Unbridled Hunger for Power | Hambre desenfrenada de poder

By Carlos Toranzo Roca, Brujula Digital:

Evo Morales threatens to block the country’s roads if he is not allowed to run as a candidate. What does he want? According to his cynicism, he wants the full enforcement of the Constitution, a clean and independent judiciary, no judicial coup, the government not using the judiciary as a political weapon against opponents, and adherence to the rule of law.

His cynicism is overwhelming in demanding all this, as Morales was the first to violate the Constitution and the laws of the country. The 2009 Magna Carta contains a transitional article accepted by him to prevent him from running in the next presidential election; to approve that Constitution, he gave his word stating that he would not be a candidate. He did not keep his word; in reality, he never did.

After that, he called for the 2016 referendum, stated he would honor its result, and said that if he lost, he would retire to his chaco (farm) with a young woman. He did not keep his word because his chaco was the presidential palace. He ran again, violating the law, and used the judiciary to recognize his “human right” to run indefinitely; his obsequious followers ruled in his favor. Today, those same followers turn their backs on him, supporting the current power.

Morales demands an independent judiciary when, for 14 years, he used it to prolong his power and cover up his corruption, of which Arce was his accomplice. He says the judiciary should not be used as a political weapon, yet he used it as his preferred mechanism to destroy the opposition.

Morales claims he wants the rule of law, yet during his tenure, he absorbed the judiciary and co-opted and used the electoral power. After the 2019 elections, when women, children, and young people mobilized and forced him to resign, the coward fled in tears, alongside García Linera. Today, the fugitive forgets his cowardice and claims there was a “coup d’état” against him. Arce also fled the country; he left Bolivia thanks to the benevolence of President Jeanine Añez, who granted him safe passage, believing it was the right thing to do for a cancer patient. Now, the “patient” uses all his tricks to keep the former president in jail.

Morales shows cynicism in presenting himself as a defender of democracy; his accomplice was the current president. Moreover, he was complicit in sinking the economy by squandering the resources of the commodities boom and preventing hydrocarbon exploration. Both are responsible for the economic crisis plaguing Bolivia.

Morales does not defend the Constitution; he mobilizes his bases, which are reduced to the coca growers, because he wants his own judiciary, desiring an obsequious Constitutional Court to enable him to run in 2025. This is the reason behind his entire political strategy.

Morales is a dictator at heart who has tasted the sweetness of power, and that is why he wants to return to it, to live adored by his clientele, using the public treasury for his whims. If Morales loves power, Arce now shows the same, copying all the defects of his former boss and protector.

Morales lent power to Arce, believing him to be faithful and loyal, thinking he would govern as his “vice president” while the former boss intended to control power and public coffers. A naive belief, as once Arce was installed as president, he felt the power was his and gradually began to disobey Morales.

Power makes Arce believe he is a good president. When he looks in the mirror, he sees the sycophants, always present around the sweetness of power, teaching and advising him that power must be maintained, protected, by any means necessary, legal or illegal, moral or immoral, to undermine anyone who wants to take it away.

Arce is not a leader, not a caudillo, but he controls the public purse, a very useful instrument to convince the “moral reserve of society,” the social movements, that it is better to stay close to the government. This is why the COB, the Bartolinas, the CSUCTB, and other social movements express that “brother Lucho” is the new leader of the process of change. Those who once knelt before Morales now do so before Arce.

Morales and Arce fight for power, not for ideas. The so-called democratic cultural revolution sank long ago, and the process of change does not exist. The plurinational state is an empty shell. In public events of both Arce and Morales supporters, there are no utopias, only the moral poverty of two characters devoid of ethics and political stature to lead a country. Moreover, both show signs of proximity to drug trafficking. The MAS of both factions has nothing left to offer the country.

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