In a Black Agenda Report exclusive on May 29, 2026, former Bolivian president Evo Morales Ayma spoke with correspondent Clau O’Brien Moscoso. In the recent presidential election won by Rodrigo Paz, Evo Morales, the people’s candidate and first indigenous president of the plurinational state of Bolivia, was banned using various mechanisms of lawfare which prevented him from successfully running a fair campaign. They also discussed the now five week long general strike. Below is Part 2 of the excerpts of an interview with the man who was Bolivia’s first indigenous president from his office in Lauca Ñ, Shinahota.
COM: What was the role of former President Luis Arce, also known as Lucho, and some ministers who are supposedly from the left and support the people, the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) party, who then changed their positions?
EMA: Well, it has always perhaps been their class character, that they are more mestizo, from La Paz, European. And they change when it is no longer convenient for them to be part of the people. When we won the elections, we had professionals in the field, but not so much with experience in public administration. I used to say, for Evo, winning the elections is simple, putting together the work team is difficult. I think I didn't sleep for a few nights. I made a mistake in forming the cabinet. That's where Lucho came in. Later I found out, he came from the youth of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR). So you learn by making mistakes. And look, let me tell you, to solve the economic crisis issue, because they left us a beggar state, a mendicant state. Carlos de Mesa, former Bolivian president, what did he do? Now, on May 25th, he says, we are going to cut salaries by 50%. And at night he says, no, it's a voluntary contribution, another deception.
You don't fool the people like that. When I heard that, 50%, I don't think it's possible. First, it's illegal and second, it's unenforceable. So, I asked the Minister of Economy, let's see how we can face this economic crisis. The Fighter (Lucho) tells me, we need to make a package to ask for donations from the G20. How is it going to be for the first indigenous president? They are going to give us money, they are going to donate to us. As I wasn't sure, I didn't say yes or no.
I just listened. A week passes, the Fighter, the Minister of Economy, asks me for a meeting again. They are going to come here, they are going to get more money here. That's the economic proposal. Okay, we talked to other comrades.. So, they had the mentality, they didn't want any bonus. He told me, bonuses will create inflation and inflation. Of course, he worked so many years at the Central Bank of Bolivia. His training, especially his experience in public administration, is to avoid inflation. That is fundamentally submitting to the recipes of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund. Implement economic contraction programs, so that there is no economic movement. This is the capitalist recipe, which is to reduce the State, shrink the State. This minimal State only regulates, it does not invest.There is no economic movement. Because the State, whether it's the municipality, departmental or national government, will never provide employment for everyone. Why are we going to fool ourselves? The State has to create greater economic movement. When there is economic movement, there are entrepreneurs, people eat more, travel more, sell more. My comrades tell me now, Evo, when you were president, there wasn't enough time to earn money. Some merchants tell me, when you were president, Evo, there was no time to eat, sell, sell, no time to eat. Now, sitting all day, there are probably more sellers than buyers. I am very sorry for Lucho, we made a mistake, I also made a mistake, but finally the people approved their vote in the internal election, we won, he submits to capitalist policies, and by the way steals our party name.
They ban Evo Morales, he steals our party name, with the name MAS-IPSP, out of the 343 municipalities that Bolivia has, the MAS-IPSP barely won one municipality. That surprised me, despite the ban, despite the policies of neocolonialism. Why neocolonialism? What do they tell us? Indigenous peasants cannot be political, they have to be apolitical. That's the mentality. The mestizos, creoles, the right is right.
But we said, we also have political rights, we are going to be political. When we did politics, we won for the first time, first indigenous president in 14 years, we stopped being the last country in South America, we stopped being the second-to-last country in all of America. So, that class does not accept it. Together with the empire, the coup was by the gringos, the mestizos against the Indian. Second coup, against our economic model. I am thoroughly convinced. They do not accept that there is a better economic model than the economic model implemented by neoliberalism, which comes from capitalism. And the third reason for the coup, the lithium issue. We planned to install 41 lithium plants by 2030. Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, says, I financed the coup d'état today over the lithium issue. Likewise, the United States, even England, later we found out. They financed the coup d'état all for lithium.
What is plurinationality? It is unity in diversity to face adversity together. I used to say, some are contemporary natives and some, the majority of us are millennial natives. We have to unite. But besides that, there is so much cultural diversity in Bolivia. Cultural diversity is the wealth of our identity, our dignity. Also our freedom and the struggle for our self-determination as peoples.
COM: And what do you say to people who say that this situation is massive, but there isn't a political party like the MAS was? What can you say about your party, called Evo Pueblo?
EMA: In the last subnational elections, Evo Pueblo, participating in different parties, we obtained around 130 municipalities. Look, Sister Claudia, with three hours left to conclude the registration of candidates, with the party we worked with, Morena, it was disqualified. Three hours, at nine o'clock at night. At that moment we said, register wherever you can, however you can. Go to any party. There are so many parties, but they have no membership, no structure.. There are even municipalities with the party of Tutu Quiroga, but they are not militants of Tutu Quiroga. Deep down, what happened? Before, they used us to vote for them. Now we use their parties, their groups, for Evo Pueblo. So, Evo Pueblo remains the largest political movement in history. Although it doesn't have legality, that's another fight. But I say, this battle is going to continue.
What is my concern? That neocolonial state, banning the party of the indigenous movement, or compromising some, leading them to the right. This is nothing new. But here we founded this political movement based on the principles, the values left to us by our ancestors. The struggle from colonial times and from the colonial republic. We, by heritage and history, are anti-colonialists. Those who live in Cochabamba, we have seen how, from the military base, the gringos killed us with bullets, by land and air. The young people who are now leaders of the children remember perfectly, and we do not forget. That is our struggle.
So, what they want to do now is eliminate. I have been surprised, I don't know if you have seen some videos. Two weeks ago, Red Ponchos, with their weapons, then two or three days pass, Jalcachac in Oruro, about 300. I have only seen it in videos. They seem like modern weapons besides that. Two days pass, in Pocuata, another comrade, man, woman, with their weapons. What do I think? Hopefully we won't reach that point. Since they don't want us to carry out a democratic and cultural revolution, they don't want a revolution of change with votes, they are forcing us to carry out a revolution with bullets. We avoid that. My generation avoided that. They are leading us to that. If there is democracy, if Evo participated, if he wasn't banned, it would be normal.
In the second round, they get together. And his vice-presidential candidate, Leodoro Menía, his minister of the presidency. What kind of fight and what kind of struggle was that during the campaign? What kind of debate was that? There was no ideological or programmatic difference, But with us, a single program for the majority, fundamentally for humble and poor people. We win, we win, we win. With more than 50%, with more than 60%. In the 20 years of neoliberalism, since 2000. Sorry, in 1985 they won with more than 30%, then with less than 30%, 21, 22%. What happens to him now with 19%? So, we have a deep difference in programmatic issues and even in democratic issues. In indigenous communities, there is no majority or minority. That is, by consensus, by unity.
COM: And leaving Bolivia for a while and looking at Our America, how do you see what happened and what is happening in Venezuela and now in Cuba also with Raúl Castro?
EMA: After the kidnapping of brother Maduro, I saw polls. The polls showed Maduro had more support in the United States than Donald Trump. The kidnapping of Maduro made the anti-imperialist opposition grow in Latin America. I don't know what it will be like in the world. Here in Bolivia as well. We don't agree with Maduro, but we don't accept intervention or kidnapping either. What Cartel of the Suns? It was about oil. And shamelessly, without shame, they say, now we have recovered our oil. Now we go for oil, to China, Russia, less to Cuba. Then he will go to Iran. Iran, a defeat. I have information that the public is also withdrawing some military bases from Europe. Deep down, Donald Trump, the North American Empire without NATO is not a military power. Without a doubt, it is not a world hegemony. And they know that it is no longer a world hegemony because BRICS is advancing by leaps and bounds with multilateralism.
Clau O'Brien Moscoso is an organizer and co-coordinator of the Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team. Originally from Barrios Altos, Lima, she grew up in Kearny, New Jersey. She attended college, lived, and organized in New York City for 15 years, and is now based in Lima, Perú, writing about Latin America and the Caribbean for the Black Agenda Report.
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