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New Indian Express
a day ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Barred from Bolivia's elections, former President Morales campaigns hard for invalid votes
EL ALTO: Barred from appearing on Sunday's ballot, former leftist president Evo Morales has launched a scrappy campaign for a presidential contender with no name, no face and no formal platform. The contender's known as 'Nulo" — Spanish for the null-and-void vote. Nulo has a reliable base in Bolivia, where voting is compulsory. For many years, voters disillusioned with Morales' increasingly high-handed attempts to prolong his presidency over three consecutive terms defaced their ballots or left them blank. Supporters of Morales to declare their votes null But with the coca-farming union leader disqualified from the race and seeking to distance himself from the unpopular President Luis Arce and other leftists associated with Bolivia's worst economic crisis in four decades, Morales has emerged as Nulo's greatest champion. 'Brothers, we are on the right track. Absenteeism, blank ballots, undecided voters, all of it,' Morales told Radio Kawsachun Coca, his media outlet in the Bolivian jungle of Chapare, where he has been holed up for months among fiercely loyal coca-growing labor unions. If Morales leaves his tropical stronghold, he risks arrest on charges related to statutory rape. He denies the allegations. 'Nulo is where we belong,' he said, urging voters to scratch, scribble and sketch on their ballots. 'We've already won here.' But under Bolivian law, Nulo cannot win the elections— nor trigger a redo. Because authorities must remove spoiled and blank ballots from the final count, a surge by Nulo would give all the candidates a boost without affecting the distribution of votes.
a day ago
- Politics
Barred from Bolivia's elections, ex-leader Morales campaigns hard for invalid votes
EL ALTO, Bolivia -- Barred from appearing on Sunday's ballot, former leftist president Evo Morales has launched a scrappy campaign for a presidential contender with no name, no face and no formal platform. The contender's known as 'Nulo" — Spanish for the null-and-void vote. Nulo has a reliable base in Bolivia, where voting is compulsory. For many years, voters disillusioned with Morales' increasingly high-handed attempts to prolong his presidency over three consecutive terms defaced their ballots or left them blank. But with the coca-farming union leader disqualified from the race and seeking to distance himself from the unpopular President Luis Arce and other leftists associated with Bolivia's worst economic crisis in four decades, Morales has emerged as Nulo's greatest champion. 'Brothers, we are on the right track. Absenteeism, blank ballots, undecided voters, all of it,' Morales told Radio Kawsachun Coca, his media outlet in the Bolivian jungle of Chapare, where he has been holed up for months among fiercely loyal coca-growing labor unions. If Morales leaves his tropical stronghold, he risks arrest on charges related to statutory rape. He denies the allegations. 'Nulo is where we belong,' he said, urging voters to scratch, scribble and sketch on their ballots. 'We've already won here.' But under Bolivian law, Nulo cannot win the elections— nor trigger a redo. Because authorities must remove spoiled and blank ballots from the final count, a surge by Nulo would give all the candidates a boost without affecting the distribution of votes. Morales is betting that an unusually high proportion of votes for Nulo would embarrass the right-wing front-runners, former President Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga and businessman Samuel Doria Medina, undermine the credibility of the consequential election and extend his own political relevance. 'Evo wants to be in the election and say, 'This is my vote ... I'm the winner without even having participated,'" said political analyst Carlos Saavedra. Morales' bid for Nulo comes after the iconic leftist leader, like other Latin American populists of his generation, exhausted a range of tactics to stay in power. To run for a third term in 2014, Morales changed the Constitution's two-consecutive-term limit and stacked the top courts with his supporters. To run for a fourth term in 2019, he found a way around a referendum blocking his bid. That last attempt six years ago led to Morales resigning under pressure from the military and fleeing into exile as violent protests erupted over his disputed reelection. This time, with his ally-turned-rival Arce in power, Morales had all the cards — rather, courts — stacked against him. The ex-president's power struggle with Arce splintered his once-dominant Movement Toward Socialism. Although running with a different faction, Senate President Andrónico Rodríguez represents the MAS party's best hope. But support for Rodríguez, a coca-farming union activist like Morales, has declined in recent weeks as an accelerating currency crisis stokes outrage at the long-dominant MAS party. Morales' followers can appear even more disgusted with the left than with the right-wing establishment that their leader built his career opposing. "Evo Morales taught Andrónico everything he knows, and Andrónico stabbed him in the back. How can we trust a candidate like that?" asked Wendy Chipana, a 28-year-old volunteer at a Nulo campaign office in El Alto, the sprawling city of rural migrants overlooking Bolivia's capital of La Paz. 'We only have one candidate, Evo Morales. That's why we're deciding not to cast a single valid vote.' As anger flared in June over Morales' disqualification, his supporters blocked highways and clashed with police in unrest that left eight dead. Morales warned that the country would 'convulse' should Sunday's election proceed. Yet in recent weeks he has changed his tune, urging his followers to register their frustration through the ballot box. Nulo campaigners are asking voters to get creative. Chipana distributes decals of Morales' face that voters can stick on their ballots. Retired professor Martha Cruz, 67, says she'll mark hers with a large X. Diego Aragon, 32, a coca farmer in Chapare, plans to paste a coca leaf on his paper in a nod to Morales' legalization of the medicinal plant, maligned during the U.S.-backed war on drugs as the base product in cocaine. Clothing vendor Daniela Cusi, 44, wants to take her time in the voting booth. 'I'm going to bring paint and draw his pretty little face all over,' she said. With just days to go before the election, Nulo is drawing even some of Morales' detractors who prefer to vote for nothing than back any of the uncharismatic candidates. 'I'm done with Evo, but I have no information about these other candidates,' said Diana Mamani, 30, selling shivering lambs at a market in the far reaches of El Alto. 'The right-wing spends all this money on propaganda but they haven't bothered to come out here.' The two right-wing candidates, Quiroga and Doria Medina, have run for president and lost three times before. Despite disenchantment over his autocratic tendencies, sexual abuse cases and profligate state spending, Morales, as Bolivia's first Indigenous president, retains a level of fervent support that no other candidate can claim. 'I look in the mirror and realize I am just like him,' said Cristina Sonco, 43, a worker at the scenic cable car linking La Paz to El Alto, one of the many infrastructure projects Morales built as president. Like Morales, Sonco is an Aymara, the Indigenous group forming the majority of Bolivia's population. Recalling how his presidency reduced inequality and increased her rights in a country historically dominated by a white and mestizo, or mixed-race, elite, she started to weep. 'He's like a father to me," she said. 'Not like these other candidates.' The light-skinned, Western-educated Quiroga and Doria Medina represent the same ruling class that Morales swept aside when he first rode to power in 2005, vowing to bury 20 years of pro-Washington, free-market policies that failed to lift Bolivians out of poverty. Twenty years later, Bolivia finds itself at the end of another historic cycle. Prices are rising and fuel is scarce. Families can no longer access their dollar savings. In some ways, analysts say, Sunday's elections could leave Morales right back where he started. 'I think that's why Morales is pushing for Nulo, not a left-wing vote,' said Aymara author Quya Reyna. 'It would suit him for the right-wing to come to power.' After all, Morales' past five years spent bickering with his former protégé wasn't a great look for the maverick leader, Reyna said, adding:
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Barred from Bolivia's elections, ex-leader Morales campaigns hard for invalid votes
EL ALTO, Bolivia (AP) — Barred from appearing on Sunday's ballot, former leftist president Evo Morales has launched a scrappy campaign for a presidential contender with no name, no face and no formal platform. The contender's known as 'Nulo' — Spanish for the null-and-void vote. Nulo has a reliable base in Bolivia, where voting is compulsory. For many years, voters disillusioned with Morales' increasingly high-handed attempts to prolong his presidency over three consecutive terms defaced their ballots or left them blank. Supporters of Morales to declare their votes null But with the coca-farming union leader disqualified from the race and seeking to distance himself from the unpopular President Luis Arce and other leftists associated with Bolivia's worst economic crisis in four decades, Morales has emerged as Nulo's greatest champion. 'Brothers, we are on the right track. Absenteeism, blank ballots, undecided voters, all of it,' Morales told Radio Kawsachun Coca, his media outlet in the Bolivian jungle of Chapare, where he has been holed up for months among fiercely loyal coca-growing labor unions. If Morales leaves his tropical stronghold, he risks arrest on charges related to statutory rape. He denies the allegations. 'Nulo is where we belong,' he said, urging voters to scratch, scribble and sketch on their ballots. 'We've already won here.' But under Bolivian law, Nulo cannot win the elections— nor trigger a redo. Because authorities must remove spoiled and blank ballots from the final count, a surge by Nulo would give all the candidates a boost without affecting the distribution of votes. Morales bets on 'Nulo' to stay in the game Morales is betting that an unusually high proportion of votes for Nulo would embarrass the right-wing front-runners, former President Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga and businessman Samuel Doria Medina, undermine the credibility of the consequential election and extend his own political relevance. 'Evo wants to be in the election and say, 'This is my vote … I'm the winner without even having participated,'' said political analyst Carlos Saavedra. Morales' bid for Nulo comes after the iconic leftist leader, like other Latin American populists of his generation, exhausted a range of tactics to stay in power. To run for a third term in 2014, Morales changed the Constitution's two-consecutive-term limit and stacked the top courts with his supporters. To run for a fourth term in 2019, he found a way around a referendum blocking his bid. That last attempt six years ago led to Morales resigning under pressure from the military and fleeing into exile as violent protests erupted over his disputed reelection. From ruling bloc to running alone This time, with his ally-turned-rival Arce in power, Morales had all the cards — rather, courts — stacked against him. The ex-president's power struggle with Arce splintered his once-dominant Movement Toward Socialism. Although running with a different faction, Senate President Andrónico Rodríguez represents the MAS party's best hope. But support for Rodríguez, a coca-farming union activist like Morales, has declined in recent weeks as an accelerating currency crisis stokes outrage at the long-dominant MAS party. Morales' followers can appear even more disgusted with the left than with the right-wing establishment that their leader built his career opposing. 'Evo Morales taught Andrónico everything he knows, and Andrónico stabbed him in the back. How can we trust a candidate like that?' asked Wendy Chipana, a 28-year-old volunteer at a Nulo campaign office in El Alto, the sprawling city of rural migrants overlooking Bolivia's capital of La Paz. 'We only have one candidate, Evo Morales. That's why we're deciding not to cast a single valid vote.' As anger flared in June over Morales' disqualification, his supporters blocked highways and clashed with police in unrest that left eight dead. Morales warned that the country would 'convulse' should Sunday's election proceed. Yet in recent weeks he has changed his tune, urging his followers to register their frustration through the ballot box. For 'Nulo' voters, the ballot becomes a canvas Nulo campaigners are asking voters to get creative. Chipana distributes decals of Morales' face that voters can stick on their ballots. Retired professor Martha Cruz, 67, says she'll mark hers with a large X. Diego Aragon, 32, a coca farmer in Chapare, plans to paste a coca leaf on his paper in a nod to Morales' legalization of the medicinal plant, maligned during the U.S.-backed war on drugs as the base product in cocaine. Clothing vendor Daniela Cusi, 44, wants to take her time in the voting booth. 'I'm going to bring paint and draw his pretty little face all over,' she said. Voter cynicism intensifies With just days to go before the election, Nulo is drawing even some of Morales' detractors who prefer to vote for nothing than back any of the uncharismatic candidates. 'I'm done with Evo, but I have no information about these other candidates,' said Diana Mamani, 30, selling shivering lambs at a market in the far reaches of El Alto. 'The right-wing spends all this money on propaganda but they haven't bothered to come out here.' The two right-wing candidates, Quiroga and Doria Medina, have run for president and lost three times before. Despite disenchantment over his autocratic tendencies, sexual abuse cases and profligate state spending, Morales, as Bolivia's first Indigenous president, retains a level of fervent support that no other candidate can claim. 'I look in the mirror and realize I am just like him,' said Cristina Sonco, 43, a worker at the scenic cable car linking La Paz to El Alto, one of the many infrastructure projects Morales built as president. Like Morales, Sonco is an Aymara, the Indigenous group forming the majority of Bolivia's population. Recalling how his presidency reduced inequality and increased her rights in a country historically dominated by a white and mestizo, or mixed-race, elite, she started to weep. 'He's like a father to me,' she said. 'Not like these other candidates.' The light-skinned, Western-educated Quiroga and Doria Medina represent the same ruling class that Morales swept aside when he first rode to power in 2005, vowing to bury 20 years of pro-Washington, free-market policies that failed to lift Bolivians out of poverty. Bolivia's crisis summons ghosts of the past Twenty years later, Bolivia finds itself at the end of another historic cycle. Prices are rising and fuel is scarce. Families can no longer access their dollar savings. In some ways, analysts say, Sunday's elections could leave Morales right back where he started. 'I think that's why Morales is pushing for Nulo, not a left-wing vote,' said Aymara author Quya Reyna. 'It would suit him for the right-wing to come to power.' After all, Morales' past five years spent bickering with his former protégé wasn't a great look for the maverick leader, Reyna said, adding: 'He's much more comfortable confronting neoliberal administrations. That would lend him social legitimacy, even if he's not in the government or Congress.'
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Disgraced Leftist Hero Now Hides From the Law in Bolivian Jungle
(Bloomberg) -- In a tropical corner of Bolivia, on a compound owned by a radio station that caters to growers of the plant often used to make cocaine, a former president is hiding from the law. Trump Administration Plans to Eliminate Dozens of Housing Offices Republican Mayor Braces for Tariffs: 'We Didn't Budget for This' How Upzoning in Cambridge Broke the YIMBY Mold NYC's Finances Are Sinking With Gauge Falling to 11-Year Low Remembering the Landscape Architect Who Embraced the City He's holed up in a bunker, protected by an encampment filled with thousands of loyalists armed with sticks. They're ready to beat back any attempt to take him into custody on charges of human trafficking and statutory rape. Evo Morales, once a globetrotting star of the progressive left, hailed for overseeing a booming economy after becoming the first indigenous leader of one of Latin America's poorest nations, now spends his days confined to just a couple buildings in an isolated town. He's plotting a comeback with dreams of regaining office in August's election, but courts have ruled him ineligible and Morales faces the threat of arrest if he ever steps outside the compound. He's undaunted by taunts from one of Bolivia's only billionaires to pay a $1 million bounty for his capture. The messy reality of Bolivia's politics means that Morales would stand a good chance of victory if he's able to run, regardless of the charges against him. A recent bout of inflation is fueling a strong streak of nostalgia, especially among Bolivia's poor, for the 14 years through 2019 when Morales led the country and gained a global following for nationalizing its booming gas industry and championing indigenous rights. He was a hero to the left then, hanging out with Cuba's Fidel Castro, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and even the movie director Sean Penn. During his presidency, Bolivia's economy grew at an impressive 5% annually, almost double the average for Latin America, according to the World Bank. That's a sharp contrast with the past few years, as inflation accelerated to the fastest in more than three decades amid fuel shortages that have disrupted daily life and a sharp depreciation in the currency. Few outsiders have seen Morales in person since a judge ordered his arrest in January over allegations he had a sexual relationship with an underage girl who gave birth to Morales' child in 2016. Morales denies any wrongdoing, and his supporters say the accusations are politically motivated. They've set up highway checkpoints outside the town of Lauca Ñ, in the department of Cochabamba, and blockaded streets in an effort to protect him from police. The bunker where he's hiding out is the headquarters of Radio Kawsachun Coca, which caters to growers of the plant that's refined into cocaine but is also legally used in its raw form in the Andes as a mild stimulant and remedy for altitude sickness. Cochabamba is estimated to produce up to $110 million of raw coca a year, according to the United Nations, much of which is diverted to the illegal production of cocaine. Around Lauca Ñ there are signs everywhere offering pressed coca leaves, which have often been flavored with sweetener and bicarbonate to soften its bitterness and enhance its potency. Morales, who first came to national prominence in the 1990s as the leader of a union for coca growers, has been there since October, with the encampment growing around him. There are about 2,000 supporters who stand ready if called upon to defend him. At 10 a.m. every day, they parade around the bunker brandishing their sticks in a display of force and unity. Anyone entering to arrest Morales 'won't come out alive,' one member of the security team told Bloomberg News reporters during a recent visit to the compound. He was dressed in camouflage, wearing a communications earpiece and sporting a fanny pack with additional gear. He declined to identify himself, but calls himself Jhon Connor, a reference to the protagonist of the Terminator films. Morales lives in a walled property where he leads his campaign, such as it is, from an office full of pictures and books that celebrate his leadership. From his desk, he faces a photograph of himself wearing the presidential sash. To his left is another photo with the inscription: 'The best president in the history of Bolivia.' To his right is an image of the former president posing with Castro and Chavez. As president between 2006 and 2019, Morales commanded such outsized power that he changed laws and swapped judges to enable him to serve three consecutive terms, and run for a fourth on what judges elected during his administration said was his 'human right.' A court under today's less friendly government has deemed him ineligible to run because of term limits, but Morales disputes its jurisdiction. When Bloomberg reporters were invited to interview him last week, he objected to questions about the possibility he wouldn't be able to compete. 'There is no Plan B,' Morales said before abruptly ending the interview after just 10 minutes. 'It's homeland or death. We have to be allowed to run.' Many have painful memories of his last campaign. In 2019, he was accused of trying to steal the election while Morales denounced a coup against his administration. He ended up leaving Bolivia for Mexico in the middle of protests that left at least 37 dead. Morales returned in 2020, when his former finance minister Luis Arce became president. But Arce has gone from right-hand man to enemy, saying in December and again in January that it was an 'open secret' that Morales liked underage girls. Morales has denied the allegations and also accused Arce of trying to kill him in October, offering as evidence what he says is a video of himself and his aides in a car being shot at. Arce's administration has denied that it sought to kill Morales, but said the incident in question occurred after his vehicle had blown past a police checkpoint. Arce is poised to run for reelection this year, one of his top advisers said last month, and has taken control of the Movement to Socialism party that Morales had belonged to. Morales, meanwhile, has been forced to find a new party to host his candidacy. Marcelo Claure, a former top executive at SoftBank and one of Bolivia's only billionaires, has vowed to bankroll the campaign of anyone who can defeat Morales and Arce. He's commissioning polls and exploring the fragmented field of potential conservative candidates with the idea of going all in on one of them, but has yet to announce a decision. In February, he posted a photo on X depicting a wanted poster for Morales. Amid the political turmoil and growing discontent with the economy and inflation, supporters of Morales are advocating for his return. 'We don't have enough money anymore,' said Maria Luz Ticlla, 46, a farmer who is participating in the encampment. 'We would like him to return to power because with his government we had everything; with this government we have nothing.' Paying a Visit An expedition to see Morales in person gives a sense of what police are up against if they want to take him into custody. Bolivia's top police official has confirmed there is an outstanding order to arrest Morales. But he has said officials are trying to avoid any violence that may result from entering the encampment. Bolivia does have a recent history of cinematically arresting opposition figures. Former President Jeanine Anez was apprehended while hiding under her bed in 2021. The following year, police intercepted the motorcade used by Luis Fernando Camacho, then sitting governor of Santa Cruz, broke one of the vehicle's windows and used tear gas to take him into custody. He was later flown to jail in a helicopter. The area where Morales is holed up in central Bolivia has long been the former president's stronghold because of his efforts to protect coca farmers. 'We need to be respected because everybody says we're drug dealers, but that's not the reality,' said Nestor Galarza, 67, who was volunteering as a guard at a highway checkpoint. Past his barriers of logs and rocks lies the outer ring of the encampment and a second checkpoint. It is guarded by a few dozen people, some of whom look out from an observation tower, all under a sign saying it's the headquarters of the 'People's Great State.' Then there's a third checkpoint at the entrance to the building that serves as headquarters for the Kawsachun Coca radio station, where encampment members register guests and inspect their belongings. Inside the property, other security forces inspect belongings once again. Only the few loyalists past the third checkpoint get to see Morales. Aides say he wakes up at 4 a.m. every day to exercise, then has a busy schedule of meetings to plan his presidential campaign. He can't leave the property for fear of arrest. During the recent visit, Morales said he feels a bit uncomfortable rooting for his favorite soccer team, Club Bolivar, ever since Claure, who owns the club, stepped up his political commentary. Claure has called Morales a 'pedophile' on X and been harshly critical of Arce's administration. In polls commissioned by Claure, Morales wasn't included as a potential candidate, obscuring his level of support. Morales is sure that he can win August's election if he's allowed to run, allowing reporters to glance at documents showing what he said were private polls that back his claim. In the 10-minute interview, he emphasized that he was running not because of any particular desire to serve another term, but instead because so many Bolivians had been asking him to return to the presidency. He was not keen to discuss the legal impediments to running again, seemingly offended at even being asked about them.'I'm sorry, I'm ending the interview,' he said after being asked about his strategy. 'I don't want to engage in what ifs. That's what the right does, that's what the current administration does.'As reporters left the radio building, Morales watched from a window. 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