A good analysis by Carlos Cordero Carrafa, La Prensa:

The crisis within the MAS

The existence and disclosure of an extortion network in upper Government echelons is causing, in addition to the deterioration of the presidential image, a severe crisis inside the ruling party.

President Morales and the MAS had attained glittering electoral successes in the 2002, 2005-2009 processes, offering to fight corruption and carry out deep reforms in the field of justice. The reforms in the judicial area is made gradually, in the Constituent Assembly (2006-2008), continued with the Constitutional Referendum, approving the new Constitution, CPE (2009) and auctioned with the election of senior judges of justice by the popular vote, in 2011. During that time the democratic and cultural revolution as well as the prestige of the rulers of the MAS, had the wind and all the stars in their favor. At the end of 2012 the stars and the winds lined up otherwise and the principle of the debacle, occurs in the image and credibility of the President and the ruling party.

The jailing of the American citizen, Jacob Ostreicher, for 20 months, after stripping him of his fortune and apply rigged legal proceedings, came to the attention of the Government of the United States and the world, about the judicial system and Government of Bolivia. The intervention of family members, legislators and media, in different parts of the planet, made evident the existence of a network of government officials located in strategic positions inside the brand-new pluri-national State, who used instruments and standards of Justice in a corrupt way for illicit enrichment or political persecution.

The fight against corruption and a series of judicial reforms that had been so successful in the past to win elections and prestige, thanks to the existence of the network of extortion, turned round and deeply wounded the political project of the MAS. Public trust in the political project announcing to moralize and change the country, began to show cracks. Corruption had thrived in the inner courtyards of the MAS. The last of the discovery of the extortion network effect is generating a political crisis of devastating consequences for the party and the President. The MAS it is no longer the moral reserve of the country. The MAS to the disappointed millions of Bolivians and there is no one who’s responsible for these evils but to the decisions that the rulers made. The extortion network was born in the bowels of the MAS and is destroying the credibility and confidence that was ever deposited in the President and in the MAS. The illusion of a different and transparent Government was shattered. Only remain bewildered citizens and a judicial system, that as an infernal machinery, is devouring its inventors.

http://www.laprensa.com.bo/diario/opiniones/columnistas/20121219/crisis-en-el-mas_39959_64092.html

Exceptional analysis from Carlos Cordero, well written. I only beg to differ from thinking MAS would have been ever, ever considered as a moral reserve of our beloved Bolivia. I’ve never seen anything nor perceived such quality on them, about that regard, sorry.

One thing is the politics and bias any political party may have to convince the voter. Once in government, at the time to use/hire/appoint credible/honest/competent professionals for each subject & senior position by the MAS, was always questioned in my book. Take New Zealand for example, whenever they need an Economics Minister, they search for that expert, internationally, they don’t care of the nationality, they care about the competence.