July 19, 2023, 4:00 AM
July 19, 2023, 4:00 AM
The week began with a request from prison. Governor Luis Ferdinand Camacho called to undertake “a great crusade” to launch “a democratic project” from the regions and that it be an alternative to the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS). Assemblywoman Paola Aguirre insisted yesterday on this demand for unity with a view to the 2025 elections.
The adhesions to this proposal yesterday were not explicit. even, dFrom Comunidad Ciudadana (CC) they explained that it is still “premature” to talk about this scenario and Creemos, the alliance founded by Camacho himself, is preparing to hold a national meeting in Santa Cruz this Friday to discuss a “road map” with a view to the upcoming challenges. This political force was divided into various factions since the beginning of the 2020-25 constitutional period.
“What Camacho did was call for reflection by all the actors of the Bolivian political opposition with the purpose of deposing individualistic attitudes and thus be able to aspire to build a project that allows Bolivians to find an alternative to what the MAS promotes”, Aguirre expressed in a press conference.
The Creemos assemblywoman is one of the closest to the Governor. She clarified that the unity project is not thought of a single person, but in the real needs of the citizenry. Of course, he anticipated that the candidate who leads the initiative must be the result of popular support and acceptance, this with the purpose of guaranteeing a consensual proposal supported by the population that “falls in love” with the entire country.
“Extractivism, statism, the irresponsible exploitation of natural resources, drug trafficking and smuggling, corruption, bureaucracy, demagogy and populism are the flags that MAS has waved and that are leading to the destruction of our country,” he said. and considered It is essential that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal execute the prior sanitation of the registerwhich is the list of all eligible voters.
For the 2020 elections, this database was made up of 7.3 million voters.
“The immediate time that comes we will have to undertake a great crusade to rebuild the ruins of the economy, politics and society that the collapse of the masista model will leave us” Camacho wrote. The letter was read by his management advisor, Efraín Suárez, one of the few government officials who has permission to visit him in the Chonchocoro prison in La Paz.
The Governor claimed the role of the opposition parties. He assured that since 2005, when the MAS won its first election, opposition forces stopped authoritarianism. The opposition raised “another project that came from the regions, autonomy. And so it was that the radical socialist Constitution of the MAS, with indefinite re-election and with confiscation of private property (such as the reversion of land in the east), could not be imposed”, reads the document read on Monday by Suárez.
“Let’s never repeat that slogan devised by the massismo, that ‘there is no opposition’. If there would be no opposition, masista radicalism would have turned Bolivia into a socialist countrywrapped in economic misery like Cuba or Venezuela”, he refuted.
In this context, Suárez highlighted the importance of the meeting this Friday, June 21. It is expected that there “a north will be defined” regarding “the struggles of 2025.” Authorities and leaders of Creemos will participate in the meeting. There is still no strategy for rapprochement with other political forces.
“We take it as the admission of an error, because certainly It was Luis Fernando Camacho who divided the opposition in 2020 and brought the MAS back to power. In any case, times and contexts have changed. We need unity, but we also need a proposal to get out of the crisis we are in. At this time, the most important thing is to manage and think about how the country is going to reactivate. The candidacies must be left for the electoral moment”affirmed the deputy Alejandro Reyes (CC).
alerted that Right now, Justice is playing in favor of the MAS and that this could affect the opposition candidate who may leave. “They are going to fill it with lawsuits,” added the legislator.
In fact, the leader of this political force, former president Carlos Mesa, had indicated that “the political forces are going to be rearranged until 2024, when the moment of departure of the presidential race really takes place”. He pointed out and avoided referring to a probable candidacy of his, as happened in 2019, the year in which the crisis occurred due to the effect of the fraud that the OAS denounced.
From the MAS, Camacho’s proposal was minimized by the ‘archist’ wing‘ And from the faction that supports Evo they assure that “even President Luis Arce knows that Morales will be the next president.” This was stated yesterday by deputy Anyelo Céspedes (MAS).
See you in 2025! To the opponents, to all of them who go with their party. The MAS is going to have its candidate and it is going to be a government again with a president who works”, remarked the legislator.
From the ‘archist’ wing, deputy Hernán Hinojosa (MAS) affirmed that Camacho “has no morals to criticize the management of President Arce”. In this context, he disqualified the governor’s request due to his preventive detention.
Looking ahead to the 2025 elections, the MAS faces a struggle for control of the party. Yesterday, the ‘evista’ wing denounced that the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), loyal to Arce, is organizing a parallel congress to the one that was convened for October in Cochabamba
The pre-election climate was also encouraged by the announcement by former deputy Carlos Börth to promote a new political party.
