Morales RESIGNS amid pressure from the military to step down so Bolivia can return to ‘peace and stability’ after weeks of protests over disputed presidential election
- President Evo Morales announced his departure after General Williams Kaliman said the South American nation’s military chiefs wanted him gone
- Kaliman said on national television Sunday that the military’s chiefs wanted Morales gone to restore ‘peace and stability and for the good of our Bolivia’
- Kaliman stepped in within hours of Morales agreeing earlier in the day to hold a new election
- Morales’ claim to have won a fourth term last month had triggered fraud allegations, deadly protests and a split among security forces
Bolivia’s embattled President Evo Morales has resigned.
Morales announced his resignation shortly after the military called on him to step down amid continued protests following the South American nation’s disputed elections.
General WIlliams Kaliman said on national television that the military’s chiefs wanted Morales gone to restore ‘peace and stability and for the good of our Bolivia’.
Bolivia’s now former President Evo Morales announced Sunday he was resigning amid pressure from the military just hours before to step down. Morales (pictured earlier in the day announcing there would be a new presidential election) faced electoral fraud allegations
General WIlliams Kaliman said on national television that the military’s chiefs wanted Morales gone to restore ‘peace and stability and for the good of our Bolivia’.
“Likewise, we ask the Bolivian people and mobilized sectors to shed attitudes of violence and disorder among brothers so as not to stain our families with blood, pain and mourning’, the general said, Reuters reports.
Kaliman stepped in after Morales agreed earlier in the day to hold a new election.
Morales’ claim to have won a fourth term last month had triggered fraud allegations, deadly protests and a split among security forces, The Associated Press reports.
Earlier on Sunday, a report from the Organization of American States (OAS), which conducted an audit of the October vote, revealed serious irregularities in the election won by Morales, which sparked widespread division in the country.
The dispute over the October 20 election triggered nationwide protests, resulting in three deaths and more than 300 injuries.
Police guards outside the presidential palace left their posts Saturday, allowing anti-government protesters to walk up to the doors of the building.
Morales was not in the building when police retreated, with some of them standing on the roof of a near by police station in a sign of growing discontent among security forces and that his presidency was in trouble.
Officials in the palace in La Paz were evacuated, leaving only a military presidential guard.
Bolivian police had became openly defiant a day earlier after protests appeared to be spreading.
On Thursday a Bolivian mayor was doused in red paint and had her hair hacked off by protesters who blamed her for the deaths of two opposition protesters.
Patricia Arce, of the governing Mas party, was dragged out of Vinto town hall on and subjected to four hours of degradation in which she was made to kneel and sign her resignation.
Young men carrying batons and wearing masks chanted, ‘Murderess, murderess,’ as they marched Arce to a platform where they cut her hair before the baying mob.
Morales, first elected president in 2006, was seeking to remain in power until 2025 after he took legal action to get around constitutional term limits.