The Plurinational State of Bolivia, dictatorship and death

By: Hugo Marcelo Balderrama - 28/01/2024

Guest columnist.
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On January 22, 2002, after planning, organizing and directing terrorist acts in my native Cochabamba, which included the cruel death of the uniformed men, Marcelo Trujillo and Antonio Gutiérrez, Evo Morales was expelled from the Bolivian Congress.

The coca grower and his eulogists showed the expulsion as an act of "racism" and "discrimination." Morales' thesis had the support of the left and a sector of European journalism. However, no one mentioned the street ambushes that the coca growers carried out against the military, police, journalists and ordinary citizens. There was also no mention of the burning of more than 25 vehicles from the Cochabamba prefecture, except for those in uniform injured by high-precision weapons. They were not terrorist acts, but "social protests" against an oppressive State of "indigenous" people.

In October 2003, using the same methods, Evo Morales, Felipe Quispe and the traitor Carlos Mesa managed to overthrow President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. This blow to the democratic institutions of Bolivia allowed the subversives to put a manipulable puppet as president; guarantee impunity for his crimes; destroy the reputation of those who defended the country, among them Minister Carlos Sánchez Berzaín; forcefully advance elections, and use the State apparatus to guarantee Morales' electoral victory in 2005.

Once in power, Morales, obviously advised by Cuba and Venezuela, launched a constituent process to, in his own words, "refound" Bolivia. After several irregularities and bloodshed, on January 22, 2009, Evo imposed the Constitution of the Plurinational State, along with the birth of a "new" Bolivia.

Contrary to August 6, the traditional national holiday of Bolivia, January 22 did not awaken any patriotic feeling in Bolivians, in fact, it caused rejection, and until now it does. However, the dictatorship took advantage of the opportunity to apply violence. For example, on 01/22/2010, when celebrating the first year, the dictatorship's militias forced the businesses that remained open in the historic center of Cochabamba to close. Likewise, the media throughout the country were forced to broadcast for hours the verbal incontinence of Morales and his henchmen, a very typical scene of Magical Realism in Latin America.

But the violence is not limited to gang members closing businesses, but encompasses all areas of Bolivian society. Basically, there is not a single private institution, professional union, business association, intellectual, journalist and citizen that does not become a potential target of tyranny, it is enough just to exercise the right to think. In this context, it is worth remembering the Hotel Las Américas massacre.

The official narrative indicated that in the early morning of 04/16/2009 an elite group of the Bolivian Police confronted a terrorist group. As a result of the shooting, Eduardo Rozsa Flores (Hungarian – Bolivian), Árpad Magyrosi (Romanian) and Michel Dwyer (Irish) were shot and killed.

But the government's version began to erode quickly. The first thing was to demonstrate that the deceased had not fired a single cartridge, they were even half naked. Second, the alleged arsenal of the terrorist group was, believe it or not, weapons worthy of a museum. Finally, in October 2021, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued a report on the events of the early morning of April 16, 2009, stating that the State committed extrajudicial executions and torture of detainees. Likewise, it indicates that a criminal investigation must be opened against those directly responsible for the incident; Evo Morales himself should be the first to be prosecuted.

Likewise, since 2021, the lack of independence of justice in Bolivia was questioned by at least seven reports from international organizations, including: Interdisciplinary Group of International Experts (GIEI), United Nations Organization (UN), Amnesty International, European Union, Human Rights Watch (HRW), UN Committee against Torture, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and World Justice Project. They all agree in pointing out the executive's takeover of the judicial power. Even Evo himself said he did not believe in the separation of powers, since it was a "gringo" doctrine.

Impartiality, independence and suitability are essential individual conditions for judges, and are essential institutional principles of the Judiciary. The objective reality in Bolivia demonstrates that the dictatorship has turned justice into a mechanism for political persecution and imprisonment of opponents, among them, Luis Fernando Camacho, Marco Pumari and Jeanine Añez, and a guarantee of impunity for the corrupt and criminals, Nemesia Achacollo, For example.

In conclusion, The Plurinational State of Bolivia is synonymous with corruption, drug trafficking, death and, especially, dictatorship.

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