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Bolivia is in turmoil after its president of the last 14 years, Evo Morales, fled the country. Mr Morales is seeking asylum in Mexico following allegations of election fraud. One of Latin America's poorest countries, the landlocked Andean nation of 11m people has seen weeks of violent protests after elections on October the 20th. In those elections Mr Morales was attempting to win a fourth consecutive term in power.
He's a hero for the country's marginalised groups. Mr Morales built a reputation as a champion of the poor and the oppressed. He rewrote the country's constitution and nationalised the gas industry, the mainstay of the economy. He took the proceeds from that and spent them generously on social programmes. And those achievements won him three successive election victories. But Mr Morales's legitimacy suffered a big blow in 2016.
That was when he ignored the results of a national referendum in which Bolivians voted against allowing him a fourth term in power. He stood anyway. And citizens who had supported him started to feel he was maybe staying in power too long. In last month's election, Mr Morales claimed victory on the first round. But the Organization of American States, which oversaw the poll, and the European Union agreed that there'd been serious irregularities in the voting.
As opposition protests mounted, Mr Morales agreed to a fresh election. But his critics said he couldn't be trusted to run a free or a fair vote. And the pressure continued to mount. Over the last weekend, rank and file police and military defected en masse to join the protests, and the president's position became untenable. This led the country's military leader to request that Mr Morales step down, which he did late on Sunday.
Now the country faces a highly uncertain future, divided between Mr Morales's supporters, who are denouncing what they call a coup, and the opposition, which is calling for law and order to be restored, and for fresh elections as soon as possible. Violence is continuing, and there is a dangerous vacuum of power. Bolivians are hoping, meanwhile, that their country can heal its divisions and move forward peacefully. But this is far from guaranteed.
