Although he was the best positioned in the prelectoral surveys, it was not known whether the young president of the Senate of Bolivia, Andrónico Rodríguez, would attend or not in the August elections. His mentor, former president Evo Morales, pressed him to give up, because he wants to return to the presidential chair, although he is disabled. Finally, Rodríguez decided and agreed to apply on his own, which recalled the Bolivian political scenario.
On Saturday, in an encounter with hundreds of followers in Oruro, in the Southern Altiplano of the Andes, the 37 -year -old senator responded to the orders of different sectors and regions to be presented to the elections: “I mean, dear brothers, I accept.” His words surprised the country, who expected Rodriguez’s definitive position to be known only in two weeks. They also generated a nervous response on social networks. With Rodríguez as a candidate, he resurfaced fear or hope, according to the position of each one, that the left continued in power, despite its division and the economic crisis, which many attribute to the economic model that this current implanted during the last 20 years.
Rodríguez was considered in the past the “natural heir” of Evo Morales because he is also a cocalero leader, has Quechua indigenous origin and lives in El Chapare, the radical bastion of which the movement to socialism (more) emerged in the late nineties. The difference between the two is in age and in which, like most of the sons of peasants, Rodríguez has a degree in Political Science and has had a life with less deficiencies than that of the former president.
Although he was already known before 2019, it was on that date, that of the overthrow of Morales, when he jumped to the first line of national politics because he took care of the leftist resistance against the interim cabinet of Jeanine Áñez. To reward his courage and tranquility in this test, the paintings of the MAS that followed in Bolivia appointed him a candidate for the vice presidency, but Morales opposed from exile, so he ended up as a senator for Cochabamba and, shortly after, as president of this camera. He remained in this position throughout the legislature, which constitutes a national political record and indicates his ability to negotiate with his colleagues, even with those of opposition. Armed with a moderate and unity discourse, in the split of the MAS he stayed with evism, but without bumping frontally against President Luis Arce and his. Until recently it was speculated that he could be the companion of the Bolivian president in the official formula of the MAS, that for a judicial decision he now responds to Arce. It was more likely what will finally happen: Rodríguez will “lend” a acronym of the various who have legal status but have no adherents to register as a candidate on May 19.
In the public surveys that met before launching the electoral process on Good Friday, Rodríguez stood first, with 25%, followed by businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who was the best possession within the center. These surveys did not consider Evo Morales, which, according to other previous polls, also enjoyed an appreciable, although much lower intention than he had in the past. The followers of the former president considered the omission of Morales and his substitution by Rodríguez as an operation aimed at “dividing the popular block.” At the same time, they began to declare that “Andrónico betrayed” the Morales line, which is called Evo Pueblo, since it considers the former president the only possible candidate. But Morales is disabled by a judgment of the Constitutional Court that limits the number and form of presidential reelections. In addition, it is located in the eye of the hurricane and is sought by justice for an accusation of Estupro. These days, a judge has annulled the arrest warrant against him, which has generated such a reaction from the government and a part of the company that the judge has had to ask for a license and hide. Shortly after, another court has suspended the decision she made, so that the arrest warrant against Morales is still in force.
Rodríguez has recognized that the decision to become a candidate has cost him a lot. It is likely that it costs even more, because the reaction of the Chapare, which is unconditional of Morales, is expected to come with expulsions and other similar measures.
If Rodríguez did not take this step, the left would have been aware of what Arce could do, that in the surveys he almost does not appear, weighed by the weight of the economic crisis, and the fate of Morales to assert his arguments against his disqualification. Therefore, except these two leaders and their closest followers, the other progressives are clear that only a new figure and with a speech other than the traditional can prevent “the popular block” being razed by change, which still remains the most likely electoral result.
