Bolivia's former leader Evo Morales seeks a political comeback from his stronghold in the tropics

LAUCA Ñ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia's former leader Evo Morales has a campaign pitch for 2025 that has worked elsewhere: Other politicians of recent years have brought you nothing but misery. It's time for a return to the past.

His supporters are looking to Morales for a rescue from the five tumultuous years since his 2019 resignation. The country's first Indigenous president, Morales is credited with spreading the wealth of a commodities boom and ushering in a rare stretch of social and economic stability during his nearly 14 years in office.

His detractors say Morales — who built an economy uncomfortably dependent on natural gas reserves and sought to stay in power longer than Bolivia’s constitution allows — bears responsibility for much of the turmoil that followed his tenure.

A bitter political battle is looming between Morales, 65, and his former economy minister and once-protégé, President Luis Arce, over who will lead their long-dominant leftist Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, into the August 2025 election.

Arce has unleashed allies in the judiciary against Morales, with the Constitutional Court disqualifying Morales' candidacy and ousting him from the leadership of MAS, a party he helped found in the 1990s.

Prosecutors in mid-December charged Morales with statutory rape for fathering a child with a 15-year-old girl when he was 56 and president. Morales didn't deny the relationship but accused Arce of deploying a “dirty, odious" campaign to undermine him.

Since talk of his arrest warrant surfaced in September, Morales has been holed up in Bolivia’s coca-growing region of Chapare, ringed by loyal supporters.

Here, the former coca farmer and fiery union leader — long considered one of the last of the so-called “pink wave” of leftist leaders who once dominated Latin American politics — is planning his comeback.

Few outsiders are allowed inside his stronghold in Bolivia’s steamy lowlands, but The Associated Press was invited last month for a look from behind the barricades.

“They don’t want me to be the candidate because they know I’ll win,” Morales told the AP. “We’re in a state of total siege, morally, legally and politically.”

The four-hour drive to Chapare from Bolivia’s third-biggest city of Cochabamba is steep and slick with mist.

A narcotics checkpoint from the U.S.-financed war on drugs that wreaked havoc across this jungle is far less intimidating than the makeshift checkpoints manned by Morales' followers.

As the van rumbled on, Pedro Cepita, a guide tasked with accompanying the AP, pointed out Morales' accomplishments in the long-stigmatized Chapare — university buildings, cell towers, an airport, a 25,000-seat soccer stadium.

Morales’ face adorns murals alongside cult heroes like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. “Evo 2025-2030” slogans blanket brick houses.

“We’re in la Tierra de Evo," Cepita said — the Land of Evo.

At sandbagged checkpoints, Morales' supporters — some with batons on their belts — waved the van through only after recognizing Cepita.

Security forces, chased out by Morales’ followers, rarely venture here. Door-knocking census workers — even emergency rescuers responding to a deadly landslide last month — said they were harassed and kicked out by Morales’ coca union activists.

Earlier this month and after 40 days of negotiations, police began trickling back.

Coca farmers drying their leaves proudly recount how Morales kicked out U.S. anti-drug agents almost in the same breath as they extoll the benefits of the coca plant, cherished by Indigenous communities and maligned by the West as the raw material for cocaine.

“Brother Evo was in these fields with us,” said Jose Luis Calicho, 39, nodding toward Morales’ own plot of land. “He knows we’re not criminals, we’re not narco-traffickers.”

Since October, when gunmen opened fire at his convoy, Morales, who was unharmed, has slept inside the fortress-like compound of his coca-growing union. He says the shooting was an assassination attempt and blames Arce’s government, which denies involvement.

Outside the high walls, dozens of his followers lounge on tarps blocking the street. Some rest after all-night security shifts, others keep watch, their cheeks bulging with wads of coca — a mild stimulant.

“It’s our responsibility to Evo, we can’t take chances,” said Reyna Peñaloza, 44. “With us, he’ll return to power.”

Those who believe Morales’ comeback can close the door on years of political and economic paralysis are less clear about the kind of future he could bring.

“When I came to power in 2005, the nation was suffering, and I transformed it,” Morales said. “Now our crisis is even worse. We don't have fuel, we don't have dollars.”

Most Bolivians, stinging from surging inflation and waiting in long lines to fill their tanks, agree on that.

But attitudes toward Morales are starkly different in his remote redoubt in Chapare and the rest of the country of 12 million — especially when it comes to the 2016 statutory rape case that indelibly tarnished his reputation.

In the upscale districts of La Paz, the capital, residents say they're repulsed by his actions. Freshly painted graffiti asks: “Would you vote for a pedophile?”

“The political damage to Evo's good image is devastating,” said Romer Alejo, a criminal lawyer in La Paz.

Informal efforts to gauge public opinion in La Paz suggests that two or three out of every 10 Bolivians would vote for him.

His critics condemn Morales' constitution-bending efforts to hold onto power longer than any leader in Bolivia's modern history.

“We’re at a breaking point," said Martín Sivak, the author of a biography on Morales. “There’s a verdict from Bolivians on this idea of staying in power for too long.”

Legal troubles aside, whether Morales can reclaim his party and the country’s top job is unclear. His supporters say he’ll find a way around the court ban — perhaps by launching a new party.

But the packed crowds of 2014 are no longer there.

A recent MAS congress in Chapare declared Morales was the party’s “only legitimate candidate,” but a "Viva, Evo!” chant faded quickly in the half-full auditorium.

Still, Bolivia's right-wing opposition is fractured. Protests are mounting over Arce’s failure to halt a currency collapse. Morales’ supporters threaten to convulse the country if he’s not on the ballot.

“We’ll win through our struggle,” Morales loyalist and lawmaker Alina Canaviri Sullcani said. “There’s no alternative.”

Even if Morales has become too divisive, without him, many fear the long unstable Andean nation could veer back toward chaos.

Morales' 2019 ouster elevated a right-wing interim president, Jeanine Áñez, who cracked down on her political opponents and sought to purge Morales’ legacy.

On a hot, sticky morning last month, Morales emerged from his hideout with heavy security, to check on his fields. As he hunched over to cut weeds, his aides pulled out their smartphones to film him — a throwback to the early 2000s, when videos of the son of llama famers in his humble alpaca sweater were a magnet for foreign media.

But Morales didn't seem to notice. When everyone had gone, he kept on working. He said he wasn’t close to finishing.

Jhoselin Rivera tries on a wedding dress for her upcoming ceremony at a shop in Lauca N in the Chapare region of Bolivia, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

FILE - Supporters of former President Evo Morales rest as they guard the coca growers union where Morales is staying in Lauca N in the Chapare region of Bolivia, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - Workers spread coca leaves to dry in the sun in the Villa 14 de Septiembre community of Bolivia's Chapare region, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - A man spreads out coca leaves to dry in the sun in the Villa 14 de Septiembre community of the Chapare region in Bolivia, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - Street vendors take cover from the rain in Lauca N in the Chapare region of Bolivia, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - The wall of a home is covered in the Spanish words: "Evo President 2025," referring to former President Evo Morales in Colomi, Bolivia, Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - Former President Evo Morales gives an interview in Lauca N in the Chapare region of Bolivia, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - A vendor offers ice cream for sale to military police after they removed roadblocks set up by supporters of former President Evo Morales to prevent him from facing a criminal investigation over allegations of abuse of a minor while in office, in Parotani, Bolivia, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - Former President Evo Morales cuts weeds on his farm near Shinahota in the Chapare region of Bolivia, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - Former President Evo Morales attends a meeting with supporters in Lauca N in the Chapare region of Bolivia, Nov. 22, 2024, amid an ongoing political conflict with the government of President Luis Arce. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - People traverse a road blocked by supporters of former President Evo Morales to prevent him from facing a criminal investigation over allegations of abuse of a minor and to demonstrate against an alleged assassination attempt in Parotani, Bolivia, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - Protesters practice using slings as they block a road in support of former President Evo Morales in the face of an investigation of his alleged abuse of a minor while in office in Parotani, Bolivia, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - A mural that reads in Spanish, "Evo President 2025," referring to former President Evo Morales, covers a wall outside a home in Colomi, Bolivia, Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

FILE - Former President Evo Morales chews coca in the Lauca N, Chapare region of Bolivia, Nov. 3, 2024, amid an ongoing political conflict with the government of President Luis Arce. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

BANGKOK (AP) — Floodwaters in Thailand ’s capital were slowly receding on Monday after nearly continuous rainfall over the weekend, although some neighborhoods and major roads remained inundated.

Rain continued intermittently, but Bangkok city officials said conditions had improved enough to accelerate drainage efforts. Water levels in four main canals had risen too high over the weekend to take in runoff from surrounding communities.

More rain was forecast across much of Thailand, although Bangkok was expected to receive less. Cambodia and Myanmar were also experiencing severe weather.

The weekend flooding affected 329,000 households, or about 700,000 people, the Bangkok Flood Control Center reported, according to Deputy Gov. Tavida Kamolvej. Thai media reported two flood-related deaths in the city and at least 10 nationwide.

Gov. Chadchart Sittipunt declared a flood emergency Saturday across all 50 city districts, although some were relatively unscathed. He said authorities were prioritizing assistance for vulnerable residents, including older people and those with disabilities, by delivering supplies or evacuating them. City officials said nearly 7,000 people were staying in shelters.

Neighborhoods in eastern Bangkok were hit hardest. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul donned white rain boots Sunday night to inspect a heavily flooded housing estate in Bang Kapi district and help distribute relief supplies.

Water was about knee-deep Monday near a train station and shopping mall in Bang Kapi. Despite intermittent downpours, shoppers waded through the water carrying bags, backpacks and boxes of groceries. Some traveled to and from the station in a small boat provided by the mall.

For Naowarat Supanikorn, a 55-year-old maid who shares a single-story house with three dogs and six cats, the flooding was more than an inconvenience.

She said she realized at about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday that water was seeping into her home.

“I had to take my dogs and cats out,” she said. “I had to leave them with my neighbor. I have taken them back today because they said the sun would come out, but it looks like the rain will come back.”

She said the flooding in her neighborhood reached above her hips at its highest, and had since dropped to about knee-level. She said the bigger problem is that she has lost her job working at a condominium.

“My workplace also said if I can’t come to work, they’re happy to take my resignation. So I thought, that’s fine, I’ll quit.”

To try to generate some income, she bought supplies to make some food she can sell streetside, but business is slow in the flooded conditions.

“It’s stressful. If the bills come, I’d be cooked, because I don’t have work now. If I have to pay for water or electricity now it would be bad,” she said. “I’m not worried about me but I’m worried about my pets. I’ve lived with them my whole life. They’re my priority. It’s ok if I don’t have work and starve myself, but I’d like help for my pets.”

The flood also has had knock-on effects, including panic buying of food, disrupted supply chains for food and other items, and staffing problems at various enterprises whose employees were unable to get to their jobs.

The Thai Air Force announced it was sending 69 ground personnel to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport to help clear a backlog of passenger luggage caused largely by airport workers being unable to get to their place of work.

“This deployment is a vital mission to care for, assist, and facilitate travelers — including tourists from around the world — ensuring smooth operations and preventing delays in ground services, thereby upholding the nation’s positive image,” the air force said.

The airport previously attributed the baggage pileup to “insufficient staffing to support ground handling operations” and problems with some baggage carts.

The disruptions delayed some departures and forced arriving passengers to wait longer than usual for their luggage, with baggage from several flights still undelivered, the airport said.

The government declared special holidays on Monday and Tuesday for state offices. It advised state enterprises, financial institutions, private businesses and hospitals to determine whether they needed to remain open.

Thailand’s meteorological agency forecast heavy to very heavy rain across several parts of the country. It warned residents, particularly in northern, central and eastern regions, to prepare for possible flash floods, river overflows, forest runoff and landslides, especially near waterways, foothills and low-lying areas.

In neighboring Myanmar, at least 10 people were killed and dozens were missing after heavy rain triggered widespread flooding and landslides in the southern coastal region of Tanintharyi, local media reported.

Dawei township recorded 346 millimeters (13.62 inches) of rain Monday, breaking an 80-year-old record. Myanmar’s Meteorology Department warned that conditions could worsen as the storm front moved closer to Yangon.

Flash floods struck at least 10 provinces in Cambodia, affecting 44,889 families and forcing nearly 4,000 people to evacuate, according to disaster management officials.

The agency overseeing the archaeological park in Siem Reap province, home to the centuries-old Angkor temple complex, said it was operating water gates and diversion systems to reduce the risk of flooding.

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Associated Press writer Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia contributed to this report.

Residents of a building look out at the flooded street after heavy rain in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Rescuers evacuate a patient from a flooded area to a safer place in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Rescuers evacuate people from a flooded area to a safer place in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

The streets are flooded after a heavy rain, in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

People wade through a flooded street after a heavy rain in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)