MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th November, 2020) Ousted Bolivian President Evo Morales returned home on Monday from Argentina together with Argentine President Alberto Fernandez after almost a year-long self-exile in this country and in Mexico.
"Part of my life will remain in Argentina following the 11 months that I had spent in this country. Thank you very much. I was feeling that I was not alone," Morales said before crossing the border, with the address broadcast by regional Latin American television channel TeleSur.
Morales also thanked Fernandez for "saving [his] life" via facilitating his departure from Bolivia last year.
In the Bolivian borderline city of Villazon the ex-president was met and cheered by a crowd of people counting thousands. He will reportedly join an authorized rally.
Morales was pressured by the military to flee Bolivia on the back of violent nationwide protests last fall. They were ignited by his controversial victory in an election that would launch his fourth consecutive presidential term.
Opposition lawmaker Jeanine Anez took over as interim president and arranged for a new presidential vote, which took place on October 18. The election was won by Luis Arce, a member of Morales' own Movement for Socialism party.
Morales has reacted to Arce's victory by saying that the Bolivian people had managed to regain political power via democracy, not coup, and calling the victory a "great triumph of the people."
