Former Bolivian President Evo Morales has not given up his political activity after fleeing the country. Argentine political analyst Gonzalo Fiore Viani has explained how Buenos Aires sees Morales’ attempts to maintain control over the situation in Bolivia and how the Fernandez government could mediate tensions in the country.
“I’ll be back,” ousted Bolivian leader Evo Morales told Reuters before Christmas, pledging to return to the country in a year. He is currently residing in Argentina where he moved from Mexico being granted political asylum by the new government of Alberto Fernandez.
On December 19, 2019, the Argentine president announced that Buenos Aires “will not hand over for any reason” Morales after the Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office sent the former president an arrest warrant, accusing him of sedition and terrorism.
Jeanine Anez, who took the reins of the Bolivian government after Evo Morales had been expelled by the military and right-wing opposition in November, has repeatedly accused the former president of plotting unrest from exile.
Morales Stepping Up Political Activism in Argentina
Being forced to resign on November 10, Morales immediately went to Mexico, the first that granted him asylum. However, on December 12, the former Bolivian president left for Argentina, where he “felt more comfortable”, according to Argentina’s Foreign Minister Felipe Sola.
The asylum provided by Buenos Aires to Morales didn’t come without strings: Sola specified that the Argentine government does not want Evo Morales nor any other refugees to use the country as a staging ground for political activity, and advised against making public statements.
However, the very next day, the former Bolivian leader issued a harsh statement on Twitter lambasting the Anez government for what he called the aim to privatize and sell out the country’s strategic companies to transnational corporations.
