Democracy flourishes in Santa Cruz de la Sierra

By: Beatrice E. Rangel - 11/08/2022

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Bolivia has been part of my affective metabolism since it was the home of my parents during the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Over the years, Venezuela was the refuge of President Hernan Siles Zuazo, whom we received at home and from him we learned the hard deeds of the descendants of the Incas.

Hence, throughout my life I have followed with interest and affection the future of that nation that lies in the heart of South America. And as such today from its epicenter times of change beat. And they come from the region that has given birth to development. This is Santa Cruz, a city and region of Bolivia that encloses the virtues of work ethics, wealth creation, entrepreneurial attitude, and confrontation of adversity. Santa Cruz produces 30% of Bolivia"s GDP and has produced the highest proportion of the country"s middle class since the 1960s.

Today Santa Cruz de la Sierra is leading a feat that will have consequences for Latin American democracy. Because the entire region has decided to put an end to the conspiracy that in many countries has hollowed out the foundations of the democratic system by preventing the exercise of the right to self-determination. Because contrary to what many believe in Latin America, the right to self-determination is not only threatened by the practice of political persecution carried out by the socialist regimes of the 21st century, but also by the presence of an acute institutional weakness that prevents public servants from act as administrators of the national patrimony and therefore as guardians of the assets that allow the provision of public services. One of these public services is the identity of citizens. To administer it requires the existence of clear and exact statistics. These are obtained via censuses. And in Bolivia in 2022 it was necessary to carry out a population census in order to extract the data that will allow the electoral roll to be drawn up.

And the government of Luis Arce decided to close the census among other reasons to maintain the profile of voters that would give him the electoral victory. As the surveys are not exactly favorable, the regime has decided to modify the population profile.

And the inhabitants of Santa Cruz have decided not to accept this manipulation. The entire region rose up in nonviolent civic protest. He has participated in the work stoppage and will continue to protest until the Arce government is weakened and quite possibly suffer the consequences that will be repression, imprisonment and torture. But none of this will make the people of Santa Cruz back down because, as a participant in the proposal said, “they begin by taking away our identity and then they are going to take away our family; work and country. Because in Santa Cruz it is not a question of returning to the status quo ex ante Evo Morales, but of implanting a democratic society where civil society is the main protagonist. And this happens after another civil society assumed the defense of democracy in Chile and that of Brazil created, through the vote, a system of checks and balances that would invigorate the democratic game. Like there are reasons to be hopeful.

"The opinions published here are the sole responsibility of their author."

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».