The End of the MAS Narrative | El fin de la narrativa del MAS

By Hernan Terrazas, Brujula Digital:

If Evo Morales’ objective is achieved, he would be the first person charged with statutory rape to negotiate his case through international mediation. Incredibly, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights itself is advocating for a dialogued resolution to a conflict that has held part of the country in suspense for nearly twenty days.

The origin of the mobilizations by campesino groups allied with Morales has one goal: to ensure impunity for their leader by turning a strictly personal matter into an improbable social cause.

The government’s restraint—some might call it weakness—has so far avoided fatalities, precisely because, should a death occur on the side of the mobilized, Morales would achieve the “blood cover” needed to “dissolve” his objective into a second-tier issue.

So far, and despite clashes—most of which have resulted in serious injuries for law enforcement, who have even had to relinquish control of their barracks or military posts to campesino forces—the case against Morales remains central, especially now that, from Argentina, Interior Minister Patricia Bullrich has affirmed that the child abuse charges against the former Bolivian president merit criminal proceedings.

It is clear that the blockades are causing millions in losses across productive sectors and that each passing day further deepens the economic crisis in which the country has been mired for at least two years. However, the prolonged dispute between Luis Arce and Evo Morales must reach a resolution before any path forward can be seen—particularly considering Arce still has nearly a year left in office. The MAS’s agony cannot become the country’s.

Morales’ hunger strike, like the staged night he supposedly spent in the open alongside Álvaro García Linera and former Minister Gabriela Montaño four years ago, while they planned their exile to Mexico and later Argentina, is just one more farce among many. It adds to the series of falsehoods, beginning with the “coup” narrative that some naive or complicit governments have embraced, and now tries to spin yet another “escape” into an “indigenous uprising” against oppressors.

With Evo, the MAS narrative—the argument that allowed it to abuse power for years—is nearing its end. Bolivia awaits a new discourse or project, one that, unfortunately, has yet to be presented by anyone.

Hernán Terrazas is a journalist.

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