Bolivia’s ruling party ’expels’ President Arce, deepening clash for power

The fracture inside Bolivia’s ruling party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), seems to have reached a point of no return. This month, President Luis Arce and his vice president, David Coquehuanca, were declared “self-expelled” from MAS after not attending an important party convention held in the coca-growing city of Lauca Eñe, in central Bolivia. 

The event was backed by the so-called “evistas,” party members supporting former President Evo Morales, who broke ties with the Arce administration after several political disagreements, as The Brazilian Report once explained.

In addition to ordering the removal of another 20 lawmakers who are close to President Arce, MAS members also unofficially declared “commander” Morales as its presidential candidate for the 2025 elections, following what the former leader himself had brought forward two weeks before the event.

President Arce, who gained positive notoriety after serving as an economy minister under Mr. Morales’s 2006-2019 term, succeeded in having the resolutions temporarily suspended by justice — which means he is not technically out of the party yet. Even so, it is unlikely that Messrs. Arce and Morales will even seek a political truce, making the future uncertain.

For President Arce, one of the aspects of disagreement is an alleged disproportionate space given by Mr. Morales to coca-producing entities who are very close to him since his time in office (he is himself a former coca union leader). For that, according to Mr. Arce, many other social organizations have been marginalized and left out of political decisions, which paves the way for Evo’s “custom-made” control of the MAS. 

The situation inside Bolivia’s left-wing party, the strongest in the country, also raises questions about how the conservative opposition could react to the splinter in the upcoming elections, even though the most prominent right-wing figures are currently in jail for taking part in the coup that ousted the same Mr. Morales in 2019.

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