2024-01-30 01:27:00
The protests in Bolivia against the disqualification of former president Evo Morales marked one week this Monday with a worsening of food and fuel shortages due to road closures. The protesters demand the resignation of the judges who disqualified Morales as a presidential candidate for the 2025 elections.
After more than three hours of work, the Legislative Assembly decided to form a bicameral commission of six assembly members, two from each political representation, to work on the construction of a law that guarantees judicial elections, another of the protesters’ demands. In Congress, six legislators allied with the former president began a hunger strike to demand a vote on the new judges.
The 2009 Constitution establishes that judges in Bolivia are chosen in judicial elections by popular vote, which must be held every six years. Although six years have passed, the new vote has not yet been taken. In December of last year, the Constitutional judges extended their expired mandate, both that of the magistrates and the advisors of the main courts, to avoid a “vacuum of power” until a new judicial election is held. The preselection process for this year’s elections was paralyzed on two occasions due to measures ordered by constitutional chambers.
The blockades further exacerbated the confrontation between Morales and President Luis Arce, his former ally and former Minister of Economy, whom the former president’s followers accuse of boycotting his candidacy with the help of congressmen and judges. Both were proclaimed by their followers as candidates for the presidency next year.
Cuts and shortages
The majority of the cuts (22 of 25) are in the central region of Cochabamba, in the towns of Sacaba, Quillacollo and the tropical zone of that department, reported the Vice Minister of the Interior Regime, Jhonny Aguilera. Cochabamba is the region through which the country’s main routes linking the east with the west are articulated and is Morales’ main political bastion.
The protesters, led by the coca growers, obstruct the passage with logs, stones, tires and bonfires. Vice Minister Aguilera explained that 32 police officers were injured in the protests and 21 protesters were arrested. In La Paz, there is already a shortage of chicken and other basic basket products. In the markets, a kilo of chicken sells for the equivalent of two and a half dollars, one dollar more than before the protests.
Germán Jiménez, director of the National Hydrocarbons Agency, was alarmed at the risk of an accident with tanker trucks loaded with fuel that were trapped in the protests. “An explosion could occur,” Jiménez warned the Unitel channel. However, the protesters do not give in.
In dialogue with Página/12, Alina Canaviri, head of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) group aligned with Morales, declared: “The truth is that here in Bolivia there is no response to human rights. Our brothers are being gassed everywhere. blocking points at the national level without respecting women and the elderly. They are using pellets and the peasant women are dragged by police.” And she added: “Caracollo is respected and now we are going to radicalize the pressure measures. We need help, they are gassing us,” the residents could be heard saying in videos that circulated on social networks, breaking the media siege.
Canaviri began this Monday, along with other deputies, a “staggered” hunger strike at the headquarters of the Legislative Assembly to demand a call for judicial elections. The head of the Cochabamba bench of the MAS, Santos Mamani, stated that there are two ways: “be with the people” to demand judicial elections or “be against” and hinder a process that should have been carried out in December.
The reasons for the anger
Morales’ followers took to the streets to demand the resignation of the constitutional judges who in December disqualified their leader from the 2025 presidential race. At the end of last year, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling stating that indefinite reelection “is not a human right” and that it is only possible “once only”. This affects Evo Morales’ presidential candidacy in 2025 since he governed Bolivia three times (2006-2009, 2010-2014 and 2015-2019).
This Monday, in La Paz, Vice President Choquehuanca called on legislators from the ruling party and the opposition to dialogue to define a call for judicial elections. The creation of a bicameral multiparty commission was established to work on the construction of a consensual law that guarantees the elections, according to the newspaper Opinión. However, despite having met for more than three hours, there was no certainty regarding the end of the blockades.
“It is the bases, the organizations that are going to decide whether or not to lift the pressure measure. I believe that there should be an intermediate room and a state of alert until the election law is issued,” said Andrónico Rodríguez, president of the Senate Chamber. For the Masista senator, the work must be fast, to the point that the pre-selection of the candidates should “start next week.”
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