Villazón: The former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, thanked his compatriots and progressive governments for their support today, in his first public speech after returning to the country from Argentina, where he resided as a political refugee.
Morales recalled the support of progressive leaders and governments of Latin America, especially Presidents Alberto Fernández, of Argentina; Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, from Cuba; Nicolás Maduro, from Venezuela, and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, from Mexico.
Before thousands of followers gathered in the Plaza Bolívar in that border city, the ex-president recalled the days when, together with a group of collaborators, he had to leave Bolivia for fear of his physical integrity and predicted that they would return converted into millions.
Re-elected for a new term in 2019, Morales had to resign as a result of a coup justified by a partial and non-binding report from the Organization of American States that described the electoral process as fraudulent.
“Now we are millions only in Villazón alone?” Morales said in reference to the popular support for the Movement to Socialism (MAS) throughout the country, which he considers to destroy the OAS narrative on the need to commit fraud in last year’s elections.
The first indigenous president in the history of Bolivia recalled that the coup was the way for the political right to stop the process of change that made the South American country one of the most prosperous in the region.
The recent elections, he said, are proof that there was no fraud, the trend of support for the MAS was maintained and its candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency, Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca, respectively, were elected with 55.10 percent of valid votes.
Morales congratulated the elected leaders and urged them to continue with the MAS economic model, which he described as a response to the sovereign needs and decisions of the people.
In this sense, he highlighted the importance in this model of the nationalization of natural resources, the leading role of unions and labor and agrarian organizations, and the independence of formulas from bodies such as the International Monetary Fund.
Former President Álvaro García Linera, also a political refugee in Argentina, accompanied Morales on his return to Bolivia.
After the reception ceremony in Villazón, Morales will travel accompanied by supporters to the city of Chimoré, located in the region known as the Tropic of Cochabamba, one of the bastions of MAS.
During the tour he will visit towns in the departments of Potosí, Oruro and Cochabamba, then he is expected to work on training new leaders and supporting the new government together with social movements.