(above) Evo Morales not ready to leave presidency after term ends

Bolivia: Evo Morales admits he is not ready to go home in 2019
November 15, 2016 - en.mercopress.com

Despite what most Bolivians voted for on February 21, that is against the incumbent president being eligible to run for yet another re-election, Morales is confident that a second referendum will take place shortly. "I'm not ready to go home," Morales said Monday. "What we have done politically and about the country's development is quite an achievement," he explained. "When they cannot quash us ideologically or democratically, they use the family and even a non-existent child," he argued. "It really surprised me."

 "However, now people realize it," said the Bolivian president, whose party, the Movement to Socialism (MAS), has anticipated that it will push for a second national consultation so that Morales can stay in power.

Morales explained that the people tell him that "even if we have lost you must continue until 2025 and I tell myself Evo's life does not depend on Evo; Evo belongs to the people and Evo must submit to the people."

"My dream is that at the end of my term I go to my farm, to my little hut," he explained. "But I have always respected the decision of the people." He went on to say that even some rightwing groups are wondering "without Evo, what will Bolivia be?"

Morales became president on January 22, 2006. In 2009, he won the election again on the basis of a new Constitution, under which only one reelection is allowed. In 2014 he won his second term under the new rules which prevent him from running again for office, but he and his followers hope to find a way around those restrictions.