The EconomistNovember 16th 2019 411B
y november 12th, two days after Evo
Morales abruptly quit as Bolivia’s presi-
dent, a tense calm had settled on La Paz, the
administrative capital. The streets were de-
serted. Buses and cable cars were idle. Most
residents stayed indoors. The army was in
control of the streets. But the lull did not
last. On the following day violence broke
out again in several regions, including La
Paz. At least ten people have died in unrest
leading up to and following Mr Morales’s
decision to step down.
The renewed violence was a response to
the naming of an interim president, Jean-
ine Áñez, who until Mr Morales’s resigna-
tion was the highest-ranking opposition
politician in congress as the senate’s sec-
ond vice-president. She has appointed a
cabinet and promised to hold fresh elec-
tions soon. Much depends on whether
these are accepted as legitimate by the mil-
lions of Bolivians who still revere Mr Mo-rales. The signs so far are ominous.
Mr Morales fell because he took rever-
ence for granted, and imagined it to be
more widely shared than it is. Elected Bo-
livia’s first president of indigenous origin
in 2005, he expanded the rights of indige-
nous people and used money from sales of
the country’s natural gas to reduce poverty.
Before he became president, “poor people
like us could never be more than a maid,
driver or gardener”, says Lilian Peralta, who
works in an electronics shop in La Paz.
Such sentiments helped him win re-elec-
tion twice.
But as it became clear that Mr Morales
intended to remain president, with almostunchallenged power, perhaps for life, Bo-
livians balked. In a referendum in 2016 they
rebuffed his bid to run again for re-election
in defiance of the constitution he had in-
troduced. The constitutional court, which
was by then an appendage of the presiden-
cy, said he could run anyway.
When the election was finally held last
month, he was declared the winner. He
avoided a run-off vote against Carlos Mesa,
his closest rival, by just 35,000 of the 6.1m
valid votes cast. His party, the Movement to
Socialism (mas), maintained its majority
in congress. But suspicions of fraud arose
even as votes were being counted. Mr Mo-
rales’s decisive lead appeared after a myste-
rious suspension in the publication of re-
sults. Tens of thousands of people, both for
and against the president, took to the
streets across Bolivia. An anti-Morales
“civic strike” shut down Santa Cruz, Boliv-
ia’s biggest city.
Mr Morales tried to restore calm, first by
inviting the Organisation of American
States (oas) to audit the election results.
Then, when the oasteam reported evi-
dence of fraud, he promised new elections.
That did not placate protesters. Police said
they would no longer obey their command-
ers’ orders. On November 10th Williams
Kaliman, the commander of the armed
forces, suggested that Mr Morales stepBoliviaRainbow resignation
LA PAZ
Evo Morales leaves a dangerously divided countryThe Americas
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