Escalation to Today - Bolivia Backstory

Bolivia is in the midst of turmoil and unrest following endless abuse of power carried out by the current government for almost 14 years of rule. The president, Evo Morales, ran as an illegal candidate in the presidential election on the 20th of October 2019. Since then, the people of Bolivia in the entire world have been rising in peaceful protests and movements, following the proven and clear mass-fraud the current government orchestrated as they try to eternalize themselves in power, through a dictatorial and authoritarian rule following the steps dictated by the Sao Paulo Forum movement, and Castro-Chavismo measures.

Evo Morales ran as an illegitimate and illegal candidate in the 2019 election as this was done contradicting the will of the people and disobeying Bolivia’s constitutional law. In 2016 Evo himself called for a referendum asking the people of Bolivia if the constitution could be modified, allowing Morales to run for the presidency again in order to have the possibility to be elected for the 4th consecutive term - when the constitution solely allows 2 consecutive terms for any president in power. On the 21st of February 2016, the referendum was concluded with a majority of the Bolivian people voting NO, voting against his unconstitutional candidature in the 2019 election, and against the possibility of modifying Bolivia’s constitutional law. Evo Morales completely ignored the democratic referendum and the decision of the Bolivian population, and pled to the Supreme Court of Bolivia, stating it was his Natural Human Right to run for presidency again – unconstitutionally. The Supreme Court, controlled by the government, agreed that it was a human right, even if the constitution forbids it. This led the OAS to become involved, and the Secretary General, Mr. Almagro, stated it was not a human right to run for presidency unconstitutionally, yet, following a pleasant invitation to Bolivia by Evo Morales himself extended to Mr. Almagro, the OAS’ Secretary General changed his discourse 180 degrees, leading to his novel conclusion agreeing that it was indeed a “Natural Human Right” to run again for presidency unconstitutionally. This was the final word that helped Evo Morales and his party in their were trying to define, stepping on the clear referendum’s outcome, the Bolivian people’s wishes under a democracy, and the clear constitutional laws.

As Evo Morales ran for presidency again leading up to the October 20th, 2019 elections, declared it was his “natural human right” to do so, and became backed by the OAS’ Secretary General, there have been marches, protests, and a constant uprise of the Bolivian people all across the country. These protests started in 2016 when the national referendum was forgotten, and the opinions of the people of Bolivia were suppressed and ignored, the Bolivian constitution violated, and a legitimate and supposedly credible International Organization as is the OAS changed its discourse following high conflicts of interest. The marches since 2016 have been intermittent and with no end results, as the people tried to oppose the abuse of power by the government, and to bring back constitutional respect and democracy, yet Evo Morales still ran, and ended up fraudulently seizing power again.

Evo Morales now ran in the elections as an unconstitutional candidate, and proclaimed his victory, declaring he would be staying in power for a constitutionally forbidden 4th term. Morales has been in power for more than 13 years to date. Meaning that he has been in power for 3 consecutive terms when the constitution of Bolivia only allows 2 consecutive terms. This was achieved by changing the constitution once already, through the name change from “The Republic of Bolivia” to “The Pluractional State of Bolivia”. This abuse of power, endless trampling on the population, disrespect of the rights of the people of the country, of the laws, and of the constitution, alongside with the proven massive corruption in all government sectors, and proven human rights violations during all the ruling years of this government, make Evo Morales a completely illicit authoritarian ruler, oppressing Bolivia and its people under a dictatorial rule.

After the election on the 20th of October, enormous amounts of scandalous fraud have been found in all regions of Bolivia. Many fraudulent activities were carried out with the vigilance and protection of the police forces - such as the changes in ballots, additions of fake votes, using pre-prepared ballot boxes as the official ones and throwing out the real boxes with the people’s votes, etc. On top of everything, after counting 83% of the votes in the initial hours after the election, the vote count was suspiciously halted for 24 hours with no explanation as to the reason why. Workers at the tribunal recently denounced this was a forcefully a human intervention to shut down the system. This brought complete unrest to the Bolivian population as they observed the fraud carried out before their eyes. People tried to enter electoral courts to protect their votes, they tried to follow the people that transported the ballot boxes from voting stations across the cities to the official tribunals where the votes would be counted, etc. Even then, the vigilance was not enough as the fraud occurred evidently as they watched, filmed, denounced, and pled for help – regardless, no justice was made. The people of Bolivia, knowing how unscrupulous and undemocratic the ruling government is, did all in their power to stop those that got bought by the government and had fallen into their corrupt actions of mass-fraud. Furthermore, the day of the election, the government denied the already established organizations that were set to count the votes alongside the Bolivian government organization's count (OEP), which brought further suspicion and anger to the people, as transparency and the possibility of auditing the electoral count was almost fully lost. Some external organizations computed the votes regardless, although the government would not consider their results “official”, and their outcomes were astoundingly different from those officially announced. The opposition candidate, Carlos Mesa, won by more than 60% of the popular vote, which signifies he should have been righteously elected the Constitutional President of Bolivia. However, the official results, stated 5 days after the election, deemed Evo Morales the winner of the election with 47% popular vote, and Mesa with 36.5%, handing Evo Morales the victory with just over 10% difference with the opposition, annulling the possibility of a second round.

Today we stand in awe at the declarations of victory by Evo Morales, at the massive fraud carried out with all the votes of the Bolivian people, at the widespread corruption and illegal dealings led by the government. We do not forget the abuse of our nature, the fires in our Chiquitania and the Bolivian Amazon, and how the government was reluctant to allow international aid into the country. Too much abuse has been carried out to mention, and the Bolivian people are fed up. We stand at a time where we are at the brink of entering a full dictatorial rule, and our democratic rights and freedoms are hanging by a thin thread.

Due to all of the above, during these uncertain times, we stand with strength as we will NOT accept a dictatorship, we will not accept to fall into an abyss of endless abuse of our people, our rights, and our beautiful and rich land. Bolivia has fought many dictatorships in the past, and we have prevailed. This time will be no different as the people of Bolivia will be heard, will be respected, we will prevail to win our democracy back.

Today marks the 15th consecutive day of halt in all movement and operations throughout Bolivia, as the Bolivian people take on a peaceful strike. Yet the government has been promoting violence, suppressing the majority of Bolivia, threatening the poor to force them to enter the cities and cause havoc, etc. Bolivia will never put its arms down, as we continue in our fight for a clean democracy, and to debunk the credibility of this illegitimate government who tries to perpetuate itself in power illegally and forcefully.

Carolina Monroy Rosso

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