March 13, 2023, 4:00 AM
March 13, 2023, 4:00 AM
The opposition does not have a political structure and, for the moment, is reactive, without initiative. The opposition power to the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) is more embodied in the streets than in the parties with Legislative representation, which makes it difficult to form a single bloc to confront the ruling party, as was demanded by the national council in the general elections. of 2025. The MAS, which also suffers from cracks in its structure, has an advantage in seeing an opposition without a clear horizon.
The opposition in the Legislature is made up of the alliances Creemos and Comunidad Ciudadana (CC). The first has its leader Luis Fernando Camacho in prison. For its part, the second is led by former President Carlos Mesa. However, the true opposition is in the streets of the country through citizen movements made up of platforms, civic entities and the National Committee for the Defense of Democracy (Conade).
In the opinion of the political analyst Gabriel Valverde, the party-formal opposition is very “inactive”. The party leadership is fed by the claims of the civic and citizen organization.
“The great problem of the opposition is that it has no structure, it does not have financial or logistical resources; furthermore, it lacks a consensus candidate. He has not been able to and I think it will be very difficult to form a coalition that allows for a single candidate. Maybe it will come out at the last minute, but it is unlikely,” Valverde stressed.
The expert recalled that there are more than a dozen political organizations that have legal status and aspire to participate in the 2025 elections. “We must take into account that the MNR, ADN, FRI, UCS, PDC, FPV, MTS (which have affinity with the MAS) and Panbol, among others, have very small structures and do not have a candidate who can move them forward. That is a huge weakness,” he said.
Former President Jorge Quiroga sees a very fragmented opposition in the Legislature and with a job that “leaves much to be desired.” According to the former president, the opponents of the MAS lack concrete actions. In addition, he sees that in the economic and political aspect the opposition did not carry out its inspection work, despite the fact that there were negative signs since 2022.
“I would have liked to see a more active role for the parliamentary opposition on many fronts. For example, it’s been more than two years in government and I find it incredible that the attorney general (Juan Lanchipa) or the authorities of the Supreme Court (of Justice) or the Constitutional Court had never been summoned to tell them: ‘gentlemen, you recognized Jeanine Áñez as constitutional president of Bolivia’. The Constitutional Court extended her mandate, the Supreme Court of Justice received her with a band in a solemn act and said that she had to be held accountable for a long time ”, questioned former President Quiroga.
From CC they propose that there be a single opposition front for the 2025 presidential elections and affirm that Carlos Mesa, leader of said alliance, may be one of the possible candidates. In the ranks of the ruling party they see that the opponents’ attempt will fail.
“Comunidad Ciudadana has expressed the will to learn the lessons of the past and form a united front, where there is a single candidate that will fight the masismo. Each time we are advancing in the formation of a united front with a candidate for 2025”, affirmed Milena Reque, from CC.
Deputy Ramiro Venegas, from the radical wing of the MAS, assured that the opposition is “too nervous” because they no longer know what they will do for the 2025 elections and said that they have no proposals for the development of the country.
“They are already thinking of coming together between Moors and Christians, between criminals, because at the end of the day the opposition should dedicate itself to suggesting development programs and projects for the benefit of the country,” criticized the legislator.
Venegas considered that once the opposition makes a single front, internal fights between Carlos Mesa, Jorge Quiroga, Samuel Doria Medina, among others, will begin. “Nobody will give in and in the end they will go different ways,” he said.
And that is the great challenge of the opposition: to achieve a single bloc to face the MAS in 2025. But that is also the request of different organizations that are against the ruling party. For example, the National Committee in Defense of Democracy (Conade) announced that details of the progress achieved in this project, which is to unite the MAS political opposition, will be known.
“In the coming weeks, information will be provided on the progress made, to this day there is no civic, political, partisan force or citizen group that would have rejected the formation of this united front,” reported Manuel Morales, leader of the Conade
The activist assured that there are many coincidences in the opposition sector, whose fundamental objective is to achieve united actions in the next judicial elections and in 2024 to be able to present possible candidacies in the primaries.
“That means that no sector of the opposition could propose premature candidacies in 2023, that is one of the agreements that has been reached, in addition, a government program will be built and a new state model will be proposed to society,” he explained.
Already in December 2022, Conade proposed turning the fight against “authoritarianism” towards an electoral space, creating a single opposition political front to beat the MAS in the next general elections.
In this regard, the constitutional lawyer José Luis Santistevan considered that what the country is waiting for “is not a single candidacy, because the underlying issue is that the opposition must develop an alternative” to an “exhausted process” of the MAS.
On January 26, the National Cabildo in Santa Cruz demanded that the political opposition “promote unity towards the next elections”, to confront the MAS, which has not lost an election since 2005, partly because the opposition could not join forces. and because its leaders decided to confront the ruling party each on their own. That happened with Jorge Quiroga, Carlos Mesa, Luis Fernando Camacho, Samuel Doria Medina, among others.
For now, the MAS fights internally and the opposition watches from the box.
