How Evo Morales Made Bolivia A Better Place ... Before He Was Forced To Flee

[Judi Lynn]

November 26, 20193:17 PM ET
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento



President Evo Morales attended the inauguration of new buildings in a housing project in 2016. The indigenous Aymara artist Roberto Mamani Mamani painted murals over a building facade.
Marcelo Perez Del Carpio/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Evo Morales stepped down from the Bolivian presidency on November 10, after the military asked him to do so, and fled to Mexico for asylum.

His departure followed nationwide controversy over his re-election in October. Morales had called for a court appeal to allow him to run beyond the constitutionally-mandated term limit. And then the election itself was marred by polling irregularities and fraud.

Unrest has ensued. Security forces fired on protesters who support Morales last on Nov. 15; eight were killed and many others injured. More than 30 people have been killed since the Oct. 20 vote.

But despite the turmoil, there is another perspective on the nearly 14 years Morales held office.

As the country's first indigenous president, Morales promised to bring power to marginalized groups. And he fulfilled that promise.

More:
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/11/26/781199250/how-evo-morales-made-bolivia-a-better-place-before-he-was-forced-to-flee

[sandensea]

1. And if anyone, outside Bolivia, should be grateful to Evo, it's Argentine right-wingers

In Argentina, you see, the largest source by far of immigrants of color is Bolivia.

Argentine politics closely resembles the U.S.'s in that both have increasingly radicalized white right-wing voters whose overriding concern is the "browning" of their respective countries.

The obsession is such, that it trumps (pun intended) even the economy.

The enduring loyalty of white middle-class voters to the (now defeated) failure of a president, Macri, is clear proof of that.

His Bush-style debt bubble and crisis has decimated middle-class net worth (to say nothing of the poor). Many have dropped private insurance, downsized to smaller homes, and (horror of horrors!) taken their kids out of private schools.

But they've stuck with Macri, who got 40% of the vote in the October 27 runoff - which is practically identical to what is generally considered the "white middle class" in Argentina (40-45%).

But their gratitude is misplaced: they should be thankful to Evo Morales.

Thanks to Morales' policies, the number of Bolivians emigrating to Argentina has fallen from 40,000 annually a decade ago to less than 20,000 in 2018.

My guess is that, as a consequence of Cheeto's coup against Morales - and Jeanine Áñez's narco-dictatorship - that number's about to go up.