LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia's hugely popular and controversial former leftist president, Evo Morales, on Monday called on supporters to take to the streets in protest against his bitter political rival, current President Luis Arce, who hours earlier accused Morales on national TV of trying to overthrow him.
Morales’ appeal to Bolivia’s farmers, miners and peasants followed President Arce's unprecedented televised speech late Sunday lambasting his former mentor. Accusing Morales of trying to sabotage his administration and undermine democracy, Arce escalated a high-stakes power struggle that has pushed Bolivia to the brink.
“Enough, Evo!” Arce exclaimed on state TV. “Until now, I have tolerated your attacks and slander in silence. But putting the lives of people at risk is something I cannot tolerate.”
Arce, who has faced a series of mounting crises with his ruling party riven by disagreements, alleged that Morales’ attempts to mobilize support and run against Arce in next year's presidential election was “putting democracy at risk."
"You are threatening the entire country," Arce said, claiming that Morales sought to return to power by “means fair or foul."
His dramatic speech in the Andean nation of 12 million dredged up the chaos and bloodshed of 2019, when Morales ran for an unconstitutional third term and won. After accusations of fraud sparked mass protests, Morales resigned under pressure from the army, in what his supporters call a coup. At least 36 people were killed in the ensuing crackdown by security forces.
Morales, who served as Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, has vowed to unleash unrest if he is stopped from running in the August 2025 elections.
Ever since the constitutional court last year barred the charismatic leader from the race, coca cultivators, Indigenous tribes and workers — whom Morales represented during his presidency from 2006 to 2019 — have come to his defense with street protests, marches and road blockades.
Speaking to reporters, Morales encouraged the international community to follow his so-called “March to Save Bolivia" on Tuesday from the southeast village of Caracollo to Bolivia's administrative capital of La Paz. He described the march — 85 kilometers (53 miles) by foot along a highway — as a natural expression of protest against the failure of Arce’s government to fix the worsening economic crisis.
Firing back at Arce on Monday, Morales insisted that he had no selfish ulterior motives.
“The march is the response of a people fed up with their unthinking government, which has maintained absolute silence in the face of the crisis, corruption and the destruction of stability,” Morales wrote on social media platform X. “President Arce is not only desperate, but also confused.”
Over the past year, the Arce-Morales rift has polarized Bolivia, tainting the country's politics and creating a sense of turmoil that soldiers sought to seize upon in June in an alleged coup attempt.
Anti-government protesters on Monday flocked to the main road leading to Bolivia’s tourist hotspot of Lake Titicaca, convening and calling on Arce to resign under the watchful gaze of riot police. Some demonstrators piled dirt at the entrances of other roads in the La Paz area, impeding traffic.
“It’s an incompetent government that we have, and it won’t solve the economic crisis,” said Pablo Merma, a peasant leader of the so-called Red Ponchos, radical Indigenous activists from the high plains who rallied Monday against the president. “We are not afraid of you, Arce.”
Another protest leader, Ponciano Santos, warned Arce that the social movement would hold him responsible for whatever happened on Tuesday.
"If you tear gas us, if you interfere with our march, the government will fall,” Santos told reporters.
Although Arce was Morales’ former economy minister and his candidate in Bolivia’s 2020 elections, the erstwhile allies began vying for power after Morales’ return from exile and political comeback the same year.
Bolivia’s political stagnation and economic quagmire — with fuel scarce and the central bank dangerously short on foreign currency reserves — has caused some Bolivians once outraged over Morales’ strongman tendencies to grow nostalgic for the ex-leader’s transformation of the economy and remarkable reduction of poverty.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Rocks block a highway towards Lake Titicaca in Vilaque on the outskirts of El Alto, Bolivia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. The rocks were placed by people protesting for the resignation of Bolivian President Luis Arce for his management of the economy. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Rocks block a highway towards Lake Titicaca in Vilaque on the outskirts of El Alto, Bolivia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. The roadblock was placed by protesters demanding the resignation of Bolivian President Luis Arce for his management of the economy. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Police keep protesters from blocking more lanes as they protest for the resignation of Bolivian President Luis Arce for his management of the economy in Corapata, on the outskirts of El Alto, Bolivia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Police patrol at a roadblock in Vilaque on the outskirts of El Alto, Bolivia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. The roadblock was placed by protesters demanding the resignation of Bolivian President Luis Arce for his management of the economy. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
