Lara in Coup Mode | Lara en modo golpe

Editorial, El Dia:

The worst forecast about Edman Lara has come true—and faster than anyone could have imagined. What many feared—an abrupt turn toward systematic attrition, daily confrontation, and concealed ambition—is no longer a hypothesis: it is an unfolding reality. Lara is in coup-mode, a permanent campaign aimed at political arson. His own declarations, forced comparisons, and increasingly strident behavior make this evident.

This does not mean sanctifying Rodrigo Paz’s government. That would be absurd. The disaster inherited from the MAS is so deep that no government could reverse it in such a short time, and there are indeed errors, silences, and weaknesses that must be pointed out. The issue lies elsewhere: it does not matter whether Paz is doing well or poorly. Lara is not interested in governability, reforms, or stability. He is interested in wearing down, eroding, and sowing instability. He follows a script designed to ensure nothing works and to make the country look backward again.

His behavior is a carbon copy of what led to the implosion of the 2019–2020 transition. The comparison he himself drew between the government of Rodrigo Paz and that of Jeanine Áñez is no coincidence; it is a message. He wants to repeat the same strategy that stripped Áñez of legitimacy and operational capacity, thus paving the way for the MAS to return.

Lara has no structure or strength of his own; he has no cadres, no machinery, no project. The only thing he does have is usefulness for those who do possess a well-oiled apparatus and a vocation for returning to power: the MAS and the populist bloc that wants to retake control at any cost. He is, in practice, an instrument—whether consciously or not—of that plan. Not because he says so, but because everything he does benefits exactly those who destroyed the country for two decades.

His discourse tries to portray him as a hardline opponent, but his strategy exposes him. He seeks to sow chaos, weaken the government, plant doubts, fabricate scandals, and keep the country permanently tense. That does not make him a leader, but an operator with a very clear direction: reopening the path for Evo Morales and his circle, rebranded as a “popular bloc,” a “renewed process,” or any name that can repackage a model that has already proven devastating.

The most dangerous aspect is that Lara behaves like a political termite. He does not destroy head-on; he bores through from within. He does not propose solutions; he blows up bridges. He does not work for the country; he works for the scenario that would allow populism to reinstall itself. His obsession with comparing himself to the current government, presenting himself as an ideal manager, and systematically attacking any action that might yield results shows that his goal is not to improve anything, but to prevent everything.

Neutralizing this game does not mean persecuting or censoring him, but exposing him, so citizens recognize that his role is not that of a watchdog, but of a battering ram. So they understand that behind his moralistic rhetoric and media theatrics, he is paving the way for the return of those who sank the economy, institutions, justice, and democratic coexistence.

Bolivia already knows this script. It lived it. It paid the price. And today Lara is trying to reactivate it with a brazenness that no longer surprises, but does alarm. The country must react—not for Rodrigo Paz, but for itself. Because allowing this corrosive operator to reopen the doors to disaster would mean repeating the tragedy in full awareness.

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