[News] Bolivia in Crisis pt 2: In Conversation with Evo Morales

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 *Bolivia in Crisis pt 2: In Conversation with Evo Morales*
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/bolivia-crisis-pt-2-conversation-evo-morales>
Clau O'Brien Moscoso <https://www.blackagendareport.com/author/Clau O'Brien
Moscoso>
10 Jun 2026

[image: Bolivia general strike]
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/sites/default/files/2026-06/2%20845x400_0.png>

*In a Black Agenda Report exclusive on May 29, 2026, former Bolivian
president Evo Morales Ayma spoke with correspondent Clau O’Brien Moscoso.
In the recent presidential election won by Rodrigo Paz, Evo Morales, the
people’s candidate and first indigenous president of the plurinational
state of Bolivia, was banned using various mechanisms of lawfare which
prevented him from successfully running a fair campaign.  They also
discussed the now five week long general strike. Below is Part 2 of the
excerpts of  an interview with the man who was Bolivia’s first indigenous
president from his office in Lauca Ñ, Shinahota.*

*COM*: What was the role of former President Luis Arce, also known as
Lucho, and some ministers who are supposedly from the left and support the
people, the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) party, who then changed their
positions?

*EMA:* Well, it has always perhaps been their class character, that they
are more mestizo, from La Paz, European. And they change when it is no
longer convenient for them to be part of the people. When we won the
elections, we had professionals in the field, but not so much with
experience in public administration. I used to say, for Evo, winning the
elections is simple, putting together the work team is difficult. I think I
didn't sleep for a few nights. I made a mistake in forming the cabinet.
That's where Lucho came in. Later I found out, he came from the youth of
the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR). So you learn by making
mistakes. And look, let me tell you, to solve the economic crisis issue,
because they left us a beggar state, a mendicant state. Carlos de Mesa,
former Bolivian president, what did he do? Now, on May 25th, he says, we
are going to cut salaries by 50%. And at night he says, no, it's a
voluntary contribution, another deception.

You don't fool the people like that. When I heard that, 50%, I don't think
it's possible. First, it's illegal and second, it's unenforceable. So, I
asked the Minister of Economy, let's see how we can face this economic
crisis. The Fighter (Lucho) tells me, we need to make a package to ask for
donations from the G20. How is it going to be for the first indigenous
president? They are going to give us money, they are going to donate to us.
As I wasn't sure, I didn't say yes or no.
I just listened. A week passes, the Fighter, the Minister of Economy, asks
me for a meeting again. They are going to come here, they are going to get
more money here. That's the economic proposal. Okay, we talked to other
comrades.. So, they had the mentality, they didn't want any bonus. He told
me, bonuses will create inflation and inflation. Of course, he worked so
many years at the Central Bank of Bolivia. His training, especially his
experience in public administration, is to avoid inflation. That is
fundamentally submitting to the recipes of the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund. Implement economic contraction programs, so
that there is no economic movement. This is the capitalist recipe, which is
to reduce the State, shrink the State. This minimal State only regulates,
it does not invest.There is no economic movement. Because the State,
whether it's the municipality, departmental or national government, will
never provide employment for everyone. Why are we going to fool ourselves?
The State has to create greater economic movement. When there is economic
movement, there are entrepreneurs, people eat more, travel more, sell more.
My comrades tell me now, Evo, when you were president, there wasn't enough
time to earn money. Some merchants tell me, when you were president, Evo,
there was no time to eat, sell, sell, no time to eat. Now, sitting all day,
there are probably more sellers than buyers.  I am very sorry for Lucho, we
made a mistake, I also made a mistake, but finally the people approved
their vote in the internal election, we won, he submits to capitalist
policies, and by the way steals our party name.

They ban Evo Morales, he steals our party name, with the name MAS-IPSP, out
of the 343 municipalities that Bolivia has, the MAS-IPSP barely won one
municipality. That surprised me, despite the ban, despite the policies of
neocolonialism. Why neocolonialism? What do they tell us? Indigenous
peasants cannot be political, they have to be apolitical. That's the
mentality. The mestizos, creoles, the right is right.

But we said, we also have political rights, we are going to be political.
When we did politics, we won for the first time, first indigenous president
in 14 years, we stopped being the last country in South America, we stopped
being the second-to-last country in all of America. So, that class does not
accept it. Together with the empire, the coup was by the gringos, the
mestizos against the Indian. Second coup, against our economic model. I am
thoroughly convinced. They do not accept that there is a better economic
model than the economic model implemented by neoliberalism, which comes
from capitalism. And the third reason for the coup, the lithium issue. We
planned to install 41 lithium plants by 2030. Elon Musk, owner of Tesla,
says, I financed the coup d'état today over the lithium issue. Likewise,
the United States, even England, later we found out. They financed the coup
d'état all for lithium.

What is plurinationality? It is unity in diversity to face adversity
together. I used to say, some are contemporary natives and some, the
majority of us are millennial natives. We have to unite. But besides that,
there is so much cultural diversity in Bolivia. Cultural diversity is the
wealth of our identity, our dignity. Also our freedom and the struggle for
our self-determination as peoples.

*COM*: And what do you say to people who say that this situation is
massive, but there isn't a political party like the MAS was? What can you
say about your party, called Evo Pueblo?

*EMA*: In the last subnational elections, Evo Pueblo, participating in
different parties, we obtained around 130 municipalities. Look, Sister
Claudia, with three hours left to conclude the registration of candidates,
with the party we worked with, Morena, it was disqualified. Three hours, at
nine o'clock at night. At that moment we said, register wherever you can,
however you can. Go to any party. There are so many parties, but they have
no membership, no structure.. There are even municipalities with the party
of Tutu Quiroga, but they are not militants of Tutu Quiroga. Deep down,
what happened? Before, they used us to vote for them. Now we use their
parties, their groups, for Evo Pueblo. So, Evo Pueblo remains the largest
political movement in history. Although it doesn't have legality, that's
another fight. But I say, this battle is going to continue.

What is my concern? That neocolonial state, banning the party of the
indigenous movement, or compromising some, leading them to the right. This
is nothing new. But here we founded this political movement based on the
principles, the values left to us by our ancestors. The struggle from
colonial times and from the colonial republic. We, by heritage and history,
are anti-colonialists. Those who live in Cochabamba, we have seen how, from
the military base, the gringos killed us with bullets, by land and air. The
young people who are now leaders of the children remember perfectly, and we
do not forget. That is our struggle.

So, what they want to do now is eliminate. I have been surprised, I don't
know if you have seen some videos. Two weeks ago, Red Ponchos, with their
weapons, then two or three days pass, Jalcachac in Oruro, about 300. I have
only seen it in videos. They seem like modern weapons besides that. Two
days pass, in Pocuata, another comrade, man, woman, with their weapons.
What do I think? Hopefully we won't reach that point. Since they don't want
us to carry out a democratic and cultural revolution, they don't want a
revolution of change with votes, they are forcing us to carry out a
revolution with bullets. We avoid that. My generation avoided that. They
are leading us to that. If there is democracy, if Evo participated, if he
wasn't banned, it would be normal.

In the second round, they get together. And his vice-presidential
candidate, Leodoro Menía, his minister of the presidency. What kind of
fight and what kind of struggle was that during the campaign? What kind of
debate was that? There was no ideological or programmatic difference, But
with us,  a single program for the majority, fundamentally for humble and
poor people. We win, we win, we win. With more than 50%, with more than
60%. In the 20 years of neoliberalism, since 2000. Sorry, in 1985 they won
with more than 30%, then with less than 30%, 21, 22%. What happens to him
now with 19%? So, we have a deep difference in programmatic issues and even
in democratic issues. In indigenous communities, there is no majority or
minority. That is, by consensus, by unity.

*COM*: And leaving Bolivia for a while and looking at Our America, how do
you see what happened and what is happening in Venezuela and now in Cuba
also with Raúl Castro?

*EMA*: After the kidnapping of brother Maduro, I saw polls. The polls
showed Maduro had more support in the United States than Donald Trump. The
kidnapping of Maduro made the anti-imperialist opposition grow in Latin
America. I don't know what it will be like in the world. Here in Bolivia as
well. We don't agree with Maduro, but we don't accept intervention or
kidnapping either. What Cartel of the Suns? It was about oil. And
shamelessly, without shame, they say, now we have recovered our oil. Now we
go for oil, to China, Russia, less to Cuba. Then he will go to Iran. Iran,
a defeat. I have information that the public is also withdrawing some
military bases from Europe. Deep down, Donald Trump, the North American
Empire without NATO is not a military power. Without a doubt, it is not a
world hegemony. And they know that it is no longer a world hegemony because
BRICS is advancing by leaps and bounds with multilateralism.

*Clau O'Brien Moscoso is an organizer and co-coordinator of the Black
Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team. Originally from Barrios Altos,
Lima, she grew up in Kearny, New Jersey. She attended college, lived, and
organized in New York City for 15 years, and is now based in Lima, Perú,
writing about Latin America and the Caribbean for the Black Agenda Report.*
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