Eight months since the military coup in Bolivia, right-wing leader Jeanine Áñez’s “transitional government” has done little to establish its legitimacy — among Bolivians, that is. Though she enjoys the favor of the Trump administration and figures like Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, Áñez currently languishes in a poor third place in polls for the re-run election slated for September 6, enjoying just 13 percent support.

The most recent polls suggest that Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) candidate Luis Arce is set to score 42 percent in the first round, showing the continuing popular support for ousted president Evo Morales’s party. The question now is whether the forces who orchestrated the military coup will allow free elections to go ahead — with far-right leader Luis Fernando Camacho complaining to the Organization of American States that MAS’s bases of influence should be uprooted first.

Vidal Gómez was part of a new generation of political actors in Morales’s government. Today, he is the president of the Plurinational Youth Council, delegate to the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), and president of the Intercultural Youth. His political career began in the coca fields and agricultural area of the Yungas, organizing union activity among young people and producers in his region. He spoke to Anton Flaig about the situation in postcoup Bolivia, ahead of the planned elections.