Stories from the march and the absence of solutions

The march of supporters of Evo Morales is expected to arrive in El Alto today, amid warnings of blockades and confrontation.

The MAS is leading the country to a scenario of uncertainty. Although the former president’s followers try hard to say that the mobilization is due to the problems of the economy, it is clear that there is a struggle for party and national power and that there are two leaders fighting for territory at the cost of the insecurity they generate in millions of Bolivians.

As in other years, the speeches of each side sow uncertainty and anguish, especially with the proximity of the month of October, which is traditionally conflictive since Evo Morales has been in power. Now, the warnings speak of whether the farmers and neighborhood associations of the Arcistas will prevent the Evo march from moving forward; whether the coca growers are going to use firearms against the civilian population, etc. The objective is only one, to occupy the political field and the space of the media.

What is also clear is that, while Evo and Lucho fight for power, little is said about the national reality of the lack of dollars and fuel, the growing inflation or the citizens’ uncertainty about the future. Will this be a collateral objective of the Evo march in coordination with the Arcist government?

The truth is that, as the march progresses, the arguments that support it change. It is also becoming clear that those who walk are the bases of some social sectors, but not necessarily those who lead them, among them, Evo Morales himself, who has been present and absent at different times and who has been seen getting into a high-end Japanese van of the year. A separate point deserves the government’s claim that the vehicle belongs to a 21-year-old girl, daughter of a person who has been in prison for drug trafficking.

We must analyze what each of the two sides in this conflict is involved in. Both Evo Morales and Luis Arce and their ministers try to differentiate themselves and blame each other for the economic crisis that the country is experiencing, after having had billions of dollars in cash, which they squandered in 17 years of management. Now, neither of them carries a proposal that frees ordinary Bolivians from the heavy burden of not making ends meet due to the decrease and precariousness of employment, the fall in exports and the lack of foreign currency to do business and generate production.

On the other hand, this internal fight that they are exhibiting once again shows the authoritarian vision of politics, which has been demonstrated in physical and verbal confrontations, in intolerance and in attacks on journalists (the first victims of the problem). The absence of dialogue is a constant. Everything is more of the same. Nothing new for Bolivia.

With an exhausted model, with Bolivians in uncertainty due to threats and a lack of solutions, the march of evismo against arcismo only generates a general weariness in society.

Today the march will arrive in El Alto. It is possible that there will be clashes along the way and that both sides will play the victim. How long will we have to tolerate this struggle occupying the political arena, instead of discussing alternatives for the economy? While the fight has the focus of government attention, the fires continue to devour the forests, the doubts about the supply of fuel remain, and the foreign currency is still missing. In other words, we are in the middle of a war of stories and the suffocating reality of everyday life.