“If we manage to do that, I would love to support that candidate, because he is the candidate who would beat the MAS (…). Bolivia has the unique, golden opportunity to unite and have a candidate that we all support (…),” Claure said in an interview with the Bolivisión network.

Claure, who is an admirer of president-elect of the United States Donald Trump and of the president of Argentina Javier Milei, advocated that the opposition candidate win the elections with a good percentage in order to impose “(…) the structural changes that our country needs.”

After many years of living in the United States, on November 27th, Claure broke out onto the Bolivian political scene with a survey widely publicized in the media and divided into three parts, which sparked a great controversy among Bolivian politicians.

After the criticism, on December 5th, Claure offered an interview to explain his survey and to present his plan called Bolivia 360, in which he described the dignitary Luis Arce as “one of the worst presidents”, and added that the former dignitary Evo Morales has “disappointed” him.

In his explanation, he stated that Morales has a base of 18 percent support if he runs for president, the same percentage that the opposition candidate Manfred Reyes Villa registers; however, he said that when it comes to defining the ceiling of both candidates, Villa has a considerable advantage over Morales.

Claure revealed that he had and maintains contacts with Bolivian right-wing politicians such as Samuel Doria Medina, Jorge Tuto Quiroga and Carlos Mesa, who unsuccessfully ran for president several times.

Claure insisted on holding primary elections to define an opposition candidate, and expressed his willingness to support through an application that he called “voluntary” for those interested. He also reiterated the plan to support the winning opposition candidate and propose the plan of “structural changes” that he called Bolivia 360 and consists of privatizations.

Last week, Bolivian newspaper La Época denounced Claure’s colonial vision and neoliberal perspective in reference to the results of the survey, which he contracted with the Panterra pollster. La Época considered that “this businessman already has his sights set on lithium and surely on other state companies to appropriate them at a dead chicken price.”

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