By Desk, Inspired Traveler [I included pics, and inserted them along this article as they appeared in social media]:
La Paz, 15 Dec (EFE) .- The controversy was served in Bolivia following the silletazo against former President Evo Morales at a meeting of his party, with reactions ranging from criticism, concern and threats of expulsion of the ruling Socialism Movement (MAS) to mockery and creative memes in the networks social.
The event occurred on the eve of a meeting held in the town of Lauca Ñ, in the tropics of Cochabamba, Morales’s political and trade union stronghold, to define the MAS candidacies in the eastern region of Santa Cruz for the next subnational elections.
The meeting ended among cries calling for political renewal while participants threw chairs, one of them that went to Morales’s head, as seen in videos recorded with mobile phones that were later spread on social networks and local media.
The apparent trigger of the brawl was the announcement of the appointment of former minister Carlos Romero as the candidate for the Governorate of Santa Cruz, which was not well received by the participants in the meeting, according to the local press.
After the images were widely shared and disseminated, the former president and president of MAS denounced on his Twitter account that the “coup right is trying to destroy the unity” of his party and that they are “sending infiltrates to generate violence” in these party encounters.
The government party determined by a resolution the “definitive expulsion of the MAS with disappointment of all those involved and identified in these acts of indiscipline.”
The note also expresses the unconditional support for Morales for being the “builder of the process of change and the democratic and cultural revolution,” as its militants call the MAS Government.
CRITICISM, REFLECTION AND MOCKERY
The leader of the Confederation of Peasant Women “Bartolina Sisa”, Segundina Flores, asked the “massive” militancy to respect the former president and not to whistle, shout or blow chairs at the meetings, whose objective is to achieve consensus on the candidacies that will be submitted.
On the other side, former transitional president Jeanine Áñez said on Twitter that these acts show that the MAS bases are “rebelling”, which, in her opinion, is good.
Áñez also considered that “the days of the imposture have passed” that Morales applied in his party.
The Office of the Ombudsman expressed in a statement its concern “about violent actions” in various actions to elect candidates and called for tolerance, respect and the use of “democratic avenues”.
There were no shortage of widely shared memes on different platforms, many of them alluding to the blue plastic chair that hit the former president.
“ Now it was a blow [Bolivian Thoughts opinion: Author translated literally the Spanish word golpe, which was meant to refer to the alleged coup d’état and not blow. The coca grower intends to distort the truth, he made an electoral fraud and fled the country when discovered.]. Sincerely, the chair”, is one of the messages that is read on social networks, or “the one who loses the chair, they give him the chair.”
Others make an analogy with the surname of former President Carlos Mesa (2003-2005), Morales’s main opponent in the failed 2019 elections, and what happened to the chair with texts like “what Mesa could not do, did the chair”.
Morales resigned from the Bolivian presidency in November 2019 denouncing a “coup d’état” against him, amid allegations of alleged electoral fraud in his favor in that year’s general elections that were then annulled.
The struggles within the MAS for candidacies for subnational elections have been manifested in tensions and silletazos in other meetings in regions such as Potosí, Santa Cruz and Chuquisaca.
After Bolivia’s political and social crisis last year and President Luis Arce’s electoral victory, some sectors of the MAS called for a renewal process without ignored Morales’ leadership within the organization.
(c) EFE Agency
https://www.inspiredtraveler.ca/evo-morales-silletazo-provokes-criticism-and-memes-in-bolivia/
The blue chair is now famous:
Blue chair made history:
Bolivian Thoughts in an Emerging World 