Bolivia: The dream of Evo Morales and his allies will not come true

Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales asked his followers not to talk about future elections because he was worried about the crisis of the region’s governments where he had implanted the virus of the struggle of the native peoples.

His dream of creating a socialist Organization of American States (OAS) to replace the current one, “servile to the empire”, detected the evidence of the 2019 electoral fraud with which he wanted to proclaim himself the winner before resigning and fleeing, is at risk.

The idea of creating a socialist OAS has the support of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, but the coca grower was counting on the possibility of also including Bolivia’s neighbors, now immersed in deep crises.

In addition to ideological problems, the crisis of Morales’ friendly governments has to do with the corruption of their leaders, as is the case of Peru and Argentina.

Of the crises affecting his allies in Chile, Argentina, and Peru, the one that most worries the coca grower is the war that the Peruvian army has launched against the drug-trafficking guerrillas in the Amazon Valley of the Apurimac, Ene, and Mantaro Rivers region (VRAEM), where he recommended legalizing clandestine coca plantations.

Cocaine sulfate production in that area reaches Bolivia, where it is converted into hydrochloride and sent, along with Bolivian cocaine, to neighboring countries such as Argentina and Brazil, where it leaves for Europe and Africa.

The defense minister did not previously authorize the military operations in the VRAEM, but President Pedro Castillo, who was about to be impeached by the parliament, chose to support the military action and regretted the death of an officer.

Also concerned about this crisis is former Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera, a well-known advisor to President Gabriel Boric, who is now anxious about the inevitable rejection of the draft constitution drawn up as a copy of the Bolivian constitution.

According to the project, Chile would become a new “plurinational state”, cease to be a republic, and change its flag for one of the original peoples.

Groups of Morales’ party militants visited Chile during student protests in that country. They made contact with the Mapuches, which are now considered terrorist groups, even in Argentina.

These Bolivian groups are part of the “armed militias” that Morales decided to create in Bolivia when he was a refugee in Argentina. At the moment, commandos of these militias are busy kidnapping peasants and even journalists, while land grabbers are advancing in Santa Cruz to expand coca crops.

The situation of Argentine Vice President Cristina Kirchner, who could be sentenced to a few years in prison, made Morales spread a tweet in which he expressed his solidarity with her and told her that he knows how perverse “the right wing” is against revolutionary leaders. He said he was also a victim of that current but must trust in victory.

He has also sent messages of solidarity to Milagro Sala, leader of an irregular group in Jujuy, accused of committing atrocities but very much appreciated by the government of Argentine President Alberto Fernández.

But, of course, Morales has said that the accusations against him of being connected to drug trafficking are only slanderous and never proven.

His problem in this purification effort is that his region, the Chapare, produces coca only for drug trafficking. According to United Nations reports, 94% of the coca from the Chapare is converted into drugs.

He has not denied that he supports the “interculturals”, as the armed groups that advance on Santa Cruz are called, provoking fires that cover millions of hectares, as happened in 2019.

But what worries the former Bolivian president a lot, the concern of a strategist, an aspiring statesman, and a regional leader, is the crisis of the friendly governments of the region.

With information from Infobae