Evo Morales is Stealing Bolivian Democracy
Why Bolivians are burning public institutions and taking down statues of Hugo Chavez
Global media will focus on official government statements claiming the moral high ground, references from well-known Western journalists and most of all, the results of 14 years of non-stop propaganda. Let us look beyond this, to the facts.
In December 2005, Juan Evo Morales Ayma, President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, was elected President of the Republic of Bolivia in a historic landslide victory by 53% to his nearest contender’s 28%. This, despite widespread mistrust from power brokers, a racist backlash and a concerted international effort to paint Evo as a dangerous socialist in the line of (then still democratic) “strongman Hugo Chavez”.
The neoliberal establishment of the time and the National Electoral Court administered a free and fair election. Power was handed over to “the socialists” and the dream began. We did not know then it would become a nightmare, despite many triumphs and a long overdue regeneration of the nation’s political fabric.
The years between January 20, 2006 when Evo Morales swore to respect the Constitution and the sovereign people, storming a worldwide audience inspired and amused by his colorful sweaters and lively banter. And January 20, 2019, when Evo Morales will either hand over power to his now established runoff contender Carlos Mesa, or become a “legit” Dictator, were filled with facts too. But in the interest of expediency and getting to the point we will skip most of those.
Suffice to say, when Evo needed help to overcome the old racist power structures, Bolivians of all walks came together and supported him, and we won. Evo ruled for years without challenge, with massive 60% electoral victories giving him a 2/3 Congressional majority, with all courts, judges and prosecutors on his side, and one by one with each and every private Television and Print medium in the country falling in line or being bought by government friendly millionaires.
Oh, we also voted for a new Constitution in 2009. Again in the interest of time, we will not discuss the very relevant and exciting, to say the least, period leading up to this. But let’s list some of the more important articles of this wonderful document, which yours truly gladly voted YES on.
Article 7
Sovereignty resides in the Bolivian people and is exercised directly and by delegation. The functions and attributes of the organs of public power emanate, by delegation, from sovereignty; it is inalienable and unlimited.
Article 11
I. The Republic of Bolivia adopts a participatory democratic, representative and communal form of government, with equal conditions for men and women.
II. Democracy is exercised in the following forms, which shall be developed by law:
- Direct and participatory, through referendum, citizen legislative initiative, revocation of terms of office, assembly, councils and prior consultation. The assemblies and councils shall have a deliberative character in accordance with the law.
- Representative, by means of the election of representatives by universal, direct and secret vote, in accordance with the law.
- Communal, by means of the election, designation or nomination of the authorities and representatives pursuant to the norms and procedures of the native indigenous nations and peoples, among others, in accordance with the law
Article 168
The period of the mandate of the President or Vice President is five years, and they may be reelected once for a continuous term.
Article 198
The Judges of the Plurinational Constitutional Court shall be elected by universal suffrage, pursuant to the procedure, mechanism and formalities used for the election of the members of the Supreme Court of Judges
In 2011, this novel idea enshrined in the 2009 Constitution was put to the test. Bolivians voted in the first ever (as far as we know, anyway) judicial elections. We were supposed to elect judges for the Supreme Court, Constitutional Tribunal, and a few others. However, the process was flawed and rigged from start to finish.
In a landslide, an overwhelming majority of citizens (over 70%) VOIDED their votes in protest at the meager selection of intelligent candidates, all having been carefully selected by a compliant, MAS-controlled Congress (thanks to our 60% votes from before and a refusal from Evo Morales to listen to the people and allow well-known personalities with impeccable records to run).
These illegitimate judges of the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal (TCP) are the ones you hear about, when you read that “the courts allowed Evo to run for a 3rd term” or that this was a “controversial ruling”. There was no controversy, no legal analysis, and no constitutional question.
In 2013, these judges issued a mind-boggling sentence, which baffles constitutional scholars to this day:
They claimed, with no millennial sarcasm, no tongue in cheek, the following:
Evo Morales does not need to follow Article 168 of the Constitution of 2009, which he championed and which limits him to one re-election. He was re-elected in 2009 already. However because there is a new Constitution, this is a new country and the first term from 2005–2009 does not apply.
Never mind that in 2009, a large portion of the conservative electorate opposed to Morales’s proposed Constitution was swayed by his sworn promise to not seek re-election in 2014. Luckily we have that on tape. It’s also in the Transitory Articles which were part of the official document we voted on in 2009.
This is what Vice President Alvaro García Linera has coined as “estrategias envolventes”, or bullshit strategies in order to get away with outright LYING to the people.
So where were we, oh yes, the campaign for an illegal 3rd term in 2014. Evo won this election again, with less support but still pretty massive, over 60%.
Not content with 5 more years for a total of 15 years in power, the very first thing MAS and Evo did after taking power (again) in January 2014, they called for a National Referendum (based on Art. 7 of the Constitution) to overturn Article 168, which limits re-election to one time. I mean, they had already exceeded this threshold, but whatevs.
On February 21, 2016, as is relatively well known. Evo Morales LOST the popular vote to a suspicious 51%, down from 75% in the earlier vote counts, which trickled down to the bare minimum in the wee hours of the night. The claim was this was due to the rural indigenous vote, something which white shame-ridden liberals and leftists in wealthy Northern countries find really, really hard to disbelieve. Ringing bells yet?
Let’s do one of those cool movie montages, rewind and then fast-forward to 2017.
Another farcical Judicial Election, another landslide victory for VOID. What a person this must be! 70% of voters selected VOID as their trusted Constitutional Tribunal judge in 2017. However in reality, the government of Evo Morales again swore in their cronies.
Not to be ungrateful, in November of 2017, not long after getting to break in their office, buy some ferns and frame a picture of their cat. These dignified and democratic judges issued their landmark decision: Evo Morales has the Human Right to run for re-election as many times as he damn well pleases. The Constitution of 2009 be damned, the Referendum of #21F be damned, the sovereign people be, damned.
This was widely seen as a really shitty thing to do. Massive protests in the last 3 years have made this clear. But the Bolivian people were patient, democratic, and willing to express their will AGAIN in the 2019 election.
This is the factual backdrop for last Sunday’s Bolivian presidential election. And this is why millions of Bolivians deposited our last hope for Democracy in Comunidad Ciudadana (you guessed it: Community of Citizens) of Carlos Mesa. We have voted, and the government’s own quick count, along with the only officially allowed exit polls, and the most reliable but not “allowed” ones, shows Mesa heading to a 2nd round runoff in December.
This was the story, and people were generally worried but hopeful until around 8 PM on October 20th, election night. At this point, the vote counting stopped (the quick count which was promised for that night and shows above trend to 84% of votes counted- statistically irreversible).
Now the Electoral Tribunal (TSE) is announcing results that give Evo Morales, just barely, the coveted 10-point lead which avoids a historic runoff. This is FRAUD, outright FRAUD. It’s not a matter of right versus left, or indigenous versus white, or Santa Cruz lowlands versus the Andean highlands. Bolivians everywhere are united in demanding respect for our vote.
Evo Morales will continue to ignore our vote- unless he is forced to via both internal peaceful protests and a strong international community demanding respect for human rights and a transparent audit of every single vote.
Evidence of FRAUD:
Bolivian engineers audited the TSE’s own election results and show irreconcilable differences between the TREP quick-count and the final computation, both based on the exact same Actas or electoral table results!
