There was betrayal from Arce to Evo. This is what I could pick up from the Cuban Telegrams. Let me copy something published by Sacha Llorenti; a Bolivian lawyer, former minister, and former president of the UN Security Council; that shares plenty of valuable context and was recommended in the Cuban Telegrams:

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It’s well worth reproducing this analysis of the recent Bolivian elections and everything that happened in that context.

For those who attacked Evo Morales Ayma without even considering all the facts and repeating the pamphlet that the right and the subservient left placed in the headlines of the tabloid press, read and draw your own conclusions

Five Myths About the Crisis of the Left in Bolivia By Sacha Llorenti *

I have read with great attention how many comrades, people I love and respect greatly, simplify the situation of the crisis of the left in Bolivia. I know that these criticisms are from honest people, born of genuine concerns and solidarity with the Bolivian people.

However, a series of common points emerge that deserve an explanation given the unique characteristics of Bolivia, its social organizations, and its left.

1. The fracture of the left is a struggle of personal ambitions.

It is not egos, a lack of generosity, or pettiness that marked the rupture between social organizations and the government of Luis Arce. This is a reductionism that hides a lack of understanding of the meaning of the Political Instrument of the social organizations that came to conquer political power in Bolivia in December 2005.

That instrument is the sum of the largest indigenous and peasant organizations in the country, in a country, it goes without saying, predominantly indigenous.

These organizations are structured into unions, union sub-centrals, provincial centrals, departmental federations, and national confederations. These are the structures that debate and decide the course of the instrument. These are not personal decisions or whims, but organizational decisions that permeate Bolivian territory.

These organizations were systematically attacked by the government of Luis Arce, who, as a result of judicial manipulation, managed to strip them of their party acronym.

Thus, the break with Arce, among many other reasons, stems from his decision to ban the entire movement organized around the Political Instrument, due to its catastrophic economic management and serious allegations of corruption.

Furthermore, these organizations decided that their candidate should be Evo Morales. The mobilizations and protests against the ban were met with repression, an attempt on Evo’s life, and the violent takeover of several union headquarters. As these lines are being written, dozens of Indigenous leaders are still in prison or in hiding.

2. No one sought unity

Although the Luis Arce government used the full repertoire of Lenin Moreno when he banned Rafael Correa, Evo Morales and the social organizations of the Political Instrument proposed several alternatives to prevent the implosion. First, they proposed holding closed internal primaries with the participation of the instrument’s membership, which exceeded one million registered members. Then, after this was rejected, they proposed holding open primaries, Argentine-style. That proposal was also rejected. Finally, Evo Morales proposed conducting Mexican-style polls to designate the candidate, with the commitment to full support for whoever won. That proposal was also rejected because the intention was always the political annulment of Evo Morales and, consequently, of organizational decisions at all costs. Andrónico Rodríguez also rejected the holding of primaries.

3. Andrónico Rodríguez’s candidacy represented the popular bloc .

Andrónico was the young politician who could best represent the interests of the Bolivian popular bloc. An indigenous man, union leader, political scientist, and president of the Senate, he was seen by all as the natural heir to Evo Morales’s political legacy.

However, he committed the crime of political treason by launching his candidacy behind the backs of the social organizations that make up the Political Instrument. It was through a press conference that the Indigenous and peasant leaders learned that Andrónico had made the individual decision to launch his candidacy, without it having been the result of a decision by the structures of those organizations.

It was a personal candidacy that dealt one of the harshest blows to the Political Instrument because it usurped representation that was not conferred upon him, legitimized the proscription of the popular movement, and broke with the logic of collective decision-making. Rodríguez was expelled from his union and his peasant federation. His extremely low percentage in the elections is proof that his candidacy lacked popular support. To make matters worse, his candidate lists included clearly right-wing individuals.

4. The protest vote or null vote is useless

The decision to campaign for the null vote was not an individual or whimsical decision by Evo Morales. It was a collective decision that took time to make and was based on the logic that these elections were illegitimate because they were carried out by banning the country’s largest political movement. Despite the brevity of the campaign, the null vote reached nearly 20 percent of the vote, when the average for all previous elections was close to 3.5 percent. It was a protest vote, a disciplined vote, a vote that demonstrates that social organizations continue to be the soul and essence of the Bolivian left.

5. It is the decline of Evo Morales and the Bolivian left

The election results demonstrate that the Bolivian left is based on indigenous and peasant social organizations, that the undisputed leader continues to be Evo Morales, and that there lies the true opposition to the right-wing parties that will assume political power next November.

Just as happened after the coup d’état, it was these organizations and their leadership that managed to restore democracy. After the series of coups, this time from the Arce government and the rupture of Rodríguez, it will be these organizations that will chart the course that the popular and revolutionary movement in Bolivia must follow.

Final Note on Equidistances

A call to the Latin American left: there can be no equidistance between those who betray and those betrayed, between those who try to destroy our political organizations and those who defend them, between those who outlaw and those who are outlawed, between those who try to murder our comrades and those who are the victims, between those who imprison Indigenous leaders and those who are imprisoned. Our equidistance in the face of injustice is a weapon of our enemies.

As José Martí rightly said: “Men cannot be more perfect than the sun. The sun burns with the same light with which it shines. The sun has spots. The grateful see the light. The ungrateful see the spots.”