The President of Bolivia, Luis Arce, has joined former President Evo Morales for a Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) event in Cochabamba, marking their first get together since Morales’ return. 

Arce and Vice President, David Choquehuanca, attended the national meeting, convened by Morales, which was held on Saturday at a convention center on the outskirts of the central city and attended by union leaders, peasants and Indigenous people of the MAS movements.

The meeting was organized to begin to analyze the proposals of the social organizations as the party looks ahead to the subnational elections which will be held in early 2021.

President Arce and Morales greeted each other with a handshake and a hug, amid applause and cheers from the militants present in the room.

In the meantime, Bolivia has resumed participation in ALBA, CELAC, and UNASUR.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that "the Government of Bolivia, in its firm conviction for integration, resumes its full participation as a member country of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - People's Trade Treaty (ALBA - TCP), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)."

The statement added: "The decision taken by the transitional government to suspend Bolivia's participation in the aforementioned integration spaces responded to purely political interests, which have little to do with the vocation for the integration of the Bolivian people. The constitutive instruments of these regional and sub-regional integration processes were approved with the rank of law, as established by the Political Constitution of the State, therefore, the rights and obligations of Bolivia derived from these instruments remained unaltered during the last years."