Ballots defeated bullets, what’s next in Bolivia?

Against all odds, the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party won the 18 October elections in Bolivia with 55.1% of the vote. This is even better than Evo Morales did in 2005, when he gathered 53.75% of the votes. It gives MAS president-elect Lucho Arce one of the biggest mandates in Bolivian history, and is in part a major endorsement of MAS policies and its 14 years in power.

The election took place a year after a coup overthrew former MAS president Morales and installed right-wing senator Jeanine Áñez in power. Under Áñez and her notorious minister Arturo Murillo, the government repressed dissidents and anti-coup activists, killing dozens and wounding hundreds of people in massacres in Sacaba and Senkata, Bolivia, in November last year. They politically persecuted MAS figures, allies and leftist activists over a tumultuous year leading up to the recent election.

The MAS victory is a clear rejection of the racist coup government. Áñez tried to push the MAS down, but the party and its diverse base of supporters rose up and won.

The movements that defended democracy over this past year brought Bolivia to this historic moment. For weeks in August, massive road blockade protests organised by MAS-allied campesino, Indigenous and labour groups successfully pressured authorities to hold elections after months of delays.

This article was initially published at NewFrame