, as protests step up against Morales){kind=link}
A hunger strike in La Paz against President Evo Morales entered its 23 day on Wednesday (January 09), as protests step up against Morales after he was given the green light to run for the presidency again.
Last year, Morales’ Movement to Socialism party successfully asked the courts to rescind legal limits barring elected authorities from seeking reelection indefinitely, clearing the way for the incumbent to pavement to seek another term.
But despite the green light, protesters have denounced the move. With this group of citizens launching a hunger strike in a local square.
It has come despite a 2016 referendum when 51 percent of voters rejected Morales’ proposal to end term limits. Morales, a former coca farmer in power since 2006, had previously accepted the results of a referendum in 2016, but he later reversed course, saying that while he was willing to leave office, his supporters were pushing for him to stay.
Historically unstable Bolivia has enjoyed relative calm and prosperity under Morales, the country’s first indigenous president. Approval ratings for Morales, a fierce critic of capitalism and ally of embattled Venezuelan socialist leader Nicolas Maduro, hover at around 50 percent.
Morales says his first election took place under Bolivia’s previous constitution and therefore did not count under the now-defunct two-term rule.