Argentina takes in Evo Morales, with strings

Argentina's new center-left government has quietly taken in Bolivia's exiled former president Evo Morales but banned him from campaigning from Argentinian soil.

Morales arrived in Argentina this morning on a commercial flight from Mexico and filed a request for refugee status which would prevent his extradition to Bolivia. La Paz has been in the hands of a conservative interim government since shortly after Morales resigned on 10 November.

The Argentinian government's decision to allow Morales into the country but to prevent him from engaging in political activities reflects the delicate political balance that President Alberto Fernandez is under pressure to strike.

Notably, Morales did not arrive in time to attend Fernandez's high-profile inauguration ceremony in Buenos Aires on 10 December. Among the attendees were leftist Morales allies including Ecuador's exiled former president Rafael Correa and Jorge Rodriguez, the communications minister of Venezuela's US-sanctioned president Nicolas Maduro, who was not recognized by Argentina's former president Mauricio Macri.

The prohibition on Morales to campaign from Argentina appears to be a moderate overture by Fernandez toward its neighbor and fellow gas-producing nation, Bolivia, as well as the US.

"We do not want Evo Morales nor any of the others who are in condition of refugees to use this place to do politics and make public statements. They will be able to see whomever they want, but they will not be able to issue public opinions or generate any kind of problems for Argentina along these lines," Argentina's foreign minister Felipe Sola said.

Other Bolivian officials who fled to Mexico with Morales include his influential former vice president Alvaro Garcia Linera, who is expected to land in Argentina tomorrow.

Argentina does not recognize Bolivia's interim government of Jeanine Anez, a former senator who is supposed to shepherd the country to new elections by around April 2020. Anez has raised eyebrows by exceeding a caretaker role by taking Bolivia out of the pro-Caracas regional camp that characterized the nearly 14-year Morales era.

In a tweet today after his arrival, Morales said he would "continue struggling for the most humble" and appreciated the "support and solidarity" of Mexico and Argentina.

Gas ties

Morales claimed to have won a fourth presidential term in 20 October elections that the Organization of American States (OAS) determined to be tainted. Unrest that broke out after the poll has largely subsided, but Morales insists he was the victim of a coup and is promising to return to his country.

Fernandez and his vice president, former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who is unrelated, have repeatedly described Morales' 10 November resignation as a coup as well.

But Argentina's new government is unlikely to take that stance beyond words for now, partly because of natural gas ties.

Bolivia exports pipeline gas to Argentina under a long-term contract that runs through 2026.

Argentina's domestic shale gas production from Neuquen province is rising quickly, making Bolivian gas less relevant in the market. But there are logistical obstacles that would prevent a quick replacement for Bolivian gas, which mostly supplies generators and distributors in northern Argentina.

By Daniel Politi and Patricia Garip