Bolivian president Evo Morales resigns after election result dispute

Evo Morales has announced he will resign as
president of Bolivia after the military called for him to step down and the
police withdrew their support following weeks of unrest over disputed election
results.
In a televised address, Bolivia’s president of
nearly 14 years said he was stepping down for the “good of the country”. but
added in an attack on opponents whom he had accused of a coup attempt: “Dark
forces have destroyed democracy.”
Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous leader, later
said on Twitter that the police had an “illegal” warrant for his arrest and
that “violent groups” had attacked his home in Cochabamba, a city in central
Bolivia.
The commander of Bolivia’s police force said in a
television interview that there was no warrant for Morales’s arrest. Video
circulating on social media showed people walking through what was reported to
be his ransacked home.
The announcement by Morales came shortly after the
commander-in-chief of the Bolivian armed forces, Williams Kaliman, exhorted him
to resign his “presidential mandate allowing the pacification and maintenance
of stability for the good of Bolivia”.
In Bolivia’s main city, La Paz, people poured on to
the streets waving the country’s red, yellow and green flags. There were
reports of patrols by vigilantes guarding businesses in Cochabamba. Morales’s
vice-president, Álvaro García Linera, also resigned.
The New York Times reported that Morales had flown
from La Paz to Chimoré, in Cochabamba state, when it became clear that the
military was turning on him. The area is populated by coca leaf growers, many
of whom have remained loyal to Morales, himself a former coca farmer. His
whereabouts in the early hours of Monday morning were unknown.
The departure of Morales, a leftist icon and the
last survivor of Latin America’s “pink tide” of two decades ago, is likely to
send shockwaves across the region at a time when left-leaning leaders have
returned to power in Mexico and Argentina.
In a tweet, Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary,
Marcelo Ebrard, said it would offer political asylum to Morales in accordance
with the country’s “tradition of asylum and non-intervention”, if Morales
sought it. He added that 20 other members of the government’s executive and
legislature were already in the Mexican ambassador’s residence in La Paz.
Some of Morales’s leftist allies in Latin America,
including the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and Argentinian
president-elect, Alberto Fernández, decried the turn of events as a “coup”
In a recording broadcast on Venezuelan state
television, Maduro said: “We have to take care of our brother Evo Morales … We
must declare a vigil in solidarity to protect him.”
Maduro’s position has been bolstered by the return
of left-leaning leaders in Mexico and Argentina. But Morales’s resignation
could unnerve the Venezuelan leader, who has clung to power this year despite
an opposition campaign to convince the armed forces to rebel.
The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, another
longtime Morales ally, tweeted his “solidarity” and said: “The world must be
mobilised for the life and freedom of Evo.”
Brazil’s government said it would back a democratic
transition in neighbouring Bolivia and dismissed leftists’ argument that a coup
had occurred.
“The massive electoral fraud attempt delegitimised
Evo Morales, who had the right attitude and resigned in the face of popular
outcry. Brazil will support a democratic and constitutional transition,” the
Brazilian foreign minister, Ernesto Araújo, said in a tweet.
The Colombian foreign ministry also called on
Bolivian state institutions and political parties to work together to “ensure
that Bolivian citizens can express themselves freely at the polls”. It
requested a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) permanent
council to discuss the situation.
Earlier on Sunday, Morales had said he would call a
new election after the OAS identified serious irregularities in the last vote
and recommended a new ballot.
A preliminary report based on the OAS audit of the
vote said it had found “clear manipulations” of the voting system and could not
verify a first-round victory for Morales.
Carlos Mesa, the runner-up candidate in the disputed
election, tweeted: “I will never forget this singular day. The end of tyranny.
I am grateful as a Bolivian for this historic lesson.” Earlier on Sunday, Mesa
said Morales and García Linera should be disqualified from participating in new
elections as they had committed fraud.
The weeks-long standoff over the disputed election
escalated over the weekend as police forces were seen joining anti-government
protests.
At least three people have died in the unrest, which
began on 20 October, the day of the election, and more than 300 people have
been injured in clashes between anti-government protesters and Morales
supporters.
The resignations of Morales and his vice-president
meant it was not initially clear who would take the helm of the country pending
the results of new elections.
According to Bolivian law, in the absence of the
president and vice-president, the head of the Senate would normally take over
provisionally. However, the Senate president, Adriana Salvatierra, also stepped
down late on Sunday.
Legislators were expected to meet to agree on an
interim commission or legislator who would have temporary administrative
control of the country, according to a constitutional lawyer who spoke to
Reuters.