The Bolivian Elections
The Bolivian Election Commission issued a statement recently saying that the long-awaited presidential election will be held on October 18th. However, this is no ordinary election for the country. To fully understand its significance, and the candidates who are running, it is necessary to go back to the last Bolivian election in October of 2019. October 2019 saw Evo Morales run for an unprecedented and constitutionally suspect fourth term as president. Morales had been in power since 2005 when he and his party, Movement For Socialism (MAS), took power from the center-right incumbent Carlos Mesa. This election was impactful not just for Bolivia, but for Latin America as a whole. Morales was one of the first fully indigenous presidents in Latin America, and his policies signaled a shift to the left throughout the region after years of neoliberal economic reforms under center-right leaders. In 2016, Morales issued a nationwide referendum on amending the Constitution to allow him to r...