Bolivia's ex-president travels to Cuba for medical examination

Less than a month after being forced into exile in Mexico, former Bolivian President, Evo Morales, has arrived in Cuba for a medical appointment, amid speculations that the visit could be the first step for him to recover power in his home country.

Morales left Mexico on a plane bound for Havana on Friday night, according to the former health minister under Morales’ administration.

“President Evo Morales is in Cuba for a medical appointment with the Cuban medical team that treated him in Bolivia,” Montano said.

Mexico’s foreign relations ministry also confirmed that Morales had left the Caribbean island.

Bolivia’s first indigenous leader was forced to resign in November in what he said was a US-backed coup d’état against his administrator.

He was granted asylum in Mexico back then but vowed not to back down and continue fighting from abroad.

Morales, however, has currently ruled out taking part in a fresh round of presidential elections in his country to stop the existing crisis sliding into a broader civil or ethnic conflict, the Guardian reported late last month.

“In the name of peace, sacrifices have to be made and I am sacrificing my candidacy even though I have every right to it,” he said.

Police, Morales’ supporters clash amid worsening unrest

Police in Bolivia fire tear gas at the supporters of the country’s former president Evo Morales, as unrest continues in the country.

It is also unlikely he will return to Bolivia, since the Interior Minister of the country’s rightwing interim government has threatened to imprison him for the rest of his life.

Last month, The Mexican newspaper El Universal said Morales will be relocating to another Latin American country from Mexico “where he would be able to organize his resistance plan and strategy to attempt to return to Bolivia to recover power in the near future.”

Some analysts also said that the lengthy stay of Morales in Mexico will have damaged already fragile relations between Washington and Mexico City.

Mexican president defends decision to grant former Bolivian leader political asylum

President Obrador of Mexico defends his decision to grant asylum to Bolivia’s Morales, who was forced to resign as president in a ‘coup d’etat.’

US President, Donald Trump, would not have appreciated seeing Mexico’s “support, and much less finance, a campaign by the deposed president to retake power in Bolivia”, said Mexican commentator, García Soto.

“That is why Evo’s presence cannot last too long ... because the more time that passes the more likely it is to become a source of tension between Mexico and the US,” he added.

The Spanish daily, El País, reported Friday that Morales was unlikely to spend much time in Cuba.

It said the former Bolivian leader will be heading to Argentina once that country’s new leader, Alberto Fernández, takes office next week. Argentina’s leftist leader will be sworn into office on Tuesday.

Morales was swept to power in the elections of 2005 and easily won a second term in 2009 and a third term in 2014. The country had been experiencing years of stability and high economic growth under his administration.

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