42 The Americas The EconomistNovember 16th 2019
2 down so that “peace can be restored and
stability maintained”. Until then, the army
had been a “strong bastion of defence” for
the president, notes Franklin Pareja, a po-
litical scientist at San Andrés University in
La Paz. His authority gone, Mr Morales flew
to Mexico, which granted him asylum.
The stability that General Kaliman
hopes for will be hard to achieve. Mr Mo-
rales is not helping. He called his departure
a “civic, political and police coup”, adding,
“My sin is being indigenous, a union leader
and a coca farmer.” As he departed for Mex-
ico, he promised in a tweet to “return with
greater strength and energy”.
That night his supporters burnt houses,
businesses and buses in La Paz. The next
day thousands marched through El Alto, a
neighbouring city, waving the wiphala, the
indigenous rainbow flag, and chanting,
“Yes, now, civil war!” Pro-opposition riot-
ers reportedly ransacked Mr Morales’s
house in Cochabamba in central Bolivia.
Videos appeared of police officers ripping
the wiphala off their uniforms.
Bolivia’s new leaders risk inflaming
such divisions. Ms Áñez, a conservative
from the department of Beni in the north-
east, is now posing for photos with indige-
nous people. But she has provoked them in
the past. Recently she tweeted a photo of
people wearing indigenous dress along
with jeans and tennis shoes. She com-
mented: “Natives??? Look!”. Some people
took that as a derisive questioning of their
ethnic authenticity.
Although she was next in line to be pres-
ident after the most senior masofficials
quit, congress did not ratify her appoint-
ment. The mas boycotted the session of
congress that was summoned to install her,
depriving it of a quorum. It did not ratify
Mr Morales’s resignation for the same rea-
son. The constitutional court, which had
blessed Mr Morales’s run for re-election,
came to Ms Áñez’s rescue. Her assumption
of the presidency was legal, it ruled, be-
cause Mr Morales had fled and order need-
ed to be restored. maslegislators have said
they will vote to “nullify” her appointment.
Perhaps more powerful than the inter-
im president is Luis Fernando Camacho,
the leader of Comité pro Santa Cruz, the or-
ganiser of the Santa Cruz strike. He is a divi-
sive figure. He initially called on all mas
legislators to resign, and proposed that a
“transition junta” drawn from society,
which the constitution does not provide
for, run the interim government. Now he
backs Ms Áñez. A fervent Catholic, Mr Ca-
macho declared in the presidential palace
vacated by Mr Morales that “the Bible has
re-entered” the building. Some of his fol-
lowers believe that the ex-president is anti-
white. Mr Camacho has lately sought to
heal such rifts by urging Bolivians to re-
spect the wiphala.
Much as Mr Camacho may wish it, MrMorales’s resignation does not mean that
the masis going away. “These people are
forgetting that the masis the largest politi-
cal force in the country,” says the mayor of a
town in a rural part of southern Bolivia. He,
like other mas officials, says opposition
supporters have threatened him.
Mr Mesa, the runner-up in the presi-
dential election, believes that Bolivia
needs agreement between the masand the
opposition on how to restore democracy.
He has urged maslegislators to help choosea new electoral tribunal, which would help
legitimise the forthcoming elections.
Without such forms of co-operation be-
tween foes and friends of Mr Morales, un-
rest may continue, warns María Teresa Ze-
gada, a sociologist at San Simón University
in Cochabamba. Although the protests
started with the people, it is now up to poli-
ticians to come up with ways of ending
them peacefully, she says. Leaving the pur-
suit of a solution to angry Bolivians on the
streets “will lead to a tragedy”. 7M
exican weddingsare big. At mid-
dle-class nuptials a 500-name guest
list is not unusual. In the United States
the average is 140, according to the Knot,
a wedding-planning website. But a typ-
ical Mexican boda is smaller than it
might be. Many guests do not turn up
even after they have said they will. Some-
times two-fifths of them are no-shows,
says Cecilia Lara, a caterer in Zacatecas, a
state in central Mexico. Some cancel
days, or even hours, in advance—too late
to change the booze and food order.
It seems to be a matter of culture.
When Americans marry in Mexico the
attrition rate is much lower, says Diego
del Rio, who plans weddings for Mexican
and American couples. Last-minute
cancellations are almost unheard of.
Why is Mexico’s dropout rate so high?
Long guest lists are part of the problem.
They mean that Mexicans can get two
dozen wedding invitations a year. At-
tending them all would be costly. Socialconvention plays a part. Americans
normally break the bad news quickly,
says Mr del Rio, but that is not the Mex-
ican way. Instead, the practice is to ac-
cept, and then find some excuse (car
crashes and absent nannies are popular)
or simply not turn up. A woman who
organised her mother’s wedding in
Oaxaca says the bride’s best friend can-
celled on the morning of the event. Her
reason: “new circumstances”.
César Félix-Brasdefer, of Indiana
University, has found similar contrasts
between Mexican and American behav-
iour in other situations. In one study
students from both countries acted out
how they would refuse a request from a
professor that they enroll in a class.
Americans were more likely simply to
say no. Mexicans used more “indirect”
language, says Mr Félix-Brasdefer. He
thinks Mexican culture prizes warmth
and a sense of connectedness in social
relations, and so discourages bluntness.
Mexico’s writers have sought to un-
derstand this trait. In “Instructions for
Living in Mexico”, Jorge Ibargüengoitia,
who died in 1983, described his country-
men’s habit of deferring bad news until
the last possible moment. Octavio Paz,
Mexico’s greatest poet, wrote that even in
a quarrel, Mexicans prefer “veiled ex-
pressions to outright insults”.
Saying no is especially hard when the
bride and groom ring up a week or two
before the nuptials to ask if a guest is
coming. When wedding planners are
involved, they make those calls and get
more honest answers. “If we ask them,
they might tell us no,” says Ms Lara, who
plans weddings as well as catering for
them. “If the bride does it, they probably
won’t.” Paz and his first wife, Elena Garro,
avoided all this awkwardness. They wed
in such haste that just four other people
were at the ceremony. Alas, the marriage
was not a happy one.When “sí” means “we’ll see”
Matrimony in MexicoMEXICO CITY
Why so many guests do not show up for weddingsStanding up to cancel culture