THE rift between Bolivia’s current and former presidents Luis Arce and Evo Morales has dramatically widened — with the latter joining accusations that Mr Arce staged last week’s attempted military coup.

Mr Morales, who was overthrown in a military coup himself in 2019, was previously a close ally of Mr Arce, a longtime minister in his government who was elected president after a year of mass mobilisations forced the coup regime of Jeanine Anez to hold elections. 

He returned to the country from forced exile the day after Mr Arce’s election — but has since fallen out with him, both seeking the 2025 nomination for the presidency from their Movement Towards Socialism party and dividing it into “Evista” and “Arcista” factions, though they are not clearly differentiated on policy.