What Can Be Expected in Bolivia After the Elections?

Washington and its activist Secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS) Luis Almagro are intensifying their interference in Bolivia's internal affairs. Their purpose is to prevent this South American country from having a government capable of pursuing an independent and sovereign development model.

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Both the U.S. Secretariat of State and the OAS have strongly criticized social mobilizations against the self-proclaimed President Jeanine Añez, a former senator whose coup-born regime has evidenced its corruption and inability to handle the pandemic.

Almagro himself bare his unrestricted support for the coup-born government leaders by stating that the roadblocks carried out by the population represent "low acts" that are aimed at obtaining political returns from the suffering of the people amidst the pandemic.

"It is immoral and unworthy", said Almagro who, during the coup and the subsequent repression against the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), used his voice to condemn the protests of the population but not to denounce the deaths caused by the coup plotters. He has condemned those who demand democracy but remain silent about the rampant corruption of Añez and her family.

Her arrival to power, which happened after a U.S.-backed coup that led to the resignation of former President Evo Morales, has allowed certain political groups to gain control of the Executive branch and use its governmental capacities to favor the interests and objectives of the United States and its regional allies.

A few weeks before the presidential elections to be held on October 18, the intention to vote unequivocally favors the Socialist Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca binomial. From outside and inside the country, right-wing groups have taken action to discredit the MAS leaders and ensure that the next president is a politician who represents the pro-U.S. elites. Among them are the white supremacist leader Luis Fernando Camacho and former president Carlos Mesa.

In recent weeks, we have witnessed proposals to postpone the presidential elections, which have already suffered three postponements that were justified on the grounds of the pandemic. This idea emerged from the coup-born regime and its political allies.

In response to this, however, social movements, Indigenous organizations, workers' organizations, and the MAS party took to the streets to demand that the elections would not suffer further delays.

The pressures on Añez led to intensifying the proposal for postponing the date of the presidential elections. Although the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) favored the thesis of the right-wing groups, it has not managed to diminish the support, which emerges from the polls and from the street, for the Arce-Choquehuanca binomial.

It has been proven that the postponement of the elections for October 18 had nothing to do with the COVID-19 issue. The hidden goal was to buy time to implement a smear campaign against the MAS party and former president Evo Morales, who has received accusations of alleged sexual abuse which are aimed at harming his party's candidates.

In this context, the Socialist candidate Arce has repeatedly denounced that the coup-born regime is carrying out a "judicial hunt against worker and farmer leaders."

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It is unquestionable that if pro-U.S. candidates triumph on October 18, the country will face difficult times. A social outbreak similar to the one that occurred in Chile in October 2019 is a highly probable scenario. And I mention Chile because it has been a country that has had the support and approval of the U.S., as a kind of exemplary student. This, despite the disastrous impact on the population, especially the most deprived sectors.

A foreign policy of subjugation to Washington with clear results of social and economic inequality and structural deficiencies that, after 30 years of post-dictatorship democracy, has exploded with all the force of a Chilean society, which requires profound changes, including the demands of its Indigenous peoples, historically postponed.

If Bolivians do not want a similar social explosion in their multi-ethnic homeland, then choosing their next president is not a minor issue. At this moment, it turns out incontestable that the Socialist Arce-Choquehuanca binomial has a governmental proposal that will benefit the Bolivian population and, especially, millions of women who radically changed their living conditions during the Morales administration (2006-2019).

Luis Arce's victory will improve the position of the Indigenous population as part of his priority plans, which are aimed at solving urgent problems related to political representation. Bolivia’s low-income groups and rural inhabitants are those looking with the greatest hope at the triumph of the Socialist binomial. A longing-laden wait for social welfare and state protection to encompass the different spheres of the lives of these Bolivians.

If this is not the case, this Andean country's reality will be marked by greater U.S. interference, greater internal instability, and greater impoverishment of the population.