I’ve long noticed splits between the MAS rank-and-file & Evo Morales. While Evo has, at times, been conciliatory, the rank-and-file is much more radical. Last week, Evo met w/ the country’s prefects & suggested that their autonomy statutes could be “reconciled” w/ the new draft constitution. Yesterday, MAS constituent assembly delegates made it clear to Evo that they would not modify the draft constitution.
It’s unfair to qualify Bolivia’s government as “authoritarian” (unlike, say, Venezuela’s) because Evo’s checked not only by opposition prefects (MAS currently only controls 2 of 9 prefectures), but also by his own party. Numerous times, Evo has been forced to dismiss ministers at the demand of his party’s legislative bench.
But this means that the possible solution to the crisis—the conflict between a draft constitution (approved hastily & under legally dubious circumstances) & regional autonomy statutes (also approved hastily & under legally dubious circumstances)—may be slipping farther from grasp.