Bolivian president-elect Luis Arce said during his first press conference as the new commander in chief that there was “no role” for socialist party leader and former President Evo Morales in his government.
Bolivian president-elect Luis Arce said during his first press conference as the new commander in chief that there was “no role” for socialist party leader and former President Evo Morales in his government.
Arce was the finance minister during the government of Morales, who picked him as his party’s candidate in the October 18th presidential election.
“All I can say is former president Evo Morales will not have any role in our government,” Arce told local reporters at the headquarters of his Movimiento al Socialismo party in Bolivia’s capital La Paz.
“He can return to the country whenever he wants because he’s a Bolivian citizen. However, in this new government, it’s me who has to decide who forms a part of the administration and who does not,” Arce added.
A divisive indigenous leader, socialist Morales has lived outside Bolivia since he fled in 2019 following a vote shrouded by allegations of fraud. Morales disputes the allegations and claimed he was toppled in a right-wing coup.
“Due process rights have not been respected in several cases against him. I regret that politics have been judicialized, the right has judicialized politics,” Arce said.
