surged, and Mr Morales quit.
His backers say he was the victim of a
right-wing coup. Several studies, including
one by the Centre for Economic and Policy
Research, a left-wing think-tank in Wash-
ington, dc, have questioned the oas’s find-
ings. “The oasshould leave our democracy
alone,” says Mr Arce. Most of the 36 people
killed in protests after the elections were
massupporters who died at the hands of
the police or the army.
Ms Áñez did not bring harmony. Old
tweets surfaced, in which she had called
indigenous religion “satanic”. Her govern-
ment urged a pliant attorney-general’s of-
fice to open scores of cases against former
masofficials for terrorism and sedition.
“People were dragged from their homes for
belonging to the mas,” says Mr Arce, who is
being investigated for illicit enrichment.
Mr Morales’s chief of staff, charged with
terrorism on the basis that she spoke to
him by phone, received no health care in
pre-trial detention and had a miscarriage.
In May the health minister was arrested
on suspicion of corruption. The fight
against the pandemic faltered. Ms Áñez
“had one eye on the health crisis, and one
eye on her campaign”, says Mr Mesa.
Last month she withdrew, citing the
need to unite the anti-masvote. That still
leaves as a candidate Luis Fernando Cama-
cho, the far-right leader of last year’s prot-BoliviaA consequential contest
LA PAZ
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