Leftists claim victory over US-backed government in Bolivia

Bolivia’s leftist party has claimed victory over the U.S.-backed government after this weekend’s presidential election.

Interim President Jeanine Áñez and former centrist President Carlos Mesa both conceded to Luis Arce, former leftist President Evo Morales’s handpicked successor, The Associated Press reported on Monday.

Bolivian officials have not released full formal results from the election, but two independent surveys, sponsored by the Catholic Church and civic groups, determined Arce received more than 50 percent of the vote and was 20 points ahead of the closest candidate. 

Arce seemed to call for peace amid his win, saying he would aim to create a united government through the Movement Toward Socialism party. 

“I think the Bolivian people want to retake the path we were on,” he said, according to the AP.

The official count of votes, which encompassed about 30 percent of ballots, showed Arce with almost 40 percent of the total so far. Most of the votes counted came from urban areas rather than rural areas that tend to back the leftist party. 

Áñez, the current president, requested Arce “govern with Bolivia and democracy in mind,” according to the AP. 

Morales, Arce’s former boss who resigned and fled the country after suspicions of fraud in the October 2019 election that he said he narrowly won, said Monday in Buenos Aires that he plans to return to Bolivia. He did not specify when. 

Morales had ruled Bolivia from 2006 until 2019 and was the last of the “pink wave” of leftist leaders who gained power in South America. 

President Trump’s administration had praised Morales’s departure from Bolivia. But following this year’s election, a State Department spokesperson said the U.S. is “awaiting the official results,” but the country looks forward “to working with whomever the Bolivians elect.”

“We will continue to promote democracy, human rights, and prosperity in Bolivia and throughout the region,” the spokesperson said. 

The Washington Office on Latin America, a D.C.-based human rights advocacy group, has said “Bolivia’s new executive and legislative leaders will face daunting challenges in a polarized country, ravaged by COVID-19, and hampered by endemically weak institutions.”