La Paz, Nov 7.- In his farewell on his last day as president of Bolivia, alongside Vice President David Choquehuanca and his ministerial cabinet, President Luis Arce stated today that the biggest mistake of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) was division.
"From a political standpoint, I am convinced that there was no greater mistake from all the actors than the division of the political instrument, the division of the MAS-Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (IPSP), the division of the space that provided us strength for years…," he asserted.
During his speech at the Casa Grande del Pueblo (the seat of the Executive), the outgoing head of state said that the implosion of MAS-IPSP occurred "despite my efforts to consolidate unity in repeated meetings in our country and abroad."
In the general elections held on August 17, the MAS-IPSP was just two-tenths away from losing its legal personality (it achieved 3.16 percent and only two national deputies), after coming to power in 2020 with 55.11 percent popular support.
"Each and every one of the actors, the currents, starting with the leaders and authorities - Arce admitted - should have made more effort to preserve unity, so that the process of change would not crack, to learn to respect each other, to disagree and march with our differences…"
He emphasized that this disparity of opinion was never ideological in nature; however, he insisted that the main culprit for what happened with MAS-IPSP was former president Evo Morales.
Arce considered that few times in the country's history has there been such a decline of a social process as profound as that of MAS, all due to internal disputes "that quickly became public, escalating to the point of losing all ideological orientation, to the point where some preferred to make deals with the right rather than listen, dialogue, and agree with their former comrades in struggle…"
Arce concluded that the result of the elections last August "is a heavy burden that only the unity of the popular movement can alleviate."
This speech took place less than 24 hours after a surprising press conference in which the current head of MAS-IPSP, Grover García, announced Arce's expulsion from this political instrument with an accusation before ordinary justice for alleged appropriation of contributions made by public officials.
García took over the presidency of MAS in place of former president Evo Morales with the support of forces aligned with Arce, following a resolution from the self-extended Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal (TCP), which indicated that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal should enable the leadership headed by him.
The self-extended TCP since January 2024 had the support of Arce's allied bloc in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly.
