The chief of the Hellenic Police has not yet issued a statement of support for the fugitive former president of Bolivia, who has incited unrest in his country,

As Bolivia has endured a veritable nightmare of violence for six weeks—with roadblocks leading to economic paralysis and instigated by former President Evo Morales— it would be useful to find out whether the “new” Alexis Tsipras remains an admirer of Latin American dictatorships and Castro-style leaders, Chávez, Maduro, Ortega, Morales, Correa, and Lenin Moreno.

So far, there has not been a single word of support for “brother” Morales, who is in danger of being arrested at any moment—even though in the past Mr. Tsipras stood firmly by both him and the Bolivian socialist… dream.

It seems he doesn’t consider this to be the right moment…

In early May 2025, the Bolivian judiciary reinstated an arrest warrant for “trafficking of a minor” against the country’s former president, Evo Morales, the 65-year-old coca farmer, leader of the famous “cocaleros,” and the first indigenous person elected head of state in the Andes, who at the time did everything in his power to run for a fourth term as president, even though the term limit is two terms and he had held the office from 2006 to 2019.

After his mandate was renewed, Morales—of whom Tsipras had declared himself a great admirer—fled to his political stronghold in Chapare, in the province of Cochabamba, in the central part of the country, and from there he is pulling the strings of the uprising.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Morales had a relationship with a 15-year-old girl in 2015, with whom he had a daughter a year later. The accusation is supported by the fact that the quid pro quo was his favor toward the teenager’s parents.

He has maintained from the outset that he is the victim of political persecution by the former president, Luis Arce, a former close associate and finance minister in his government.

In the parliamentary elections in August 2025, as Morales had called on his fractured former party to abstain or cast invalid votes —it seems that, time and again, the Left makes the same mistakes across the globe—the new parliament was dominated by the Center-Right and the Right, with invalid votes reaching 19.2%.

In practice, Morales himself destroyed the party (MAS) he had founded, which ended up with just 2 seats (down from… 75) and no senators. His goal from the start was to form a “popular alliance” that would eventually bring him back to power.
Just as Tsipras destroyed SYRIZA… Just a few years earlier, Tsipras and Morales were marching side by side.

He called the fraud… Democracy!


In the elections of October 20, 2019, widespread fraud sparked violent clashes and the intervention of the military, forcing Morales to resign and call for new elections.

At that time, SYRIZA—and Tsipras personally—had issued fiery statements. Alexis Tsipras, in a Twitter post, expressed his “his solidarity with and respect for Evo Morales and the people of Bolivia in the face of any attempt to bring back the dark days of coups and violence. “May democracy prevail!” Thus, as president of SYRIZA, Mr. Tsipras believed that democracy prevails when elections are rigged.

At that time, Morales had taken refuge in Mexico, and on November 15, 2019, in a new post, Mr. Tsipras informed us that he had spoken by phone with the fugitive former president, “to express my unwavering support, on behalf of every democratic Greek citizen, in his struggle for peace, democracy, and the independence of his homeland. He pointed out to me that his primary concern at this time is the restoration of social peace and emphasized the importance of raising international awareness of the need to restore democracy in Bolivia. The struggle for democracy in Bolivia and Latin America is a struggle that concerns us all, no matter how far away we may be.”

Therefore, in November 2019, Mr. Tsipras continued to support the Morales regime and the “struggle for democracy in Latin America.” Similar statements were made by Tsipras’s other like-minded allies from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and, of course, Lula of Brazil.

“Frugal abundance” and the exorbitantly expensive apartment


Earlier, in March 2019, Tsipras presented us with a new economic experiment, speaking of… “frugal abundance”! A novel paradox based on the theory of the marginal “economic philosopher” Serge Latouche and modeled after Bolivia and Evo Morales’s “austere lifestyle.”

Note that at that time, there was a huge uproar over the $34 million penthouse that Morales had acquired in a skyscraper in the capital, La Paz —all in the name of his “austere lifestyle.”

“We can dream of and fight for a better and more just society. For another world that is achievable and that can be brought about by forces firmly committed to social progress and a new model of sustainable development and frugal abundance,” Mr. Tsipras had written on Twitter!

It was then that Morales had visited Greece for a spectacular appearance at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, in the presence of the dazzling and ecstatic Greek elite.

He spoke to us about the Bolivian economic miracle!

There, Mr. Tsipras said all sorts of things—and left some things unsaid: “Latin America, where Evo Morales comes from, has been and continues to be, despite the major challenges and difficulties it faces, a great laboratory for such changes, transformations, and social movements.

Over the past thirteen years, the Left in Bolivia has spearheaded an economic miracle that has led even the toughest critics—those at the IMF, whom we know well here in Greece—to admit that Bolivia is now a clear success story.

The Bolivian economy is growing at nearly twice the rate of other Latin American countries, while other neighboring countries, which are reverting to harsh neoliberalism, are once again in crisis and facing hyperinflation. “In thirteen years,” said Mr. Tsipras, “through a combination of radical policies and realism, conflicts and compromises, Evo Morales has succeeded in gaining international recognition for his government’s economic and social achievements, and this practical contribution is extremely valuable, especially today, in the historically critical international context we face today, which is by no means favorable to the forces of justice, social liberation, and socialism with democracy and freedom.”

Concluding his speech, Mr. Tsipras described Evo Morales’s visit as “an important injection of optimism, encouragement, and hope that we can dream of and strive for a better and more just society—for another world that is achievable and can be brought about by forces steadfastly oriented toward socialprogress, as well as toward a new model of sustainable development and frugal abundance. This is the ““revolutionary realism” of the 21st-century governing Left, which moves forward through both ruptures and compromises.”

All of this makes sense if we consider that after the Tsipras-Morales meeting in September 2018, they announced that they had decided to… coordinate! Then both of them found themselves out of power…

The “miracle” was a nightmare


As for the economic miracle that Tsipras was touting to us, it ultimately turned out as follows: Bolivia under Morales and Arce was plunged into a deep economic crisis, with the most painful aspects being the shortages of fuel, foreign currency, and medicine.

A “success” that arose because, during the period of the socialist governments of Morales and Arce, the state carried out centralized fuel imports at international prices and resold them on the domestic market at at a loss. This system of fuel price subsidies depleted the country’s foreign exchange reserves, triggering the most severe economic crisis of the past 40 years, manifested primarily as high inflation, which reached 25% on an annual basis—the highest level in at least the past 17 years. Rural and indigenous communities were hit hard, a situation that continued to cause significant social tensions.

Amid all this, in October 2025, the center-right candidate Rodrigo Paz was elected president.
In December 2025, Arce was accused of having, during the Morales administration, as Minister of Finance, he had allowed funds intended for the development of indigenous communities to be transferred to the personal accounts of agricultural union leaders. As a result, he was arrested and remanded in custody.

However, Morales, who had gone so far as to advise even the pope to… chew coca leaves, continued to incite protests and road blockades, leading to the country being declared in a state of emergency last month.

After six weeks of protests, with roadblocks across the country that brought the nation to a standstill, the government reached an agreement last Friday, June 20, reached an agreement with the country’s main labor confederation.

The next day, police vehicles and army armored vehicles cleared roads with the help of construction equipment. In many cases, they encountered “ghost roadblocks”—made of small mounds of dirt and rocks—and met no resistance.
For his part, Morales remains entrenched, continuing his destructive work. Without a party, but… with the people and of the people—as Tsipras now tells us as well. Tsipras and Morales… parallel lives!

*Member of Parliament for the B3 District of Southern Athens (New Democracy), journalist