Initial Summary of Events - Oct. 24th 2019
- Carolina Monroy Rosso
- Nov 8, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 21, 2019
Bolivia is in the midst of turmoil and unrest following endless abuse of power, carried out by the current government. The president, Evo Morales, ran as an illegal candidate in our election on the 20th of October 2019. This was done contradicting the will of the people, as in 2016 Evo himself called for a referendum asking the people of Bolivia if he could run for the presidency again 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 large majority voting NO, voting against his unconstitutional candidature in the 2019 election. Evo Morales completely ignored the democratic referendum, and the decision of the Bolivian population, and ran again, declaring that it was his “human natural right” to do so. Ever since, there have been marches, protests, and a constant uprise of the Bolivian people all over the country, as they tried to oppose this abuse of power by the government, and to bring back our democracy.
Evo Morales now ran in the elections as an unconstitutional candidate, and declared 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 terms when the constitution of Bolivia only allows 2 consecutive terms. This abuse of power, endless trampling on the population, disrespect of our rights as people of the country, of our laws, and of our constitution, alongside the massive corruption and human rights violations all these years, make Evo Morales a completely illicit authoritarian ruler, oppressing Bolivia and its people under a dictatorial rule.
After the election, in these past few days, 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, 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. This brought 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, and 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 organization's count, 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.
Today, October 24th 2019 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.
VIVA BOLIVIA DEMOCRÁTICA!
🇧🇴🇧🇴🇧🇴🇧🇴🇧🇴🇧🇴🇧🇴
Comments