On 8 November 2020, Luis Arce, the progressive candidate of Bolivia’s Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), was sworn in as president, following a landslide victory in October’s election.* The following day, the former socialist president Evo Morales returned from exile, to be met by ecstatic crowds of predominantly indigenous supporters who filled the streets to welcome him home. These events cement the victory, for the moment at least, of the indigenous and working class people of Bolivia over the imperialist-backed fascist coup.
Despite the divisions the bourgeois press has attempted to sow, in reality there is no tension between Arce and Morales. The two appeared together at the MAS national meeting in a deliberate show of unity. Since then MAS has focused on restoring diplomatic relations with socialist and progressive governments in Cuba and Venezuela, ensuring control of the military, nationalising lithium and enforcing justice against key actors of the coup regime.
Bolivia’s right-wing denounced the election result as fraudulent and vowed to prevent Arce from being sworn in. So ahead of 8 November the social movements that make up MAS’s base flocked to La Paz to defend the city from fascist attacks. The indigenous ‘Ponchos Rojos’ guarded the presidential palace.
The Arce government has taken the essential steps of re-organising the military, bringing in new generals and expelling those associated with supporting the coup. Arrest warrants have been issued for the former Interior Minister Arturo Murillo and Defence Minister Fernando Lopez, for corruption and with a view to further investigating their roles in the massacres at Senkata and Sacaba last November. Both have fled the country. The coup president Jeanine Anez, who is facing possible investigation for torture, genocide and forced disappearances, attempted to flee for Brazil at the end of November but was thwarted by social movements who gathered at the airport to confront her. Morales has resumed his role as president of the Six Federations of the Tropico, the powerful social movement of rural indigenous workers from which he founded MAS. He has also been reinstated as leader of MAS.
Under Arce, Bolivia has rejoined the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), all part of building greater unity between Latin American states free from imperialist intervention, and Morales has called for a congress of Latin American social movements to take place in Bolivia between 17 and 19 December to launch an ‘international indigenous organisation and promote regional integration on the basis of plurinationalism and anti-capitalism’ (@KawsachunNews). Venezuela’s socialist ambassador has returned to the embassy and the portrait of Simon Bolivar hangs there once again. Arce has also promised to strengthen relations with Palestine. Speaking in Chimore after he arrived back in Bolivia, Morales emphasied: ‘We are anti-imperialist, that’s not up for debate. Sisters and brothers, listen to me closely, it’s not about being populist or progressive or ‘in solidarity’. If you’re not anti-imperialist then you’re not revolutionary’.
The new MAS government will face challenges in overcoming the legacy of the Añez regime and the health crisis which left a negative growth of 11%, children forced out of school and into work, unemployment and hunger. The coronavirus pandemic is likely to accelerate the demand for a socialised health service, proposed by Morales more than a year ago. The Bolivian rural poor and working class, having faced down a fascist coup government, are mobilised to fight for real change.
Cassandra Howarth
See ‘Movement Towards Socialism wins landslide victory’, www.revolutionary communist.org/americas/bolivia
