Poverty rate
Since Morales returned from exile in 2020, he has retained widespread support among poor and Indigenous Bolivians, who represent almost half the country’s population of 11 million.
In 2021, the World Bank reported that 36.4 percent of Bolivia’s population lived in poverty, and 11.1 percent lived in extreme poverty.
Arce’s government has been hit by a drop in revenue from natural gas exports, coupled with a decline in production due to a lack of investment nationally. To compensate, Arce has been using international reserves to maintain domestic subsidies, which in turn has led to a dollar shortage and the devaluation of the Bolivian peso.
‘March to Save Bolivia’
Morales has used the economic crisis as a political weapon to promote his campaign for another presidential bid, rallying his loyal base of coca farmers, Indigenous tribes and workers who have come to his defence with street protests, marches and road blockades.
Thousands of Bolivians last week began a 200km (124-mile) “March to Save Bolivia” in an apparent effort to pressure the Arce government.
Supporters of former Bolivian President Evo Morales march to La Paz during a rally against President Luis Arce in El Alto, Bolivia, on September 23, 2024 [Photo by Aizar Raldes / AFP]
The marchers stopped Sunday on their sixth day of walking to sleep at an encampment near El Alto, a city of almost one million mostly Indigenous residents that sits high above the capital in a canyon barely 20km (12 miles) below.
Morales has sought to portray the march as a reflection of Bolivia’s Indigenous highland culture as much as a political challenge to the Arce government, with his supporters bearing multicoloured flags of the Indigenous Andean movement that the leftist leader has turned into a patriotic symbol.
Each side blamed the other for the violence. Morales accused Arce’s government of deploying “paramilitary groups to incite violence” and busing officers into El Alto to stir up trouble — a claim echoed by Bolivia’s ombudsman.
“It’s very sad that this government doesn’t pay attention to its conscience,” said Benita Cruz, a Morales supporter at the scene of Sunday’s clashes. “They are repressing the poor and most humble people.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-23 13:00:00
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