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LA PAZ, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The cocaleros (coca leaf growers) in Bolivia will stage a nationwide movement to remove the constitutional hurdle that prevents President Evo Morales to stand for re-election in 2019, their group leader said Monday.
Speaking at the 13th congress of coca leaf growers from the Tropic de Cochabamba, Leonardo Loza, deputy president of the federation of the six Tropics states, said the main aim of the meeting is to draw up nationwide guidelines that would make Morales' re-election possible.
"Even though some opponents, some scroungers that make a living stealing from Bolivia, don't want President Morales to be a candidate in 2019, we in a united, organic and social way will exhaust (all possible) paths and constitutional mechanisms to enable Morales' re-election," said the cocalero leader.
Morales has been serving as the Bolivian president since 2006. He is the country's first president to come from the indigenous population and a champion of coca leaf growers. He is now in his third presidential term, which ends in January 2020.
Bolivia's current constitution, adopted in 2009, bars more than two consecutive presidential terms.
In February, the ruling party failed to change the constitution through a referendum, in which the majority of Bolivians refused to let Morales stand for re-election in 2019.
