Evo Morales Finally Went Too Far for Bolivia

When an observer mission from the OAS published its election audit yesterday, the game was up. Announcing “clear manipulations” of the vote in a scathing report, Morales agreed to new elections, then scores of his own allies abandoned the sinking ship; he resigned. Though the future of Bolivian democracy remains radically uncertain, this is a momentous turning point: one of the first times in recent memory that an authoritarian populist has been forced to vacate his office, because his own compatriots would not stand for his abuses.

Chávez and Maduro made Venezuela authoritarian and poor. The Bolivian people have come out in great numbers to stop Morales from crushing their protests. As one of the most famous slogans of the Latin American left holds, El pueblo unido jamás será vencido: The people united will never be defeated.