As dusk falls, some 500 Indigenous people stand in formation in Lauca Ene, a hamlet in central Bolivia, and raise their spears to the cry of "Long live Evo Morales!"

The former Bolivian president is hugely popular in this coca-growing region and maintains an iron grip -- no one enters Lauca Ene without his approval.

From this stronghold, his influence extends across the Tropico de Cochabamba department, a region of dense forests and broad rivers that is home to 260,000 people.

It is here where Morales, himself a former coca grower, forged his career in the union struggles of the 1980s and that he is now plotting his return to power -- despite a court-imposed ban on anyone serving more than two presidential terms.

Morales, now 65, who rose from dire poverty to become Bolivia's first Indigenous president between 2006 and 2019, still has the ability to energize and mobilize his supporters.

Lauca Ene has been his refuge for seven months as he evades an arrest warrant -- annulled last week by one........

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