The fall of a Southern champion
- The Random Leftist
- Nov 20, 2019
- 3 min read
Shortly after announcing a series of elections that were to be monitored by international authorities, leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales, along with his cabinet, was made to resign the office of the presidency by the countries military. This act both canceled the elections that were going to be held and ushered in a regime change. With the right-wing senator Jeanine Anez declaring herself the country president. With the country’s constitutional court backing her claim. Despite there not being enough lawmakers in congress to appoint her to the position.
Though many leftists rightly cite this as an example of how the right-wing doesn’t value democracy. It should also be noted that this is a significant blow to the international left. Since for many years, Morales was a champion of leftist change. Under his administration, Bolivia became one of the fastest-growing economies in South America. Significantly increased the average GDP per capita and sharply reduced poverty in the country. Growth in living standards in Bolivia was higher in the past 13 years than in the last century. Though not dead, Morales’s resignation is a more significant loss for the international left than the death of Fidel Castro was. With Morales’s gone and a rightist one taking his place, this means the international left has lost one of its champions.
Now all hope isn’t lost since Evo’s party does still has the majority in parliament. However, it is debatable how long the party will stay the majority. Throughout the 20th century, many leftist governments in the South were toppled by similar coups, and soon after the coups, there followed years of mass repression of leftist. So many leftists in Bolivia are fearful that the government would begin to persecute them, and seeing as how protests have been killed, their fears are perfectly valid. However, the people of Bolivia have not been complacent during these events, with mass protests erupting all over the country and many workers going on strike, shaking the country’s economy.
Now many opponents of Morales say that he violated democracy first. When in 2016, after a referendum over changing the constitution, so term limits could be abolished, resulted in the slight majority of votes being against the change. Morales went to the Bolivian court so the changes could be added to the constitution. Now admittedly Morales did go against the popular vote. However, the way he went to the court about the matter was constitutional. So even though what he did was unpopular, it was not unconstitutional. Now another allegation thrown at Morales is that his government is that they rigid the election.
However, before I can explain why these accusations are being thrown at Morales, I must briefly describe the electoral system in Bolivia. Similar to France, Bolivia has multiple rounds of elections. For a party to win a round, they must have 10% more of the vote than their opponents. During the initial phase of the election, Morales had while the second most voted for the party had 36% of the vote. However, later in the day, the updates for the election stopped, and the following morning, the figure for the votes had it that Morels received 47% of the vote over 10% of the opposition.
This lead to a series of protests in the following weeks. Eventually, Morales decided to bend to the rally and promised to have new elections to preserve his legitimacy. And did the Bolivian right chose to seize this opportunity and start ramping up their election campaign? Nope, instead, they got the military to ask Morales to resign politely. Now admittedly, the elections weren’t exactly canceled but rather moved. However, with Morales and most of his cabinet fleeing the country and the government killing protesters, the government doesn’t appear that committed to preserving liberty.
Overall the situation in Bolivia is turbulent. Instead of ending the protest, the resignation has only escalated them. Though this may mark the end of Bolivian Socialism it should be noted that it lasted longer than most South American attempts at Socialism and has had a handful of successes.
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