By ATILIO A. BORON*

The Bolivian elections demonstrated that the MAS is the only existing social force in all of Bolivia

The resounding victory of the MAS in the Bolivian presidential elections ratified the social density of the political organization of the Bolivian peoples. The numbers took even the most rigorous analysts by surprise: polls carried out by four of the five most renowned consultancies in Bolivia anticipated for the MAS duo a vote that varied around 45% of the votes and about 34% for their closest opponent , Carlos Mesa. That is, evism voters concealed their voting intentions while overestimating the real support base of the Citizen Community.

The victory was much broader than expected, as attested by the two surveys certified by the government to carry out the “exit poll”: CIESMORI and Fundação Jubileo. Both attribute to the Arce-Choquehuanca formula a proportion that oscillates around 52% of the votes, and to Mesa-Pedraza only 31%. Some observers venture to say that the final figure will be around 55%. In the early hours of the morning, a tweet by dictator Jeannine Añez said that “according to the data we have, Mr. Arc and Mr. Choquehuanca won the election. I congratulate the winners and ask them to govern with Bolivia and democracy in mind.” (That is, rule as she did not). At noon, Carlos Mesa recognized the triumph of the MAS.

The official results of the 35.000 polling stations have not yet been published and it would be naive to think that the imperialist enemy and its allies of the racist right will bow respectfully to the verdict of the polls. It is difficult (but not impossible) for there to be surprises and last-minute maneuvers to thwart the will of the Bolivian people. If the difference had been smaller, let's say 12 or 13 points, surely the bandits under Luis Almagro would have repeated the feat of just a year ago and stolen the election; but, with a difference of twenty points or more, the maneuver would collapse from its intolerable obscenity. In any case, the official numbers won't be released until Wednesday and then we'll know what the right's next step is.

The elections demonstrated that the MAS is the only existing social force in all of Bolivia. Carlos Mesa demonstrated that it is an electoral stamp, a contuberance of groups that had in common only their hatred of Evo and what he represents. And Luis Fernando Camacho is the leader of an important social force whose stronghold is Santa Cruz de la Sierra. But outside that department – ​​which is equivalent to one third of the national territory – its gravitation is very low. Building a right with solid foundations at the national level is an arduous task, which in Bolivia, even more so with the terrorist violence of its dictatorship, the complicity of judges and prosecutors and the support of the media cesspool in the service of the empire, proved to be a destined mission. to failure. The profound political crisis in which the United States is struggling on the eve of a complicated presidential election has reduced the role of the “embassy” and limited its scope for action. And the local right – both in Bolivia and Argentina and throughout Latin America – without the guidance, money and media and legal drivers that Washington maneuvers, there is little it can do.

The strategic factories of the right have a project of global scope (compare, for example, the manifestations and slogans of the “anti-forty” and “anti-infection” in the most diverse countries) and work to prevent the stabilization of progressive governments or the emergence of something with that political sign. Of course, the story is whimsical and a friend of surprises. Who would dare to discard the idea that in this heart of South America that is Bolivia the sun has just risen whose rays will illuminate the next elections in Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela and the presidential elections in Ecuador, in February 2021? Perhaps, without realizing it, we are witnessing a historic turn that was unthinkable until a few weeks ago.

*Atilio A. Borón is professor of political science at the University of Buenos Aires. Author, among other books, of Minerva's Owl (Voices).

Translation: Fernando Lima das Neves

Originally published in the newspaper page 12.