LatinNews Daily - 15 November 2024

*Bolivia’s constitutional court (TCP) has issued a ruling validating the appointment of Grover García as leader of the ruling Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), which was made in May 2024 at a congress held in El Alto (La Paz department) by a MAS faction. The May 2024 appointment of García effectively deposed former president Evo Morales (2006-2019), who was re-elected MAS leader in an October 2023 MAS congress which took place in Cochabamba. García is an ally of President Luis Arce who remains locked in a power struggle with Morales over control of the ruling party and its presidential nomination ahead of 2025 elections. The TCP’s ruling comes despite a May ruling by the supreme electoral court (TSE) which ordered that Morales was still MAS leader, arguing that the party’s internal procedures had not been followed. Writing on social media, Morales described the TCP ruling as “unconstitutional, illegal, and illegitimate”. It follows another adverse TCP ruling for Morales: on 8 November the top court reaffirmed a December 2023 TCP decision that all elected officials can only serve a maximum of two terms, whether consecutive or non-consecutive, thereby barring Morales from seeking a fourth presidential term. Also on 13 November, two allies of the former president, Ramiro Cucho, the director of the grassroots organisation Consejo Nacional de Ayllus y Markas del Qullasuyu (Conamaq), and Humberto Claros, the secretary general of the peasants’ union Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB), who have both played a key role in the recent protests in favour of Morales’ candidacy, were arrested on charges that include terrorism.