staff. According to Calla, the political cost of the water crisis was the final impetus for Choquehuanca's removal. In January 2017, Morales replaced Choquehuanca with Fernando Huanacuni, a figure aligned with García Linera's power base. Moreira was also removed, with the majority of Choquehuanca's remaining allies in the civil service being "swept away" within days of his departure, their positions instead occupied by individuals from the García Linera camp, which emerged as the winner of the longstanding dispute. Shortly after his dismissal, Choquehuanca was appointed to serve as secretary general of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA), a position journalist Fernando Molina considered tantamount to being discreetly "exiled" to a secondary diplomatic post. Molina attributed Choquehuanca's removal to the caudillista structure of Bolivian political parties: "The reaction against Choquehuanca was due to the fact that [Morales'] environment could not allow a new president to emerge... The fall of a leader implies the departure from power of an entire group; therefore, [Morales was] strongly motivated to prevent it". Vice President With Choquehuanca in Caracas, Morales pushed forward in seeking a fourth term, a campaign made possible by the abolition of term limits by the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal. Though the 2019 election results gave Morales the victory, allegations of electoral fraud sunk the country into mass protests, culminating in the president's resignation and flight from the country. With new elections scheduled for 2020 and Morales barred from participating, Choquehuanca—whose service in Caracas was terminated by the interim government's withdrawal from ALBA—once again positioned himself as a viable contender to receive the MAS's nomination for the presidency. Within a month of Morales' removal, the "Túpac Katari" Single Departmental Federation of Peasant Workers of La Paz called an emergency meeting in which representatives from the department's twenty provinces proclaimed Choquehuanca as their preferred presidential candidate. In January, the Pact of Unity—a coalition of MAS-aligned trade syndicates—ratified the federation's decision, declaring that Choquehuanca had been selected as their nominee, accompanied by cocalero activist Andrónico Rodríguez as his running mate. Their decision, however, was rejected by Morales, who instead selected former finance minister Luis Arce to head the MAS's presidential ticket. Choquehuanca, in turn, was relegated as the party's vice-presidential candidate. According to Molina, "Morales and the nucleus of exiles in Argentina put Arce first, both because he seemed to them a better candidate for a moment of economic crisis... and because they did not want a rival—who