The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, judged “The progress of leftist governments is undeniable” in the region, from the triumph in Colombia of Gustavo Petro, a fact that he attributed to the failure of the right in his efforts and warned that the chance of a coup in his country “is there” because “the national and international right did not like” what his government did by “recovering democracy.”
“The left is coming back because the right could not give a satisfactory response to the demands of society,” said Arce, who also considered that in order to face the inflationary phenomenon anywhere, the first thing that must be achieved is “to be self-sufficient in the production of what that is consumed on a daily basis.
In an interview on radio AM750, the Bolivian president reviewed his youth militancy, his days as a student and the “cultural shock” that his master’s degree in England meant to him.
“During my time in England, they gave me the scientific foundations to be able to undertake this madness of carrying out an economic model in the country that is totally different from the one that was in fashion: the neoliberal model. That year was fundamental to being able to understand what can be developed an economic model in Latin America. And here we are. Now it’s our turn to drive the ship of state,” he stressed.
“The left is coming back because the right could not give a satisfactory response to the demands of society”louis arce
Arce said, on the other hand, that he perceived “several weeks before” the coup d’état against Evo Morales that he was facing a “soft coup, with a strategy in which they made blockades and went to the houses of the ministers” to shout and post addresses on social networks.
“We knew that the right had a plan against the government and that was consolidated the night we received the news from the OAS and the famous report that is practically the trigger for the coup d’état to break out in the country”he referred.
He highlighted the role of the Mexican embassy in La Paz, which provided “the greatest security and a warm welcome” to the MAS leadership and insisted on the “fundamental role” of the diplomats.
He also ratified the transparency of the trial that ended with a 10-year prison sentence for former de facto president Jeanine Áñez and lamented that “the right does not want to recognize” that “the same judges and prosecutors” who acted in this case were the ones who ” politically persecuted” Morales administration officials.
“We have followed all the steps so that due process is respected for Mrs. Áñez. We have given her all the conditions, she even had privileges. Mrs. Áñez’s relatives stayed to sleep with her,” he reviewed.
He denounced that “the right has made an effort to try to demonstrate” that there was a breach of the regulations, “but Áñez’s trial has lasted as long as it had to last”, because the Executive “neither got involved nor hindered”.
He also revealed that it cost him “quite convincing” to his family of his candidacy for the presidency, when that chance began to be considered. “My mom, my wife and kids have always been at odds. I still have some issues over that,” she joked.
Arce explained that when he arrived at the Executive, he understood that he had to immediately resolve the situation generated by the Covid-19 pandemic because otherwise “the economic issue could not be faced.”
Asked if there is still a chance of a coup in Bolivia, he replied: “It is there; what we did when we recovered democracy was not liked by the national or international right. We saw suspicious visits from characters from other countries, who have met with people from the local right who participated in and managed the 2019 coup; they are not resting.”
And he highlighted that he is trying to do good management “so that the population judges any destabilization attempt that may come.”
In this framework, he defended his program of “import substitution industrialization”.
And regarding the future management of Petro in Colombia, he warned that “it is always difficult when a country leaves a structure like the right to establish a progressive government that tries to solve problems that the right could not solve.”
“We talked with Petro and we talked about continuing to build the Great Homeland. We are all committed to that,” he remarked, defining the OAS Secretary General, Luis Almagro, as “a traitor” and Evo Morales as “a great leader,” and stressed that Pope Francis “wants to transform the Church.”
