President Evo Morales eked out a win in the final presidential vote count, but his opponent Carlos Mesa has said the result is fraudulent. The two have blamed each other for the post-election violence.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/D. Walker
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Rival political rallies of supporters and opponents of Bolivian President Evo Morales ended in clashes on Monday, leaving dozens injured.
The unrest came in the wake of a contested presidential election that was marred by irregularities and saw Morales claim victory over his opponent, former President Carlos Mesa.
In a final and legally binding vote count, the leftist leader tallied 47.08% of the vote to Mesa's 36.51%, clearing the hurdle to avoid a runoff by just over half a percentage point.
Both Morales and Mesa claimed to have won the election and accused each other of inciting violence. Mesa alleged that electoral fraud was employed to enable the leftist president to attain the minimum 10-point lead required to avoid a runoff.
The former president pointed to a sudden and unexplained change in the electoral results. With 84% of votes counted after the polls closed, all signs had pointed to an election runoff. But after a 24-hour pause in vote counting, a sudden spike in Morales' favor saw the incumbent pull ahead with a razor-thin win.
"We have decided to confront the authoritarianism, on the way to a dictatorship, the authoritarianism that seeks to rob us of an election," Mesa told supporters at a rally.
The Organization of American States (OAS) has expressed "surprise" and "concern" over the ballot count and has agreed to carry out an audit of the results, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he "fully" backs.
Morales, who has been in power since 2006, has denied the charges of fraud, telling supporters at his rally that he lamented that "some groups do not recognize the triumph of the Bolivian people."
"They aren't the majority; they are small groups," the long-serving president said.
On Sunday Morales claimed the opposition was preparing for a "coup d'etat."
Residents in southern La Paz used branches, rubble and rope to close roads and block access to public transport, with some bus drivers trying to remove the barricades.
Fistfights broke out between rival groups, which then degenerated into battles with sticks and stones as police used tear gas to try to disperse them.
In the central city of Cochabamba, clashes broke out between opposition supporters setting up barricades and Morales' loyalists.
Residents blocked roads using cars, wooden planks, rope and dumpsters in both the middle-class south and working-class north of La Paz.
In the eastern city of Santa Cruz, clashes left some 30 people wounded, one of them from a gunshot, government sources said. Local media also reported injuries in the city of Cochabamba.
jcg/stb (AP, Reuters)
Burning across the border: Fires rage in Bolivia
The Amazon is burning, but not just in Brazil. In the Chiquitania region of Bolivia, firefighters have risked their lives to combat fires in the dry forest and farmland in the countryside.
Image: DW/Juan Gabriel Estellano
Scorched earth
According to official numbers, wildfires have burned through more than 1 million hectares of dry forest and farmland in Bolivia. In the area of Santa Rosa de Tucabaca in the country's eastern Chiquitania region, the fires have raged for over a month, threatening indigenous populations and devastating Bolivia's rich biodiversity.
Image: DW/Juan Gabriel Estellano
An ominous glow
Out-of-control wildfires light up the night sky. The unique Chiquitania region — characterized by both savannah and forest — experienced a severe drought this year. It's common practice for farmers to start small, easily-monitored fires during the months of July and August to prepare the soil for the next harvest. But many have quickly spread this season and morphed into wildfires.
Image: DW/Juan Gabriel Estellano
Slash-and-burn
Areas of forest which have already been cut down are more likely to catch alight. Many of the fires in Bolivia were started by small farmers after President Evo Morales passed legislation in July that encourages slash-and-burn farming to open up new land for agricultural use. Morales has been accused of pushing populist policies and failing to act quickly to contain the wildfires.
Image: DW/Juan Gabriel Estellano
A growing disaster
The fires are still expanding through the Chiquitania region. Indigenous people have been affected, including the Chiquitanos and the Ayoreos peoples, who produce citrus fruits, beans, rice, and corn.
Image: DW/Juan Gabriel Estellano
Losing livelihoods
Vania Montenegro Aranibar (39) is a local farmer from the village of Peniel, where she cultivates lemons, passion fruits and avocados. The fire quickly surrounded her property, destroying her fields and killing her ducks. "They died in half an hour because their feathers caught on fire," she told DW. "I'm very sad how many animals must have been burned, how many species, trees."
Image: DW/Juan Gabriel Estellano
Nowhere to run
This anteater was just one of countless animals caught in the fires which passed through the area of Chochis. Firefighters on the ground have described heartbreaking scenes of terrified animals fleeing from the flames, including armadillos, snakes, tapirs and jaguars. Those who survived are now at risk of starvation due to the lack of food and water.
Image: DW/Juan Gabriel Estellano
Fighting back
Firefighters Moises Soria Valverde and Ronald Picolomini visit a badly affected area in Santa Rosa de Tucabaca. Alongside other firefighters, they are helping with efforts to try and control the massive wildfires. They cut through the dense forest with machetes and try to extinguish the flames with 20 liter water tanks on their backs. But the battle still feels like an impossible fight.
Image: DW/Juan Gabriel Estellano
Impossible to reach
Outside of the village of Robore, the wildfires have now spread to areas mostly inaccessible to firefighters. The Chiquitano dry forests are part of an ecoregion connecting the tropical Amazon biome with the semiarid Gran Chaco region, which stretches into western Paraguay, northern Argentina and part of Brazil.
