I’m no Bolivia expert. I’ve never been to South America. But I’m an absolute connoisseur of Leftists losing elections.

After 20 years of leftist rule, the People finally tossed Evo Morales’ MAS into the dustbin of history.

Pop the champagne, folks. One of Latin America’s longest-running leftist experiments just collapsed under its dead weight.

On Sunday, Bolivia held its general election—and for the first time in decades, Evo Morales’ Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) didn’t just lose power. It was ejected, humiliated, and left staring into the abyss.

Their presidential candidate? Eduardo del Castillo, a man so inspiring that he could barely scrape together 3% of the vote.

Three. Not thirty. Not thirteen. Three. You can get more people to sign a bad bar tab in La Paz than MAS could convince to back their candidate.

And to twist the knife further, MAS couldn’t even hold its legislative majorities. The once-dominant machine of Morales and President Luis Arce is now a sputtering jalopy left abandoned on the roadside.

The Bolivian people—long weary of shortages, inflation, corruption, and endless strongman cosplay from Morales and his cronies—finally said, “Basta!” Even more telling? 20% of voters spoiled their ballots. A giant flip of the bird to the system, but also a roar of frustration that things had to change. And change, at last, is here.

The End of the MAS Monopoly

For two decades, MAS ruled Bolivia with a heavy hand, cloaking populism in the language of “indigenous empowerment” while quietly draining the country of opportunity. The playbook was familiar: expropriate industries, cozy up to Beijing and Moscow, and rant about “Yankee imperialism.”

It worked for years—until reality set in. Fuel shortages, breadlines, and a suffocating economic crisis are running amok in Bolivia. Ordinary Bolivians are done subsidizing The Grand Socialist Experiment.

Now the runoff in October pits Rodrigo Paz Pereira, a centrist, against Jorge Quiroga, a conservative former president. Whoever wins, one fact is inescapable: the left is gone. Morales’ empire is in ruins.

Foreign Policy: Turning the Page

What does this mean geopolitically? Plenty.

After years of being treated like the bad guy, Washington suddenly looks like Bolivia’s new best friend. Expulsions of US diplomats? Over. The anti-American grandstanding at the UN? Gone. Expect a rush of US investment and quiet sighs of relief in Foggy Bottom.

China and Russia had their fun, snapping up lithium contracts and painting Morales as their Andean poster boy. That era is likely over. A pro-market Bolivia will pivot Westward, just as Argentina recently did. The BRICS bloc will have to make do without one of its loudest cheerleaders.

Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela just lost an ally. Morales spent years burnishing his “Bolivarian” credentials by parroting Havana and Caracas. No more. Bolivia is out of the club.

The Rest of the West: Don’t be shocked if La Paz reopens ties with and looks for friends among moderate democracies rather than socialist autocracies.

Morales’ Last Gasp?

Evo Morales, the man who styled himself Bolivia’s eternal caudillo, now looks more like a washed-up ex-dictator clinging to the last scraps of his already useless reputation. His supporters threaten protests—even guerrilla resistance—if the right prevails in October. But that kind of talk only underscores MAS’s desperation. The party that once commanded half the country can’t even get one-twentieth of it to show up for their candidate.

If MAS’s electoral performance is poor enough (and it was), Bolivia’s electoral court could even strip MAS of its legal party status. Imagine that: the once untouchable Morales machine erased from the ballot altogether.

A New Era—With Caveats

Let’s not kid ourselves. Bolivia is still Bolivia: a fractured society, riven with ethnic divides, political vendettas, and a history of coups that would make a Roman senator blush. The next president—whether centrist Paz or conservative Quiroga—faces a hellish in-tray:

• Stabilize the economy.
  
  
• Restore investor confidence.
  
  
• Clean up decades of grift and corruption.
  
  
• And prevent Morales' loyalists from torching the country on their way out.

But this is still a triumph. The fall of MAS is proof that even the most entrenched leftist regimes can—and do—fall. Twenty years of socialist “revolution” ended not with a bang, but with a whimper and a measly 3% showing.

Wrap Up

Latin America’s left has been riding high for years, convincing itself that socialism is forever. Bolivia just proved otherwise.

The Bolivian people stood up and said they’ve had enough of shortages, corruption, and being pawns in Beijing and Moscow’s games. MAS is done. Evo Morales is history. And Bolivia, battered though it is, now has a shot at writing a new chapter—one where markets matter more than Marx.

Sometimes history doesn’t whisper. Sometimes it shouts. And on August 17, Bolivia shouted loud enough to shake the snow off the Andes: Adiós, MAS. Don’t let the palace door hit you on the way out.