Jeanine Anez and the Zeigarnik Effect

Bluma Zeigarnik entered immortality through her study of memory. Born in Lithuania and a Soviet citizen, Ms. Zeigarnik discovered that human beings are more likely to remember incomplete tasks than successfully accomplished tasks. This finding has reigned supreme in the entertainment industry when it comes to launching series. All episodes are left incomplete so as to feed viewers pulling towards the next episode. But the Zeigarnik effect so brilliantly exploited by Netflix also impacts the world of politics.

Indeed, just as we tend to go back and remember all unfinished business – particularly if they hinder a happy ending such as the Duke of Hastings tying the knot with Daphne Bridgerton – the world also gets a better view of events when they are far from accomplished. The unconstitutional, abusive and unlawful arrest of the former president of Bolivia Jeanine A?ez brings to the forefront one such unfinished business.

In 2019, Ms A?ez became interim president of Bolivia after a civic society revolt against a scandalous electoral fraud perpetrated by then President Evo Morales. After weeks of unrest and 30 deaths, Mr. Morales flew away from Bolivia, having resigned to the Presidency. The Vice President, the President and Vice President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House all resigned.

Ms A?ez was Vice President number four of the senate. As per constitutional mandate, she had to head the state up and until there were elections. Given that electoral authorities had been part of the fraud attempt that led to the civil unrest and to the Morales resignation, the task in front of Ms. A?ez was institutional restructuring. She had to rebuild the electoral authority and blow away the authoritarian bombs placed by Morales and his party throughout Bolivia's institutional framework. These landmines were the insurance policy created by Morales to secure uninterrupted control of the Bolivian state.

Instead of addressing the task, Ms A?ez succumbed to the temptation of becoming the next president. A clear lack of understanding of her historic role in rescuing Bolivian democracy from the tentacles of authoritarianism prompted Ms. A?ez to jump into the electoral fray. That not only contributed to the already severe fragmentation of democratic political forces, but also left the structures of the authoritarian state intact, safe and sound. Under those conditions, the return of Morales was clearly guaranteed.

And as Morales seizes the Bolivian state through a new cast of political actors, authoritarianism not only is armor-plated but will proceed to total take over through what Marxists describe as the soft means of the super structure. That is through the reinvention of the country's history by means of retelling it and changing its narrative.

This task demands the concrete presence of enemies that can be shown, humiliated and disfranchised. Jeanine A?ez is set to play such leading role. And most probably must now be thinking how foolish it was of her to leave behind such unfinished business.