{"165808":{"id":"165808","parent":"164318","time":"1576008000","url":"http:\/\/newsnet.fr\/165808","source":"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/12\/09\/opinion\/evo-morales-bolivia.html","category":"Latina","title":"Restore Bolivian Democracy and Break Its History of Coups","catalog-images":"3\/\/1\/newsnet_165808_fcdb44.jpg","image":"http:\/\/newsnet.fr\/img\/newsnet_165808_fcdb44.jpg","hub":"newsnet","url-explicit":"http:\/\/newsnet.fr\/art\/restore-bolivian-democracy-and-break-its-history-of-coups","admin":"newsnet","views":"517","priority":"2","length":"7069","lang":"en","content":"\u003Cfigure\u003E\u003Cimg src=\"http:\/\/newsnet.fr\/img\/newsnet_165808_fcdb44.jpg\" \/\u003E\u003Cfigcaption\u003EA supporter of Evo Morales, former president of Bolivia, at a protest in November.Credit...Marco Bello\/Reuters\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter the Bolivian military forced out Evo Morales as president last month, following a wave of demonstrations protesting fraud in his fourth presidential election, the right-wing Catholic politician Jeanine A\u00f1ez Chavez, second vice president of the Bolivian Senate, was deemed next in the line of succession and sworn in as his replacement.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMs. A\u00f1ez pledged to \"bring back democracy and tranquillity,\" but she instead embarked on a blatantly revanchist, ruthless path, \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/11\/16\/world\/americas\/bolivia-anez-morales.html\"\u003Estacking her cabinet\u003C\/a\u003E with religious conservatives bitterly opposed to Mr. Morales's Movement for Socialism, breaking ties with the left-wing governments of Cuba and Venezuela and dispatching an ambassador to a gleeful Trump administration, the first in Washington in 11 years.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe issued a decree exempting security forces from criminal prosecution when maintaining public order; the following day, \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/530280a8d9674f58ad19af8d3f00edee\"\u003Eeight protesters were killed\u003C\/a\u003E in a lethal crackdown, and more have been killed since.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt the same time, Mr. Morales's legions of Indigenous followers sealed off access to their region, where he comes from, with scores of barricades and vowed to give the government no peace until he returns.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMr. Morales became Bolivia's first Indigenous leader when he was elected 14 years ago, breaking the monopoly on power of a small elite of European descent. He sharply reduced the \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/SI.POV.NAHC?locations=BO\"\u003Epoverty rate\u003C\/a\u003E, expanded the economy and helped introduce a new, more equitable constitution.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThen he overreached, calling a referendum in 2016 to lift constitutional term limits he himself had supported and, when the vote went against him, getting a Constitutional Court filled with his followers to rule that term limits violated his human rights.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe flawed election on Oct. 20 followed. Early suspicions of fraud by the Organization of American States helped fuel the protests and provided cover for the military to \"suggest\" that Mr. Morales leave office.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELast week \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/12\/05\/world\/americas\/evo-morales-election.html\"\u003Ethe O.A.S. issued an audit\u003C\/a\u003E, to which Mr. Morales had agreed, substantiating those suspicions and finding \"a series of malicious operations aimed at altering the will expressed at the polls\" on Oct. 20.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Bolivian legislature has passed a law, with support from Mr. Morales's party and signed by Ms. A\u00f1ez, paving the way toward new elections within a few months, with Mr. Morales barred from running.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMr. Morales, who is now in Cuba, has agreed to renounce his candidacy, though he continues to claim, as he told The Guardian newspaper, \"I have every right to it.\"\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERenouncing any candidacy is the right way for him to help restore peace and democracy in a country for which he has done so much. There is no clear successor on the left, so Mr. Morales should focus on finding a worthy successor in his party who could hold off an inevitable challenge from the far right.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMs. A\u00f1ez, for her part, can make clear that her dubious leap from obscurity was not the coup that her opponents claim it was by abandoning her vindictive policies and fulfilling her promise to arrange a free and fair election. Anything less would mark a sad relapse to the era of serial coups and counter-coups that ravaged Bolivia, often with the clandestine participation of the C.I.A.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA continued standoff would only exacerbate the country's deep ethnic and ideological polarization. Mr. Morales's fall thrust Bolivia into the center of a left-right struggle convulsing much of the Americas. Seeing that resolved through the democratic process, rather than outside meddling, should be the goal of the United States and Bolivia's Latin American neighbors.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe Times is committed to publishing\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/31\/opinion\/letters\/letters-to-editor-new-york-times-women.html\"\u003Ea diversity of letters\u003C\/a\u003E \u003Ci\u003Eto the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/help.nytimes.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/115014925288-How-to-submit-a-letter-to-the-editor\"\u003Etips\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ci\u003E. And here's our email:\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ci\u003Eletters@nytimes.com\u003C\/i\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ci\u003EFollow The New York Times Opinion section on\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nytopinion\"\u003EFacebook\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ci\u003E,\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ci\u003ETwitter (@NYTopinion)\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ci\u003Eand\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nytopinion\"\u003EInstagram\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/12\/09\/opinion\/evo-morales-bolivia.html\"\u003Enytimes.com\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E"}}