snitv2020 "We're in power now’ Eve Morales makes gleeful retum Io town he fled | World news |The Guardian ‘We're in power now’: Evo Morales makes gleeful return to town he fled Tens of thousands of supporters greet Bolivian ex-president during his triumphant return to Chimoré Tom Phillips and Dan Collyns in Chimoré Wed 11 Nov 20201851 GMT Tens of thousands of jubilant followers have welcomed Evo Morales back to the coca-growing region from which he fled into exile exactly one year ago after what they branded a racist rightwing coup. “Evo, Evo, Evo,’ chanted the people who had travelled from all over Bolivia to witness their leader's triumphant return home in the jungle-flanked town of Chimoré. Bolivia’s first indigenous president resigned and abandoned the South American country on 11 November 2019, making his escape on a Mexican air force jet that whisked him out of Chimoré’s airport. Morales decided to bolt when security forces withdrew their support after later questioned claims of electoral fraud in the presidential election sparked street protests and deadly unrest. But on Wednesday, two days after re-entering Bolivia at the start of an emotional, politically- charged homecoming, he made a gleeful return to the same town - to a rapturous reception. hitps:wwthequardian.comworld/2020!nov1*fevo-morales-etutn-bolva-chimore-exle “4snitv2020 "We're in power now’ Eve Morales makes gleeful retum Io town he fled | World news |The Guardian Ina highly symbolic move, tens of thousands of followers from across the country had gathered on the runway from which Morales took flight. Supporters of Morales attend a rally to welcome him to Chimoré on 11 November. Photograph: Juan Karita/AP Addressing them from a stage decked with green, yellow and red balloons, Morales declared: “We knew we were not alone. We knew we would return” Wreathed in white flowers and coca leaves, the former coca growers union leader thanked the crowd for its support during his year-long banishment, railed against the US and mocked Jeanine Afiez, the conservative senator who took power after he was forced from office. Morales, 61, recalled how in January Afiez had urged the Bolivian people to stop “the savages” from regaining power. “The Bolivian right and the global right should know: the savages are back in government,” he added sarcastically. “We're in power now?” Morales decision to return to Bolivia, just weeks after his party reclaimed the presidency ina re-run of last year’s election, has enraged opponents and unnerved some within his own party, the Movement For Socialism (Mas). Bolivia’s new leftwing president, Luis Arce, has distanced himself from his predecessor and has not taken part in Morales’s caravan to Chapare province. But Morales is still adored in many parts of the country for the social, economic and racial strides Bolivia made during his three terms in power. There have been scenes of joy this week as the exiled politician crossed Bolivia’s southern border with Argentina and headed north towards the jungle-covered Chapare region where he began his political career in the 1980s. hitps:witheguardian.comiworld/2020inov/1tfevo-morales-return-bolvia-chimore-eile aiesnisv2020 "We're in power now’ Eve Morales makes gleeful retum Io town he fled | World news |The Guardian ‘A supporter holds a poster of Morales during a rally to welcome him to Chimoré on 11 November. Photograph: STF/AP. Along the road north Morales was serenaded by brass bands and mobbed by devotees shouting words of support or clutching the multicoloured indigenous Wiphala flag that Morales made one of Bolivia’s national standards. “The fight goes on,” the former cocalero activist proclaimed as his motorcade began its three- day journey back on Monday morning. On Tuesday the former union leader visited his childhood home in Orinoca wearing an Andean poncho. Addressing the rally in Chimoré on Wednesday, Juan Carlos Huarachi, the head of the Bolivian Workers’ Centre, urged Morales’s champions to celebrate the return of “comrade Evo” and the defeat of the right. “We did not surrender, carajo! We fought back ... The people are responsible for this revolution,” Huarachi said. “Comrade Evo isn’t just a domestic leader. He’s a Latin American leader and he’s a world leader he added. “Thanks to him we have our dignity. 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