Evo Morales Calls Bolivia’s Government Agonizing, From Wherever He Is Hiding
BOLIVIA · POLITICS
Key Facts
- Who he is Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president from 2006 to 2019 and its first Indigenous head of state.
- Where he is Unconfirmed. He faces two arrest warrants and has not appeared in public to answer them.
- What he said That the current government is agonizing, for lack of popular support and direction.
- Who governs now Rodrigo Paz, in office since November, ending almost twenty years of Morales’s movement.
- The real issue Bolivia subsidises fuel heavily and can no longer afford it. Every attempt to stop has failed.
- The catch His party holds the largest bloc in parliament but no working majority for anything.
A man wanted on two warrants still has a radio show, an audience, and the power to make a fuel subsidy politically untouchable.
Evo Morales ran Bolivia for nearly fourteen years, the first Indigenous president in a country with an Indigenous majority. He left in 2019 amid a disputed election and a police mutiny.
He still has a weekly radio programme. On Sunday he used it to say the government that replaced his movement is agonizing.
What He Said
The word in Spanish is agoniza, and every Bolivian outlet quotes exactly that one word. It appears inside reported speech rather than in a full quoted sentence.
The claim around it is that the government of Rodrigo Paz lacks popular backing and a sense of direction. Four Bolivian outlets carried it, so this is not a single-source remark.
He covered a good deal more in the same broadcast. When a right-wing government wobbles, he said, the regional organisation arrives to save it.
He called the agreement with the International Monetary Fund imposition and blackmail. He said removing fuel subsidies could push more than half the population into poverty by year end.
He attacked the cabinet for acting separately and worrying about keeping their jobs. And he said a policing arrangement had humiliated the police, leaving them without authority.
The Government He Is Describing
Rodrigo Paz took office on 8 November 2025 with Edmand Lara as his deputy. Their arrival ended nearly twenty years of government by the movement Morales founded.
His party holds 49 seats in the lower chamber and 16 in the senate, 65 in total. That is the largest bloc in the assembly.
The next party has 51 and the one after that 33. Several smaller groups hold the balance, including the remnants of Morales’s own.
All three major blocs have fractured internally. One Bolivian assessment describes an assembly of mobile majorities, where small parties carry weight out of all proportion to their size.
So fragmented is the accurate word rather than unsupported. Morales’s claim is about popular backing, which is a different proposition and one nobody can settle from a seat count.
The Man Making the Argument
Evo Morales is a fugitive from Bolivian justice, and that belongs near the top of any account of what he says. A warrant issued in Santa Cruz in July relates to road blockades that paralysed the country for 53 days.
The charges include armed uprising against state security and terrorism. A second warrant, from Tarija, concerns an allegation of aggravated human trafficking.
He failed to appear at a hearing and was declared in contempt. A third proceeding runs in Argentina, relating to his period of asylum there.
He denies all of it and calls the cases political persecution. Bolivia’s supreme court president has said the warrants carry no expiry date.
He was also disqualified from standing for election and founded a new party in response. His location has not been confirmed by any source.
Why the Fuel Argument Lands
His sharpest point is the one about petrol and diesel. Bolivia has subsidised both heavily for years, and the cost became unmanageable as gas export revenue fell away.
Every external assessment recommends removing the subsidy. It is also the single most explosive measure available to any Bolivian government.
Previous attempts have been reversed within days, in the face of blockades and burning tyres. In 2010 a government led by Morales himself tried and retreated in under a week.
That history is why the warning carries weight regardless of who makes it. He knows the terrain because he once lost on it.
His poverty claim is political rather than measured, and it depends entirely on what compensation accompanies any cut. That argument is the whole of Bolivian politics for the next year.
More: Bolivia news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Evo Morales say?
That the government of Rodrigo Paz is agonizing, for lack of popular support and direction. He used the Spanish word agoniza on his weekly radio programme on 13 September 2026.
Is the Bolivian government without support in parliament?
It is fragmented rather than unsupported. The governing party holds the largest bloc, 65 seats across both chambers, but no working majority, and all three major blocs have split internally.
What is Morales’s legal situation?
He faces two arrest warrants in Bolivia, one over road blockades and one over an allegation of aggravated human trafficking, plus a proceeding in Argentina. He denies all of them.
Who governs Bolivia?
Rodrigo Paz, inaugurated on 8 November 2025 with vice-president Edmand Lara, ending nearly two decades of government by the movement Morales founded.
Why does the fuel subsidy matter?
Bolivia subsidises petrol and diesel heavily and can no longer afford it as gas revenue declines. Every attempt to cut it, including one by Morales in 2010, has been reversed within days.
Sources: Erbol, La Razón, FmBolivia and El Nuevo Cambio of 13 September, El Deber of 13 August, RTVU Oruro and La República.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated AI newsroom. Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. The Rio Times also runs Ask Rio Times, which answers from 100,000+ of our own articles, the daily Latin America Power Map, and prediction-market odds on elections and markets.. How we use AI · Report an error