by Enrique Bachinelo
It is almost indescribable to detail the hundreds of problems that plague the Bolivian people, as a result of the resignation of its president Evo Morales Ayma, on November 10, 2019.
The events arise when Morales calls for a referendum demanding the extension of his mandate for another period, the voting population rejects that request. But Evo wants to continue in power and resorts to call elections to nominate the new leaders where Morales and García Linera, their vice president, head for a new period. The citizens’ response is to fulfill their electoral vote and then proceed to count the votes.
The vote count is suspended for 24 hours due to technical problems. Given that the opposition candidate was very close to his candidacy before the cut of the count and when after those 24 hours the vote count shows that the figures are favorable to Evo Morales who declares himself immediately the winner of the elections for a new period.
But, it happens that this declaration of Evo as winner of the elections produces reactions of protest in Bolivian society threatening massive movements, acts of violence from both sides and pressing Evo to leave power. It is presumed that there was electoral fraud in complicity with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. It triggers days and weeks of vandalism, blockages, lack of necessities and even dead.
Evo goes to its coca bases in the Chapare, tropical zone of Bolivia and the danger of the armed forces taking de facto actions is when an officer of the FF.AA. He suggests to Evo to leave. He has no other alternative. Resort to exile. López Obrador president of Mexico sends a plane to pick up Morales, García Linera and the former health minister from his cabinet.
End of a period of fourteen years of government. Sad fate of a government that did many good things in favor of its people.
Bolivia is without a government: in the absence of the president he should assume the vice president, but these two characters went into voluntary exile in Mexico; then the command of the nation would correspond to the president of the senate, also presents resignation. Senator Jeanine Añez is the next online promotion, but there is no quorum for approval. This confusing situation is taken advantage of by Senator Jeanine Añez who calls herself president and is possessed by the commander of the FF.AA. It is an exceptional event that will go down in history in the life of Bolivia.
But things don’t end there. Chaos and disorder prevail in the highland country. Crowds that descend from the city of El Alto to the city of La Paz in support of Evo. The population of La Paz contemplates that march absorbed. Meanwhile another group of citizens of El Alto are heading to Senkata which is an area where the fuel storage tanks are. The desire of these inhabitants is to protect these deposits in order to prevent criminal hands from trying to damage or burn them, an event that would result in the death of thousands of inhabitants of that densely populated area. Helicopters roam that area and are supposed to be the devices that Evo bought to provide the FF.AA. that at some point they have shot at the crowd that guarded those deposits causing deaths and injuries. And roadblocks continue throughout the country.
So far there have been 33 deaths and 715 gunshot wounds. Who shoots who? Sad story. But this does not end here, in the burned palace, which is called the seat of the executive branch, a gigantic bible was shown for the possession of the current president and as an allegorical auction, the police burn the wiphala, ancestral symbol of the Bolivia’s peasant population.
But, the million-dollar question is important: Why so many dead and wounded? They were townspeople, humble peasants who respect and support Evo. The military and the national police have not hesitated to shoot these masses of protesters and the people who live in Senkata protecting fuel tanks. Evo Morales during his 14 years of government had no dead, injured or political detainees; In addition, the country’s economy remained at a high point in relation to other countries in South and Central America. We predict that the new government that occupies the burned palace in La Paz tries to maintain the economic value of the national currency; given that its economy has been managed with a lot of technicality with highly trained people in the management of the national budget.
It is known that the first victim of a political problem is the truth. And what Bolivia is living now is desperate. It is painful to know the sacrificed work of national and foreign journalists and reporters who, without having any protection, are covering the news that is generated at every moment in La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, without forgetting that also in the other departments of Bolivia, since, the political situation is confusing and arrests, persecutions and detentions are already being presented to the members of the MAS party. What a sad story, Mrs. President.
Now the National Congress has called for elections and the appointment of a Supreme Electoral Tribunal begins. The time is short and the end of these events must be fulfilled until January 2020 as the deadline.
It only remains for us to complement the most promising omens so that peace and tranquility return to Simón Bolívar’s favorite daughter.
