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 mobilise 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 defence with street protests, marches and road blockades.
Speaking to reporters, Morales encouraged the international community to follow his so-called ‘March to Save Bolivia’ from the southeast village of Caracollo to Bolivia’s administrative capital of La Paz. He described the march – 85 kilometres 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.”
