April 29, 2024, 4:00 AM
April 29, 2024, 4:00 AM
President Luis Arce admitted yesterday that the Government does not have the financial resources to carry out works and that natural gas reserves have been exhausted, which is why it must do new exploration to see if there are new fields. The head of state blamed the evista bloc of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) for blocking the approval of credits in the Legislature and said that this situation means that the demands of the population cannot be met.
Arce made the revelation in the municipality of Sapahaqui, in the department of La Paz, during the inauguration of the XX ordinary congress of the Single Departmental Federation of Indigenous Peasant Women Originating from La Paz “Bartolina Sisa”who are preparing to attend the MAS congress in the city of El Alto.
“There is so much to do, but today we don’t have the money we had before. The gas has been exhausted, we are just doing explorations again to see if there is more gas,” Arce stated.
This is not the first time that the president has made these types of comments, in reference to the drop in natural gas exports that, for years, was the main source of income for the Bolivian State. What was a revelation is that he admitted that the country does not have the money to meet demands.
“Sisters Brothers, We do not have resources and when we want to lend, the right and the evista wing deny us the approval of credits in the Assembly. When there are demands for more works, there is, therefore, nowhere to get money from,” the head of state insisted.
Arce added that the Government knows about the needs of the department of La Paz, but “he no longer has the money he had before”, when during the administration of Evo Morales Resources flowed through gas exports.
In this context, he recalled that the previous week, the Senate with votes from the Evista wing and the right, They have rejected, after it was approved in the Chamber of Deputies, the credit to complete the Café Cable Car line in the city of La Paz.
For the economist Mauricio Ríos, the future of the economy of this country (and any other) should never again depend on any natural resource, “but of the inventiveness of its entrepreneurs in an environment of freedom.”
The division of the MAS deepened. Thus, each of the factions prepares its own congress and awaits validation from the TSE. The final endorsement of the electoral body will determine who can represent the MAS in the 2025 presidential elections. The Arcist wing already has its candidates to replace Evo Morales in the presidency of the national leadership.
“We hope that the TSE acts legally and not politically,” Evo Morales demanded yesterday. The position of the coca grower leader was very critical of the decisions made by the electoral body. What’s more, he observes “a lot of political maneuvering” to invalidate the meeting of the ‘evista’ wing, which was announced in Villa Tunari for July 10.
Yesterday, the member Tahuichi Tahuichi announced that the congress of the Arcista wing is not within the legal framework because it does not have the endorsement of the national leadership of the MAS, which is in the hands of Evo Morales. Likewise, the member said that Morales’ congress would be out of the norm because it did not have the support of the parent organizations of the MAS.as mandated by its own organic statute.
In that internal fight, Morales did not hesitate to show his repudiation of the current head of state. “He doesn’t want me to be president because I am radical with corruption,” he said. and he spared no adjectives for his ministers. The coca grower leader also considered that the Government obeys a plan from the United States.
Meanwhile, the Government Minister, Eduardo del Castillo yesterday pointed to Morales as the person responsible for putting the legal status of the MAS at risk. and seeking to impose his candidacy for 2025, even convulsing the country.