ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
This weekend could mark the end of an era in Bolivia's politics, as well as for the left in South America. For the first time in two decades, the once dominant Socialist Party of the Andean nation does not have a strong candidate in this Sunday's presidential race. The party's leftist icon, the country's first Indigenous president, is barred from running, and he's urging his supporters to spoil their ballots and the election. NPR's Carrie Kahn has more.
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Primitivo Flores Mina is on his way to a campaign rally in La Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia. He's thinking of voting for one of the conservative candidates now leading in the polls.
PRIMITIVO FLORES MINA: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "Everyone is hoping for a change, and we hope it comes fast," he says. He's been a taxi driver for almost three decades - nearly as old as his dark green Toyota Corolla, which, thankfully, isn't a gas guzzler. He says he can easily spend three to four hours in line to fill up.
MINA: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "Everything is so expensive now. What we earn in a day just doesn't cut it anymore," he says.
Bolivia is in the midst of its worst economic crisis in years. There's a line for everything - gas, bread and dollars. Inflation is soaring. Many voters blame the socialist MAS Party, which has dominated Bolivian politics for 20 years.
JORGE DERPIC: We'd go to a supermarket, and you would see that items don't have prices on them because the prices go up or change, like, every day.
KAHN: Jorge Derpic is a Bolivia expert at the University of Georgia. He says MAS swept into power promising prosperity for the poor and Bolivia's large Indigenous people and, for a while, did funnel the country's natural gas revenues toward poverty alleviation. But after years of unbridled state spending and mismanagement, as well as party infighting, dollar reserves are at rock bottom, the black market is thriving and poverty is on the rise.
DERPIC: That's probably what people are perceiving on the streets. It's like, yeah, you failed us. You really didn't take us to where you were supposed to take us in the end.
KAHN: The socialist longtime leader Evo Morales is now holed up in his tropical stronghold in central Bolivia. He's barred from running and seldom leaves for fear of being arrested on statutory rape charges, which he denies. He's urging supporters to spoil their ballots.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
EVO MORALES: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: In this recent transmission from there, he says when all tallied, the null and blank votes will easily show that 40% of the electorate is still with him. With nine candidates running, it's unlikely anyone will win Sunday's election outright, but chances are it won't be a leftist. The current president, who is highly unpopular, is not running. The two men leading polls are both conservatives and vow to cut state spending and improve relations with the U.S. One owns Bolivia's Burger King concessions.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: At this outlet, off La Paz's main square, 28-year-old tech worker Geraldine Palenque Murillo says she may eat here, but isn't a fan of any of her electoral choices.
GERALDINE PALENQUE MURILLO: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "Something has to change," she says, so she'll probably vote for one of the top candidates, even though she says she doesn't agree with them at all.
Carrie Kahn, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
