Evo to Mexico
Let me confirm that I did not see this one coming. In other words, I saw the possibility of President Evo Morales resigning, but I did not think he'd end up in Mexico.
So why is Morales in Mexico? Why not Cuba or Venezuela? Maybe Morales sees those two regimes in trouble, too.
Morales claims that his life was in danger, and that may be true, given the tensions in the country. My guess is that it was his political life that was endangered.
He claims that there was a "coup." That's false. What we saw in Bolivia was a simple case of election corruption, as Agustin Laje reported:
Let us remember, or instead let us say (since little to nothing has been said by the press) when about 83% of the votes were counted in Bolivia, the results suggested that the country would go in for a second round of elections.
But all of a sudden, the counting stopped for more than 20 hours.
Then the final results appeared "magically," once again enshrining Evo Morales as President, by a margin of 0.14%.
The fraud was so evident that the OAS described the process as "null and void."
Best of all, the good people of Bolivia did not stand for it. They forced Morales to resign and face the consequences.
Morales ran to Mexico instead of answering for electoral fraud.
Why did President Andrés López-Obrador bring a man involved in political corruption to Mexico?
On the surface, Mexico is buying into the idea that Morales's life was in danger.
I think the real reason is that López-Obrador is in deep political trouble, from the recent military defeat at the hands of cartels, the massacre of women and children in North Mexico, the daily homicides on a path to break all previous records, and the Mexican economy slowing down.
So López-Obrador brought Morales to change the subject and give the Mexican left something to cheer about.
Based on my conversations with Mexican friends, no one is crazy about Morales bringing his show to Mexico.
As a friend said: Who is going to pay for his settlement in Mexico? It won't be Bolivia. It does not sound to me that Mexicans want to pick up the tab, either. So let's hope that Morales has a few dollars in a secret account somewhere.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.