Longtime Bolivian President Evo Morales is vowing to return to Bolivia, after he was ousted in what he and others have described as a military coup. Morales is currently in exile in Argentina. On Tuesday, he vowed to return to Bolivia by next Christmas.

Evo Morales: “For reasons of security, I can’t go into detail about the plan we have for returning to Bolivia. But one has to go back to one’s country, and the de facto government can’t understand that. It’s not a transitional government. If it were a transitional government, it wouldn’t start changing economic policy, social programs; it would just organize elections.”

In a separate interview Tuesday, Morales also claimed the United States played a role in forcing him from power, accusing the U.S. of orchestrating his ouster in order to gain access to Bolivia’s vast lithium reserves.