Overview

• Nearly 2,000 armed backers have transformed the Tropics of Cochabamba into the Cuartel General Lauca Ñ with watchtowers and barricades, keeping state security forces at bay.
• President Luis Arce’s government has lodged eight criminal charges against Morales, among them terrorism, public incitement to commit crimes and electoral obstruction.
• From his bunkered post at Radio Kawsachun Coca, Morales has decried the trafficking charge as political persecution, insisting that “if there is no victim, there is no crime.”
• Morales has publicly called on the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to validate his candidacy for the August 17 vote, threatening legal action should it refuse.
• The confrontation underscores a deep split within Movimiento al Socialismo that has polarized coca farmers loyal to Morales against the Arce administration’s authority.