Luis Arce and Evo Morales are questioned for recognizing the court ruling in favor of Nicolás Maduro

President Luis Arce and former President Evo Morales are once again the focus of questioning from some of their opponents for recognizing the controversial ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela, which ratified the alleged electoral victory of Nicolás Maduro.

What did Arce and Morales say?

Morales said on Friday that “in a clear, definitive and unappealable manner, the Supreme Court of Justice (…) has determined that the president-elect of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is Nicolás Maduro.”

“We extend our congratulations to our brother Nicolásto the Patriotic Pole and mainly to the courageous Venezuelan people. “Long live Venezuela! Chavez lives!” said Morales.

Arce said on Saturday that “Bolivia defends the principle of self-determination of peoples and respect for sovereignty” and that, “in this sense, it rejects any attempt to interfere in the politics of our countries and supports the democratic institutions of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela”.

Reaction from former Bolivian presidents

The former president Jorge Tuto Quiroga He said that eIn Bolivia, the “dictatorial coup” is rejected, the victory of Edmundo Gonzáles is recognized and there is even an apology to Venezuela for the position taken by Morales and Arce. “Apologies for these two satraps and Maduro henchmen who are leaving in 2025,” he wrote in X.

The former president Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze He stressed that Bolivians defend free suffrage with public scrutiny and impartial and independent justice. Therefore, “Luis Arce’s ‘support’ for an opaque election in Venezuela is alien to democratic principles“, he added.

Meantime, Former President Carlos Mesa He said that “Venezuelan state institutions, turned into puppets of the government (of Maduro), are trying to impose a brutal dictatorship over the majority vote of citizens.”

“Such action has even surpassed the gigantic fraud that we experienced in Bolivia in 2019, where the complicity of the OEP (Plurinational Electoral Body) and the Attorney General’s Office was more than evident,” he said.

Meanwhile, former President Jeanine Áñez considered that the Bolivian government’s absence in international rejection of the fraud is “a shame.”