MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivia: Evo announces 2025 presidential bid

“We will never surrender,” said Morales

Citing a “dirty” campaign against him, former Bolivian President Evo Morales announced during the weekend that he would run again in the 2025 elections. His Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party, the same as current head of state Luis Arce Catacora claims Morales is the “king of cocaine” while the opposition regards him as a “drug trafficker,” according to local media.

Evo Morales assured that he was “forced” to make this decision for which he will “fight”, amid the division within the ruling party, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS).

“They have convinced me that I am going to be a candidate, they have forced me. Of course, people want [me to run], but they are forcing me, against Evo, the right wing, the government, the empire,” he said on his show on Radio Kawsachun Coca.

“We are not going to give up and we are going to be in this hard democratic battle now to build proposals, I have a meeting with businessmen, and I welcome proposals, we have to build the post-bicentennial agenda,” he added. “We still have strength,” insisted Morales, who regretted that Arce, who was Economy Minister under him, had not advanced an iota of the 13-pillar agenda towards the country's bicentennial on Aug. 6, 2025.

Morales claimed that Arce's government wanted him out of the picture even in a physical way and therefore he decided to accept the challenge. “We are going to face with truth, dignity, and honesty all that aggression that we suffer in the social networks from the Ministry of the Presidency,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Morales' announcement came just a few days before the Oct. 3-5 MAS national congress in Cochabamba. Arce's allies have tried to hold the event in El Alto, next to La Paz, and to renew the leaders of the ruling party, starting with Morales himself. In return, the evistas hope for the expulsion of Arce and Vice President David Choquehuanca, whom they regard as “traitors.”

“We will never surrender, sisters and brothers, united we will once again save our beloved Bolivia!” Morales said last Saturday.

Since other fractions within MAS would favor Arce's reelection, Choquehuanca warned that if internal disputes continue, “the people may get angry against the political class and when it angers the people, they may be kicking the wrong dog.”