MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Arce announces he would not run for reelection

Arce warned that any division among the left would only favor imperialism

Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora announced Tuesday that he would not seek reelection on Aug. 17 to avoid further divisions among the country's populist left, and urged his Movement for Socialism (MAS) to unite around a single candidate to prevent the right from regaining power.

He also called on former President Evo Morales to decline any presidential bid, given his constitutional ban and the risk of vote fragmentation favoring the right. “Constitutionally, he cannot be [a candidate] and because the dispersion and fragmentation of the vote would only favor the right,” Arce argued.

He also asked Senate Speaker Andrónico Rodríguez, an emerging MAS figure, to lead the party's fight in this new historical phase against “imperialism” and the “fascist right wing,” while pledging to do his utmost in his remaining six months in office.

“Honoring the memory of our heroes and heroines, of our martyrs... today I make known to the Bolivian people with absolute firmness my decision to decline my candidacy for the elections of August 17, 2025... I will not be the factor of division,” Arce said in a broadcast message.

“I call on comrade Andrónico Rodríguez, who in his proclamation in the city of Oruro, spoke of the necessary unity; as well as the rest of the popular and democratic forces, to assume the challenge of thinking and acting in terms of the unity of the people and work tirelessly to deepen our revolution,” he added.

”Unity should not be a legal and democratic form, the rearticulation of the popular bloc demands unity in the vote, programmatic and in action (...) I propose the maximum unity of the left around a program to move forward“, he also pointed out.

”Either we defend our Plurinational State and its popular conquests or we facilitate the return of the right wing to the Government,” he further noted.