FILE PHOTO: Former Bolivian President Evo Morales speaks during a news conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 19, 2019. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
LA PAZ/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Bolivia’s Foreign Ministry has asked Argentina’s government to disavow comments by Bolivian former President Evo Morales, currently living in exile in Buenos Aires, that called for the organization of armed militias in his home country.
Morales told Reuters on Sunday that Bolivians had the right to organize and defend themselves, without firearms, from what he said was attacks by Bolivia’s interim government, which he claims took power in a coup late last year.
“We ask the Argentine government to repudiate the practices of Evo Morales, at odds with the law and international public order,” Bolivia’s government said, adding it had sent a diplomatic letter to Argentine Foreign Minister Felipe Solá.
Bolivia’s interim government has done little to hide its anger that Morales has continued to play a key and vocal political role with his Movement for Socialism party ahead of new elections called for May 3.
A spokesman for Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said the country did not recognize Bolivia’s interim government and was waiting for “transparent elections to recognize the next government of Bolivia.”
Argentina’s center-left Peronist President Alberto Fernandez has previously supported Morales’ rights to speak freely. Granting him asylum has, however, created tensions between his new administration and the United States.
Bolivia’s interim President Jeanine Anez is rallying opposition to Morales ahead of the May election. Morales is not running but is orchestrating the campaign of his party.
Anez has also rekindled Bolivia’s relationship with the United States. Mauricio Claver-Carone, a senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, is currently visiting Bolivia, a sign of warming relations between the two countries.
Bolivia’s top court also agreed to extend the term limit on Anez’s caretaker government which had been due to expire later this month, local media reported, defusing some tensions after Morales had urged her to step down.
Reporting by Monica Machicao in La Paz and Maximilian Heath in Buenos Aires; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Richard Chang