What Is Going on With the Bolivian Left?
Bolivia’s governing MAS party is mired in a deep crisis, the result of political infighting and a sharp economic downturn. If the country’s leftist leaders cannot come to some agreement, the unity of organized labor and indigenous movements may be at risk.
Bolivian president Luis Arce Catacora (C-L), Vice President David Choquehuanca (L), and Juan Carlos Huarachi (C-R), executive secretary of the Bolivian Workers’ Union (COB), attend a town hall meeting called by MAS in El Alto on October 17, 2023. (Aizar Raldes / AFP via Getty Images)
Bolivia’s governing party and a shining light of the Latin American left, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), is mired in a deep internal crisis.
Recently, during the MAS congress in the coca-growing town of Lauca Ñ, President Luis Arce and his vice president, David Choquehuanca, were expelled from the party and prevented from running in the 2025 national elections. In his place, the party nominated its leader, former Bolivian president Evo Morales, who aims to return to the presidential palace in 2025.
The split between arcistas and evistas is a battle to control one of the most successful political machines in Latin America. In large part, it hinges on the Chapare coca-growing unions’ efforts to maintain their hegemony within the MAS.
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