Cochabamba: Former Bolivian President Evo Morales has warned of possible violence in an interview with AFP if he is blocked from running for a fifth term in the 2025 presidential election.
“I’m not calling anything, just in case, but it would be fatal, I feel, I know my people,” said the 64-year-old.
Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, was extremely popular until he tried to circumvent the constitution and seek a fourth term in office in 2019.
The leftist won that vote but was forced to resign amid deadly protests over alleged electoral fraud and fled the country.
He returned after his former ally Luis Arce won the presidency in October 2020, but since then a power struggle has grown between the two men and the ruling Movement for Socialism wants Morales as its candidate.
Morales has been increasingly critical of the government and is trying to return to power despite being disqualified by the Constitutional Court.
He is currently promoting the election of new judges who he hopes will overturn the ruling blocking his further candidacy.
“Those who are trying to disqualify me are listening to the new plan of the United States,” Morales said, without giving further details.
“So I feel that of course there can be a reaction. But in 2002, when I was expelled from the Chamber of Deputies, people mobilized automatically, without a call (and now) I don’t know how it will turn out.”
The former leader, who shed a few kilos, said he had undergone 12 surgeries in recent years, mentioning medical interventions on his nose, knee, collarbone and gall bladder.
Bolivia is still reeling from a mysterious June failed coup that saw troops and tanks briefly deploy in the heart of La Paz and try to break down the doors of the presidential office before withdrawing.
Morales disputed the official version of events and suggested that Arce had set it up to increase his popularity.
He told AFP he was “disappointed” with Arce’s presidency.
“There is a democratic crisis, there is an economic crisis, therefore there is a political crisis. And secondly, I fear that we will enter a food crisis. And that scares me.”
The Andean nation is facing a severe economic crisis due to a shortage of US dollars caused by a dramatic drop in natural gas exports – once a mainstay of the economy.
The shortage of dollars in Bolivia led to severe fuel shortages, which increased the cost of living and led to mass protests.
Morales has said that if elected in 2025, it will be his last term in office.
“Age moves forward. Though I have a youthful spirit.”
The former coca farmer and union leader also weighed in on elections in Venezuela this Sunday, where he says a plot is brewing overseas to prevent his close ally Nicolas Maduro from being re-elected.
“Maduro is fine, he will win the election. What they are preparing is an international action to say that there was fraud, that there was violence.” “They’re going to mobilize … obviously there could be a confrontation.” Of course death can happen.”
