The 2019 Bolivian protests, also known as the Pitita Revolution (Spanish: la Revolución de las Pititas), were protests and marches from 21 October 2019 until late November of that year in Bolivia, in response to claims of electoral fraud in the 2019 general election of 20 October. After 11 November 2019, there were protests by supporters of the outgoing government in response to Jeanine Áñez becoming the acting president of Bolivia. The claims of fraud were made after the suspension of the preliminary vote count, in which incumbent Evo Morales was not leading by a large enough margin (10%) to avoid a runoff, and the subsequent publication of the official count, in which Morales won by just over 10%. Some international observers expressed concern over the integrity of the elections.
While the majority of the demonstrations were peaceful, there were also numerous acts of violence. Initial violence allegedly targeted opposition protesters. Pro-MAS supporters were bused into opposition areas, given weapons, and were told to clear blockades, resulting in death and injury of opposition protesters. In the later weeks of the protests, senior members of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) and their families were victims of attacks, including vandalism and arson of their houses.
Morales denied the allegations and invited international observers to audit the electoral processes, promising to hold a runoff if any fraud was found, although initially refusing to be bound by the results of an audit. Opposition leaders rejected the OAS audit, saying they hadn't been party to the agreement. Subsequently, an audit team from the Organization of American States (OAS), with access provided by Bolivian authorities, worked to verify the integrity and reliability of the results. Their preliminary report, released on 10 November 2019 questioned the integrity of the election results and recommended another "electoral process".
Following the release of the OAS initial report, Morales announced the government would hold another full election (rather than a runoff). However, later that day, the influential National Union of Workers requested Morales' resignation, followed 5 hours later by the commanders of the Armed Forces who suggested Morales resign during a live televised press conference, and almost immediately after, the national Police Commander also requested his resignation. Morales, together with his Vice President Álvaro García Linera, resigned the same day, on live television; both also delivered written resignations. In Morales' case, he would later describe in his memoirs Volveremos y seremos millones (We'll come back and we'll be millions) that he took the decision to resign the night before the requests. Following his resignation and the resignations of the next two politicians in the line of succession, Jeanine Áñez, second vice-president of the Senate, was next in line for the presidency. On 12 November 2019, she formed an interim government.
Protests continued until the end of November, primarily by those who sought Morales' return. Under direction from Morales and his allies, and at times under coercion, protesters created blockades on inter-departmental highways, resulting in shortages of food and fuel. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concerns over massacres by the new government in response to armed protests at Senkata and Sacaba. By 25 November 2019, the interim government had made agreements with most protest leaders to end blockades, and began to withdraw troops and to release arrested protesters.
Background
Term limits
Article 168 of the 2009 constitution allowed the president and vice-president to be re-elected only once, limiting the number of terms to two. The governing party, the Movement for Socialism (MAS) sponsored an effort to amend this article. The referendum was authorized by a joint session of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly on 26 September 2015, by a vote of 112 to 41. Law 757, which convened the February referendum, passed by 113 votes to 43 and was promulgated on 5 November 2015.
The referendum marked the rise of anti-Morales sentiment in Bolivia. The vote was held on 21 February 2016 and the proposed amendment was rejected by 51.3% to 48.7%. A successful "yes" vote would have allowed President Evo Morales and Vice President Álvaro García Linera to run for another term in office in 2019. Morales had already been elected three times. The first time, in 2006, is not counted, as it was before the two-term limit was introduced by the 2009 constitution.
Despite the referendum result, the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal overruled the constitution by deferring to Article 23 of the American Convention on Human Rights, which promotes the human right to participate in government. The court ruled a little over one year after the referendum in December 2017 that all public offices would have no term limits, thus allowing Morales to run for a fourth term.
The removal of term limits proved controversial among Bolivians, including Morales' supporters, with some losing trust in Morales for overturning a referendum. John Walsh, Andes Director of the Washington Office on Latin America, stated that "The court's decision, which was very much in favor of MAS, added to the tensions and distrust leading into this election" and that for Morales, it was "also just hard to be in power for that long and not lose popularity". Mark L. Schneider of the Center for Strategic and International Studies summarized that there was "no question that there was a successful impact on raising the standard of living of the poor" under Morales, but that "problems in Bolivia arose, unfortunately, from the same problems that you see in Nicaragua and Venezuela, in Honduras and elsewhere where individuals decide that it's more important to stay in power than to follow democratic norms and the rule of law".
2019 general election
Heading into the elections, some voters distrusted Bolivia's voting system, suspecting fraud after Morales and his supporters disregarded the results of the 2016 referendum. Bolivia's Plurinational Electoral Body and the private company in charge of the preliminary vote count ad announced eleven days before the election, on 9 October, that only approximately 80% of the preliminary results would be released. On 20 October 2019, the first round of voting for all government positions was held. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal released two sets of counts shortly after the vote was closed. First was an exit poll that verified 95.6% of votes that showed incumbent President of Bolivia Evo Morales as having 9.33 percentage points over his main opposition and former president, Carlos Mesa. Leading by less than 10 percentage points indicates the vote must continue to a second run-off round. The complete count then appeared as provisional results on a website with routine live updates. At the point of 83.8% of votes in the complete count having been verified, the website showed Morales at 45.3% and Mesa at 38.2%; this also reflected a less than ten-point lead. However, no further updates to the preliminary results were made after 7:40 pm local time (UTC−4). The electoral authorities explained that updates to the preliminary count had been halted because the official results were beginning to be released; nevertheless, no official results were published overnight.
At 9:25 pm, as the vote counting was still underway, President Morales declared himself the winner of the elections, stating that while he would wait for final scrutiny of the results, the outstanding vote from rural areas would guarantee his victory; he did not mention the possibility of a runoff. Most of the remaining votes, from remote rural areas, were expected to go in Morales's favour, although the Organization of American States (OAS) recommended a runoff be held even if Morales's lead exceeded 10 points. Manuel González, head of the OAS election observation team in Bolivia, said that "In the case that [...] the margin of difference exceeds 10%, it is statistically reasonable to conclude that it will be by negligible margin" and that "given the context and the problematic issues in this electoral process the best option continues to be the convening of a second round." International observers expressed concern over the unexplained daylong gap in the reporting of results, which was followed by a surge in Morales votes when the count resumed. Félix Patzi, the presidential candidate for the Movimiento Tercer Sistema, alleged that following the unexplained 24-hour pause in the vote count on the day of the election, votes for his party had been changed to votes for the MAS.
On 21 October 2019, a press conference of the Plurinational Electoral Organ was held, which published data of the rapid count of the system of Transmisión de Resultados Electorales Preliminares (TREP, "Transmission of Preliminary Electoral Results"), published at 7:30 pm, almost a whole day after being initially suspended, stating that with 95.30 percent of the votes verified, Morales's MAS obtained 46.86% of the votes over the 36.72% of Mesa's Civic Community, surpassing the 10 percentage points needed to avoid a second run-off round and as such Morales would remain in power for a fourth term.
On 6 November, the Bolivian opposition published a 190-page-long report containing fraud accusations, including irregularities such as mistaken electoral acts additions, data wiping and electoral acts where the ruling party obtained more votes than registered voters, expecting to send it to international organizations such as the OAS and the United Nations.
Timeline of events
October 21–24: aftermath of election
On the day following the election, protests erupted in cities across Bolivia, several of which became violent. In La Paz, a clash between opponents and supporters of Morales and police took place; opposition groups were attacked with tear gas by the police. In Riberalta, protesters toppled a statue of Hugo Chávez, an ally of Evo Morales, and left its head in front of the mayor's home. The mayor of Cobija, Luis Gatty Ribeiro, and the governor of Pando, Luis Adolfo Flores, were attacked by protesters, with Flores being hospitalized. In Oruro, a MAS tent and a Public Ministry vehicle were destroyed. The Ponchos Rojos, an indigenous organization and militia, announced that it would hold marches in support of Morales. It also warned it might resort to roadblocks in La Paz and would respond to attacks with chicotes (whips) and other weapons. In Sucre, a group of female police officers marched in the city's central square, calling for calm and demanding that the government refrain from police violence and respect the people's will.
In Sucre, Potosí and Tarija, several ballot boxes and election-related buildings were set on fire, including the campaign headquarters of MAS and the offices of an indigenous workers organization. In Potosí, the electoral court was set on fire, along with several hotels being used as vote counting centers. Four departmental electoral tribunals suspended their vote counts due to protests occurring outside. The Chuquisaca Departmental Electoral Court moved its vote count to the town of Zudañez after its facilities in Sucre were burned down. Likewise, the Electoral Tribunal of Potosí ended the recount in the municipality of Llallagua, without notifying the delegates of the opposition political parties. The counts show that in the municipalities of Zudañez and Llallagua the government party managed to obtain more than two thirds of the votes.
In La Paz and Potosí, boxes of electoral ballots were found in trash cans and in private homes, which further fueled the protests.
October 25–November 10: growing unrest
Protests, strikes and roadblocks continued over the next several weeks, sometimes turning violent. Police frequently dispersed demonstrations with tear gas. Luis Fernando Camacho, president of the Civic Committee in Santa Cruz, emerged as a leader of the protests in this time. Bolivians living abroad also organized demonstrations, demanding a second round between the leading candidates.
On October 25, the official results were announced, showing 47% for Morales, which would have enabled him to avoid a second round. The results sparked renewed protests. There were reports of people beginning to stockpile food. Over the next weeks, roadblocks were set up across the country by both supporters and opponents of Morales. In some cities the police was mobilized to prevent violence, although reports emerged of officers not protecting both sides. Opposition protesters in Oruro set fire to the homes of several MAS politicians, including the governors of Oruro and Chuquisaca, and Esther Morales, Evo Morales' sister. In the town of Vinto, opposition protesters set the town hall on fire and kidnapped the mayor, Patricia Arce. Protesters allegedly beat her, cut her hair, and forced her to walk barefoot 40 blocks where they then urinated and spit on her.
On October 31, the OAS began its audit of the election, with representatives from Spain, Paraguay and Mexico monitoring. On the same day, the government announced that at least two people had died in the protests since they began, both in the town of Montero. A further fatality occurred on November 7, when a student was killed during a confrontation between supporters and opponents of Morales.
By November 8, members of the police had joined the anti-Morales protests; in the evening, several could be seen protesting with flags on the roof of the Cochabamba police department, as well as in La Paz, Santa Cruz, and Sucre. On November 9, the Bolivian army announced that it would not suppress the protests. Evo Morales notes in his memoirs that he privately made the decision to resign that evening.
November 10: Morales resigns
On 10 November the Organization of American States gave its audit of the election. The report alleged multiple irregularities, including "manipulations of the I.T. system [that] are of such magnitude that they should be investigated in depth." The organization recommended annulling the election and holding it again with new electoral authorities. The same day, the military asked Morales to resign and called on the Bolivian people to refrain from violence and disorder. Approximately an hour later, Morales announced his immediate resignation. He fled to Mexico the next day, which had offered him asylum.
The police withdrew from La Paz streets the next day, as crowds welcomed the transfer of power with fireworks. There were reports of looting and more politically motivated arson. At the same time, protests were held in support of Morales throughout Bolivia. El Alto was the site of a particularly large protest, in which multiple people were injured, with crowds chanting, "Now, civil war!" and waving the Wiphala indigenous flag.
The acting president, Jeanine Áñez, called for the military to support the police. The head of Bolivia's military said that following reports police have been overtaxed by weeks of unrest, the armed forces would provide help in keeping order.