https://news.yahoo.com/bolivia-presi...205907845.html
(Bloomberg) -- Evo Morales, South America’s longest-serving president and a towering figure for the region’s left-wing movements, resigned after election irregularities triggered weeks of violent clashes and intervention from the armed forces.Morales said he was leaving office to avoid violence, adding that he wouldn’t flee the country since he hadn’t stolen anything. He pointed to the economic progress of the country and said in his resignation speech that he was the victim of a coup and called for the international community to intervene.
Russia joined leftist governments in the region, including Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba, in denouncing what the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said on Monday appeared to have been “an orchestrated coup” against Morales. The U.S., which on Sunday criticized the “flawed” elections, kept a low profile over Morales’s departure.
Bolivia plunged into deeper chaos late Sunday with reports of fires and looting, as well as confusion over the succession after the three officials who were next in line to replace Morales also stepped down.
Arrest Warrant
On Sunday night, Morales said on Twitter that the Bolivian police had an arrest warrant against him, and also that violent groups had attacked his home.
Morales’s resignation caps three weeks of political violence in the landlocked nation. While he presided over respectable economic growth under a socialist-light model, his desire to cling on to power after almost 14 years even after losing a referendum ultimately led to his downfall. His exit also coincides with a period of social unrest in recent weeks across South America, from Ecuador to Chile, amid austerity programs and cuts in social programs and subsidies.
Bolivia’s top soldier General Williams Kaliman Romero earlier said Morales should step down to restore peace to the country. The governments of Mexico and Venezuela, as well as Argentine President-elect Alberto Fernandez, echoed Morales in denouncing the events as a coup.
Some call it resignation, some call it a coup. Fact is that indigenous people who had elected the first indigenous president in the history of Bolivia are angry and there are reports that El alto(the second most populous city in Bolivia)has revolted.