Bolivia: Evo Morales leads the march in favor of President Luis Arce

The ex-president Evo Morales He marched on Tuesday in favor of his political heir, the current president Luis Arce, in a fight with the opposition, citizen organizations and unions that the day before held a strike and protests against him.

“Brother Lucho (Luis) you are not alone,” he said. Morales in an act in the central region of Cochabamba in which Arce also participated. The former president marched through the capital of that department that bears the same name.

In the cities of La Paz, Oruro and Cochabamba there were massive marches in favor of the president. Meanwhile, in the department of Santa Cruz – an opposition stronghold – they are expected to be at the end of the afternoon.

“They (the opposition) say they want to defend democracy and today they refuse to respect the popular vote … that is why we are here to demonstrate our majority,” said the president. In turn, he asked all his followers for unity after acknowledging that there are attempts at “division”.

In the same act, respect was requested for the Wiphala, an indigenous flag from the highlands that Arce and Morales claim.

Arce on Monday faced the largest anti-government demonstrations since the 2019 crisis that precipitated Morales’s resignation after nearly 14 years in office.

The protests were concentrated in the east, the country’s agribusiness engine and opposition stronghold. Santa Cruz, the most populated city in the country, was paralyzed, without transportation, with shops, markets and offices closed. The strike in that region was called by Governor Luis Fernando Camacho, head of the second opposition force.

The strike was in rejection of a bill promoted by the Legislative – dominated by the ruling party – and for the use of justice by the government to “punish dissent and persecute opponents” who led the massive protests in 2019, denounced Manuel Morales of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy (CONADE).

For its part, the government and its party accuse the opposition of having organized a coup against Morales in 2019 while critics say it was in protest of electoral fraud in the presidential elections that year.

For the case, former President Jeanine Áñez has been in custody since March.