Table of Contents
The News
- Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party is set to return to power in Bolivia with a landslide victory.
- The MAS presidential candidate Luis Arce was handpicked by Evo Morales.
- He effectively won the national vote after his main rival, the centrist former President Carlos Mesa, conceded defeat.
Where is Bolivia?
What is Socialism?
Background
What next?
- Bolivia is among Latin America’s poorest countries, it has its export economy largely dependent on natural gas and mineral extraction.
- During the 2000s commodity boom, it witnessed high growth rates, and massive investments in social spending by Morales during that time ensured popularity.
- Experts believe that Arce, a UK-educated economist who was Morales’s finance minister from 2006 to 2017, now faces the twin challenge of delivering results without sufficient hydrocarbon revenues, as well as battling the economic fallout of Covid-19.
What next?
What Next?
- The MAS victory in Bolivia has drawn support from Leftist governments in the Americas, such as Mexico, Argentina, Cuba and Venezuela.
- This result is seen as heralding the return of socialism in the Latin region after the Covid-19 crisis.
- The results, seen as a major blow to Bolivia’s right wing, are also expected to pave Morales’s return to the country from his exile in Argentina.
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