Bolivian Government will analyze applying the Cuban vaccine in children under 18 years of age in the country
20 July 2021
Bolivian Government will analyze applying the Cuban vaccine in children under 18 years of age in the country
The Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza, reported that the Central Government will evaluate the possibility of carrying out an immunization plan against Covid-19 in the 12 to 17 years-old group if studies on the Cuban vaccine Abdala are successful.
“We will take the necessary determinations to guarantee vaccines in case these studies are successful,” said the Minister in contact with Bolivia Tv. However, he clarified that this possibility should be analyzed and planned after the studies, carried out by Cuban scientists in the child and adolescent population, have concluded.
Authorities of Cuba reported that analysis with clinical tests of the study called “Ismaelillo” was initiated on a population of 600 children and adolescents to determine the efficacy of the Cuban vaccine Abdala against Covid-19 in this population group. The final results are expected to be available in September.
Reactions on social networks did not wait. “That vaccine is not finished, perhaps they want to use us as test guinea pigs,” was one of the comments of Zenaida Yessica Ortega.
On the other hand, the health authorities highlighted the massive influx of people to the vaccination points this weekend, in different regions of the country.
The National Director of Epidemiology, Freddy Armijo, pointed out that a large part of the population that resisted immunization is now attending [to the vaccination points]. “It has had a positive effect, to raise awareness with vaccination to the population, although there is still a part that is resisting,” he said.
Armijo pointed out that if an accelerated rate of vaccination is maintained, in September most of the vaccinable population, over 18 years of age, will be covered. Subsequently, the possibility of vaccinating those under 17 years of age will have to be evaluated.
In the Municipality of La Paz, the massive vaccination day called “Vacunatón Unidos por la Salud y la Vida” (United Vaccination for Health and Life) had a great influx of people. The authorities described Sunday’s session as successful because they managed to immunize 72% of its vaccinable population.
For its part, Tarija also promoted vaccination this Sunday, as did Cochabamba and other regions of the country.
Santa Cruz applied 15,794 doses this weekend (10,624 on Saturday and 15,794 on Sunday). Vaccination continues today in 34 points of the city and in several points in the provinces.
Unlike Rivas, there are no prosecutions for the escape of Kaliman
20 July 2021
To date, the Ministry of Government has not initiated legal proceedings against those responsible for the escape of former Commander of the Armed Forces Williams Kaliman, as it did in a similar case when it denounced the former Director of Migration Marcel Rivas, who currently is imprisoned because he allegedly allowed the escape of former Ministers Arturo Murillo and Luis Fernando Lopez by not activating immigration alerts on time.
“Marcel Rivas having been arrested (for a similar case), then you have to act in some way with justice, out of prudence, everyone should be arrested and apart from the Prosecutor’s Office that has not done its control, the same judge of jurisdictional control, the Director of Migration, everyone has a lot to say in this situation,” Kaliman’s complainant, lawyer Omar Duran, told Página Siete.
The lawyer denounced Kaliman in 2019 for the crime of breach of duties, because allegedly the former military chief refused to provide prompt assistance to the Police, which was overwhelmed by the violence carried out by followers of Evo Morales, in November of that year. In this case, the former commander was charged, and in a precautionary hearing his house arrest, extrajudicial detention, and other alternative measures were ordered.
However, the General managed to flee and his whereabouts are unknown. The lawyer questioned this situation and asked the Ministry of Government to denounce those officials, whether of the Prosecutor’s Office or of Migration, who were in charge of the respective control of this person, over whom restrictive measures weigh.
The jurist regretted that the respective authorities did not provide information, first, regarding the control actions that should have been carried out and, second, regarding the search tasks of the former military chief.
Duran suspects that Kaliman fled to the United States (USA) and believes that the Government would not be interested in finding his whereabouts because he is a person of “trust” in the Government of Evo Morales. “I presume that Mr. Kaliman is protected by the current Government and by the previous Government, favors are owed,” he said.
For his part, Karlo Brito, Marcel Rivas’s lawyer, mentioned that this position of Migration reflects the same situation of his client, who has no responsibility whatsoever for the escape of Murillo and Lopez since they and others like Kaliman did not leave through an immigration checkpoint.
“It is further proof that none of those who are outside the country, now as fugitives, have left through a border checkpoint that is authorized or controlled by the Government. This shows that none of the immigration officials, neither Marcel Rivas nor anyone else has any responsibility,” explained Brito.
Source: https://www.paginasiete.bo/seguridad/2021/7/20/diferencia-de-rivas-no-hay-procesos-por-fuga-de-kaliman-301504.html
Bolivian Government accuses four countries and the European Union of alleged “coup”
20 July 2021
The Minister of Government, Eduardo Del Castillo, and former President Evo Morales accused the Donald Trump administration as responsible for the alleged “coup d’État” in 2019, for issuing a “manual” of a “continental plan” of destabilization, in complicity with Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, the European Union (EU) and the Organization of American States (OAS).
“On 24 July 2019, the Deputy Under Secretary of the US Department of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Kevin O’Reilly, from the Trump administration, arrived in Bolivia, met with the Ambassadors of Peru, Argentina, Brazil, the OAS (Organization of American States) and the European Union (EU). This man began to hint at the possibility of fraud in Bolivia without proof,” said Del Castillo.
The authority mentioned that added to this aspect is the issue of the “illegal” internment of Argentine supplies.
According to Del Castillo, there are the procedures and authorizations to enter Bolivia for an alleged second flight, which transported “weapons” and riot control ammunition that in a first diplomatic request was intended for the use of Argentine police officers, in order to protect the diplomatic residence of that country, a place where officials of the Government of Evo Morales had been given refuge. The Minister of Government explained that on November 13th, two flights of Hercules C-130 aircraft entered.
He also pointed out that this “illegal” internment of Argentine ammunition should be investigated because allegedly those materials were used for the repression of groups that defended former President Morales in 2019. For this reason, he announced [legal] proceedings against members of the Bolivian Police involved in this issue. Previously, the Government denounced Ecuador for the shipment of ammunition.
He pointed to the former Commander of the Police Yuri Calderon as one of the main implicated in this case and announced criminal proceedings against this former police chief and all those men in uniform who allegedly generated “erroneous” reports regarding the reception of ammunition, which were recently found in deposits of the institution.
“Only for the Bolivian Police, about 27,000 rubber pellet cartridges, 28 aerosol gases, 19 aerosol gases, 55 CN grenades, 53 H gas grenades, 19 CS gas grenades entered irregularly, without complying with current legal regulations (…) There was a malicious intention of the Police High Command at that time,” said Del Castillo.
But, in addition, he announced that in the same lawsuit the former Commander of the Bolivian Air Force (FAB) General Jorge Gonzalo Terceros Lara (detained in Palmasola) and the former Argentine Ambassador to Bolivia Normando Alvarez will be accused. Previously, the General and the foreign diplomat separately denied the accusations; the defense of Terceros assured that the signature of the document where he supposedly thanks for the delivery of a number of chemical agents from Argentina is falsified.
Del Castillo explained this issue of the internment of ammunition and made reference to the US representation to show a “chronological” relationship of the alleged international conspiracy and accused Carlos Mesa of being the executor of this alleged plan. The Government authority made mention of this issue in a press conference in the company of the Argentine Ambassador, Ariel Basteiro, and the Police General Commander, Jhonny Aguilera.
The Minister related the position assumed by Mesa on 20 October 2019, when he “declared himself the winner” of the general elections, with O’Reilly’s statements in July of the same year. Later, the Minister spoke of “paramilitary groups” and the burning of the homes of MAS authorities.
For his part, Evo Morales assured that the Ambassadors of Brazil and the European Union were participants in the alleged “coup d’État” of 2019. The former authority also requested that Mauricio Macri be tried in Bolivia for the alleged shipment of “war material.”
“Days before the coup, there were preparatory meetings. The Brazilian Ambassador participated in the coup. I am sure that at any moment how Brazil contributed to the coup will come to show. The Ambassador of the European Union also intervened. I can’t believe it: Europe participating in the coup d’État,” Morales said in an interview with the Argentine Newspaper Página 12.
In this chronology, Del Castillo affirmed that Morales was forced to resign from the Presidency on 10 November 2019, at the suggestion of the Military High Command, headed by former Armed Forces Commander Williams Kaliman.
Aguilera: There was an “erroneous and false” report
Ambassador: The General Commander of the Bolivian Police, Jhonny Aguilera, affirmed yesterday that he received an “erroneous and false” report regarding the anti-riot gear that, allegedly, was sent by former Argentine President Mauricio Macri in November 2019. This was revealed after the police chief received criticism about a version change regarding the gases case, when the Argentine Ambassador, Ariel Basteiro, claimed to have proof that the chemical agents reached the Police.
Report: “The Argentine Ambassador makes known a variety of information that proved precisely that the report that I had received was an erroneous report, a false report,” the Police Commander remarked yesterday during an interview with Radio Fides.
Source: https://www.paginasiete.bo/seguridad/2021/7/20/gobierno-acusa-cuatro-paises-la-ue-por-supuesto-golpe-301516.html
It is perceived that Evo is becoming more radicalized as his image erodes
20 July 2021
After his statements about national reconciliation generated a stir, analysts and politicians identify that Evo Morales, president of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), radicalizes his speech. They add that the former President projects an authoritarian figure after his image as a brave leader and defender of mother earth was eroding. On the other hand, from the blue party, the words of the former President are justified.
On Sunday, on Radio Kawsachun Coca, the former President said: “There will be no reconciliation with fascists and racists unless they understand that our ideology and our program are good for Bolivia.” His words were the target of criticism from different actors, who described him as “authoritarian.”
Morales expressed his position two days after Monsignor Percy Galvan, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of La Paz, reflected on the political situation in the country. “Yesterday they persecuted some, now they persecute others, and tomorrow there will be others. (…) What are we leaving for our children? This example of vengeance, revenge?, said the priest.
Yesterday, Página Siete [Newspaper] released the Interactive Culture survey, in which 79.8% of those consulted indicated that former President Morales should not be a candidate again in 2025 and 58.1% considered that Morales’ departure from power was due to his resignation and not to an alleged “coup d’État.”
The erosion of the figure of Morales was evident in the process of the subnational elections, where the MAS bases emphasized the rejection of their former authorities and positioned their request for “renewal”, which was even expressed in a controversial “silletazo” (hit with a chair) and ultimatums to the head of the blue party. A month before the MAS wins the national elections in October 2020, David Choquehuanca, today Vice-President of the country, pointed out that the social bases rejected the return of Morales’ environment to the Government.
Later, in June, the so-called “Choquehuanca generation” emerged from the MAS militancy in Santa Cruz, which brings together those who ask for renewal and respect for organic decisions, although they do not question Morales’ leadership.
While in the West, members of social organizations, such as the Bartolinas and Intercultural Women, also spoke out in favor of removing Morales’ environment.
Contrary to the radical line of Morales, in the MAS there is a self-critical and reconciling tendency, although it maintains a low profile. Among them, the most visible is Senator Felix Ajpi, who in time to reject the statements of former Minister Juan Ramon Quintana, when he attacked the Police and compared the Government of Luis Arce with the dictatorship of Luis Garcia Meza, stressed the need for reconciliation.
“If we do not reconcile the country, we will continue to be confronted and that will harm economic development and the fight against the pandemic; in many aspects, it will hamper the efforts made. I, myself, am not a confrontational person,” he said on June 25th.
Morales’ radical position was also expressed in the announcements of greater discipline in his party, heading to his organic congress on August 4th, his statement last week that “new anti-imperialist cadres” will be formed and his request to prosecute the former President of Argentina Mauricio Macri “to defend democracy in Latin America,” considering him one of those responsible for the “coup d’État” in Bolivia, according to the newspaper Página 12.
For the Comunidad Ciudadana Deputy Alejandro Reyes, Morales’ statements show his authoritarian personality. The legislator indicates that he should withdraw and stop looking to be a candidate so as not to continue confronting the country.
“That poll where it is seen that almost 80% of his party does not want him to be a candidate again is the feeling of the population. Since 2019, people do not want Evo Morales, he should accept reality and retire with dignity, because otherwise the only thing he is going to do is deepen the confrontation and the rift within the country,” he said.
In the MAS, Deputy Juanito Angulo defended Morales’ words and indicated that reconciliation is difficult not because of the MAS, but because of the “political interests” of the opposition sectors. The legislator attributed the renewal requests to alleged interference in the ruling party.
“We have had a small analysis with the national legislators and we have verified these interferences that come from outside into our political organization, but we militants and supporters are firm, regardless of whether those political messages come with the objective of dividing us, of confronting us (…). The MAS has its leader, Evo Morales, and in that logic we are going to strengthen ourselves, so that the MAS can move forward,” he said.
For the political analyst Pedro Portugal, Morales seeks to “use resources,” such as the radicalization of his discourse, to “overcome” the slope that he himself created.
“I think that Evo Morales is trying to use resources that can help him to overcome a slope that he himself has created. All those positions of bravery, of pachamamista (earth protector), that he had before in practice he has been denying them. The elements that made Evo Morales indigenous, with courage, with that slogan of fatherland or death, have slowly been eroding and the only way out is to become more radicalized,” said Portugal.
For her part, political analyst Sonia Montaño said: “I think the most recent wound is the victory of Eva Copa and that she had the strength to tell him ‘I didn’t run away’. It is a wound that has not healed. I think Evo Morales is chipped and is now showing fits of rage.”
In this regard, political analyst Carlos Cordero indicated that Morales follows “very well” the recommendations of political marketing in the sense that in politics it is preferable for them to speak ill of you than not to speak of you at all.
“As long as he creates repercussions, he is going to continue in politics more alive than ever. The opinions of Evo Morales express his authoritarian disposition, the idea of imposing a single thought, and, of course, that there is a large majority of Bolivians who express their rejection, but in politics, this rejection may end up exhausting,” said Cordero.
Source: https://www.paginasiete.bo/nacional/2021/7/20/perciben-que-evo-se-radicaliza-medida-que-su-imagen-se-erosiona-301513.html
Former Military Chiefs accused of sedition were from the trusted environment of Evo Morales
The former military chiefs who are now accused of the crimes of terrorism, sedition, and conspiracy were part of Evo Morales’ circle of trust.
General Williams Kaliman Romero, who was the chief commander and today the main accused of sedition, is the only one who was not arrested. The former MAS deputy Lidia Patty, accuser in this matter, complained to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police, questioning why they “let him escape.” Apparently, he left the national territory.
The other three former military leaders are in custody. The former commander of the Bolivian Air Force (FAB), Jorge Gonzalo Terceros was sent to Palmasola [penitentiary] with preventive detention at the beginning of the month, despite the fact that he reported his actions to Morales until a day after the former President’s resignation.
Besides, he was the fifth of his class; General Jorge Pastor Mendieta, former Army Chief, detained since March, testified that the former Defense Minister, Javier Zavaleta, was at the side of his Commander until Morales left the country. Meanwhile, Admiral Gonzalo Jarjuri, held in the Patacamaya prison, chose to maintain silence in the first instance, and after several requests from his defense; he will make his expanded statement on Thursday, July 22nd.
The members of this High Command took office on the morning of Monday, 24 December 2018.
“Never in the history of our country have the Armed Forces been able to contribute decisively and effectively to the implementation of the different policies and strategic lines drawn up by President Morales,” said Kaliman in his speech after being sworn in. The military man even declared himself a “soldier of the process of change.”
When EL DEBER [Newspaper] asked him after the act if he really was, he confirmed that in fact, he was and that not only him, but “all the military are soldiers of the process of change, we are part of all the positive changes that the State has.”
On the anniversary of the Armed Forces, on 7 August 2019, Kaliman warned that there was no doubt that “the people of Bolivia, the Armed Forces, were born during the fight against the colony and we will die anti-colonialists because it is our pride and our reason for living.”
In his statement before being confined to the Palmasola prison on July 4th, the former Air Forces Commander, a member of that High Command, Gonzalo Terceros, recalled that Evo Morales met with them every Monday. “He was given a report on the country’s situation, politics, coca eradication, the fight against smuggling, national and international intelligence, and the commanders of each force talked about the needs of each one of them.”
In fact, he refers that the last meetings they held were on Saturday, November 9th, and Sunday, November 10th.
Retired military consulted, and who asked to keep their names in reserve, said that Kaliman was faithful to the former President even after he submitted his resignation from office because he did not take the troops to the streets of his own free will: he did so forced by the General Staff, which threatened to arrest him if he continued to put the security of the population and the country at risk.
That moment was starred by Major General Grover Rojas Ugarte and the officers of the General Staff, who said that on the night of November 11th of that year they rebuked Kaliman so that he would take the military out to the streets. This was confirmed by Terceros in the statements he made before the Public Ministry in the case of terrorism, before being arrested.
“State how or from what specific fact are the Armed Forces taken to the streets to restore public order”, was the query that the prosecutors made to Terceros and he replied: “When General Grover Rojas enters with superior officers to rebuke Kaliman, is when the letter from the Police arrives, and since he already has a document, he orders for the Armed Forces to be taken out to the streets.”
Other testimonies indicate that on November 11th, the General Staff condemned the “submission and obedience” that not only Kaliman, but also Terceros, owed to Morales, Alvaro Garcia Linera, and Javier Zavaleta, despite the fact that they had already resigned the day before to the Presidency.
Retired General Tomas Peña y Lillo warned that “Kaliman’s affinity with the MAS was evident. So was Terceros’, who is being attacked so much now. It should not be forgotten that he acceded to the position despite the fact of being fifth of his class. Why? Well, he enjoyed the confidence of the MAS.”
Peña y Lillo stated that Kaliman and Terceros were the most related, but that in general, the High Command stood to attention on Morales without hesitation.
That November 11th, sources say, an uprising by the Army colonels was about to explode, who planned to arrest the generals to take command and take the troops to the streets. For this reason, the General Staff rebuked Kaliman “for blindly obeying Evo Morales. We told him about the dangers that loomed against the Armed Forces and, particularly, against the Bolivian population,” said one of the Division Generals at the time.
In fact, according to testimonies, Kaliman continued to receive calls from Morales. “He called him ‘brother, Evo’, ‘brother, President’. He was still getting orders on Monday. That bothered us a lot,” said another witness.
Kaliman escaped from the control of the prosecutors, the Police, and his whereabouts is unknown. Terceros is the bad guy in the movie.
However, in the statements before the Prosecutor’s Office, Terceros, Jorge Pastor Mendieta -former Army Commander-, and Flavio Gustavo Arce, then Chief of Staff, agreed that Kaliman decided to make a statement on November 10th in a press conference to suggest the resignation of President Morales without consulting anyone.
Terceros said in his statement that Kaliman already knew of that resignation and Peña y Lillo commented “that his attitude shows that being so close to Morales, that press conference, although framed in the norm, was an action that was absolutely coordinated with the former President.
Source: https://eldeber.com.bo/edicion-impresa/exjefes-militares-acusados-de-sedicion-eran-del-entorno-de-confianza-de-evo_239644
Rodriguez Elizondo: “Chile did not give Bolivia the authority to investigate it”
Richter reported over the weekend that the Government is investigating whether Chile and Brazil had any involvement in the 2019 events in Bolivia.
Regarding the announcement by the presidential spokesperson of an investigation to Chile and Brazil for alleged participation in the so-called “coup”, the international policy advisor to the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jose Rodriguez Elizondo, points out that neither the Chilean Government nor International Law gave the Bolivian governmental administration the authority to investigate that country.
Over the weekend, spokesperson Richter informed the AFP agency that the Government is investigating whether Chile and Brazil had any participation in the 2019 social unrest, after accusing Ecuador and Argentina of sending armament and anti-riot equipment.
After Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta showed a note that was allegedly signed by General Jorge Terceros to thank the Argentine Ambassador Normando Alvarez for the supply of “military armament”, President Arce pointed to an international “conspiracy” to remove Evo Morales from power.
Representatives of the ruling party, including Richter, point to Brazil and Chile since the Presidents of these countries are not from the ideological line of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).
As for the Chilean State, relations with Bolivia were broken in 2013 due to the Maritime Claim filed by the Morales administration. This claim was won by the neighboring country. In March of this year, there were approaches to reestablish bilateral relations between the two nations. However, the announcement of an investigation into a suspicion could affect this process.
On the subject, Chilean expert in diplomacy Jose Rodriguez Elizondo wrote to Pagina Siete [Newspaper] from Santiago.
How will the Chilean Government take the Bolivian announcement of an investigation?
Rodriguez Elizondo: I imagine it was not received as positive news or as something to normalize relationships.
Could the announcement of the Bolivian Government hinder the rapprochement of Bolivia and Chile?
In no case can it favor it.
Can the Government initiate an investigation of other States for a case that is being investigated in its own country?
I do not know what evidence exists, -if there is any-, of a coup d’État with the participation of other countries.
Does the Bolivian Government have powers to investigate the Chilean Government?
Neither Chile nor International Law has given [Bolivia such powers].
Should Bolivian authorities be more measured in their statements regarding Chile, since there is a beginning of a dialogue between the two countries?
The answer is implicit in your question. The aforementioned excess shows that the ideological “diplomacy of the peoples” is not functional. It does not contribute to the necessary good relationship between our countries.
Source: https://www.paginasiete.bo/nacional/2021/7/19/rodriguez-elizondo-chile-no-le-dio-bolivia-la-atribucion-de-investigarlo-301417.html
72% of La Paz citizens received the first dose against Covid-19, according to Ivan Arias
19 July 2021
The success of the campaign, according to the Mayor himself, was based on the work of the PumaKatari and ChikiTiti buses in the transfer of the population to the 12 planned vaccination points through 25 enabled routes.
More than 72% of the vaccinable population of the La Paz Municipality over 18 years of age received the first dose. This was stated by the City’s Mayor, Ivan Arias, at the end of the day, in a conference with authorities from the Ministry of Health and the Governance. “We have fulfilled the idea that seemed impossible (Sunday, July 18), 72% of the La Paz population of the Municipality of La Paz is vaccinated with their first dose. We wanted to reach 70%, we have exceeded the goal and this is thanks to the drive, to the dedication of the people of La Paz,” highlighted Mayor Arias.
Last Sunday, there were 81 vaccination brigades distributed in 12 points. We also had the collaboration of 525 public transport operators, 44 PumaKatari and ChikiTiti buses, from 25 exclusive bus stops, 521 officials from the Mayor’s Office of La Paz. The campaign has been joined by seven companies that supported mass vaccination together with institutions such as the Bolivian Red Cross and the Medical College of La Paz.
The Secretary of Health of the La Paz Mayor’s Office, Cecilia Vargas, counted 9,938 applications of the first dose only in the municipal area.
The national head of the Expanded Immunization Program (PAI), Max Enriquez, stressed that the country has enough vaccines to apply to the population. In addition, he proposed to deepen the campaigns in the municipalities.
“Almost six million doses [of vaccines] have reached the country, which are available. We have a balance between the first doses of one million two hundred thousand doses, they are still available in each of the Departments and this warrants that we redouble our efforts, not only in the Municipality but in the Department to be able to conclude with these doses,” he highlighted.
For his part, the Governor of La Paz, Santos Quispe, thinks about replicating the campaign in the rest of the Department. “We have determined with the Emergency Operations Center (COED) to carry out this massive vaccination campaign. We are starting in the city of La Paz, then we are going to go to another Municipality that is the city of El Alto and then to the 20 Provinces,” said the authority. The success of the campaign, according to the Mayor himself, was based on the work of the PumaKatari and ChikiTiti buses in the transfer of the population to the 12 planned vaccination points through 25 enabled routes. For example, residents of Pampahasi and San Isidro took advantage of the bus service to get to the UMSA School of Medicine to get vaccinated.
The Government aims at 30 years in prison for military and police personnel involved in the case of Argentine riot gear
The material found was presented. Photo: Ministry of Government
19 July 2021
IT IS CONSIDERED ARMS TRAFFICKING
The Government ratified this Monday that in 2019 riot gear arrived in the country irregularly from Argentina, for which it affirmed that the crime of illicit arms trafficking was committed, the penalty of which is 30 years without the right to pardon for the police and military personnel involved.
The Minister of Government, Eduardo Del Castillo, particularly aimed -for the aforementioned criminal offense- at the former Police Commander, Yuri Calderon, the former Commander of the Bolivian Air Force, Jorge Terceros, in addition to the former Ambassador of Argentina in Bolivia, Normando Alvarez.
He pointed out that these three people committed illicit arms trafficking. He pointed out that, according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, the penalty for this crime is 15 years in prison, but with the aggravating circumstance of being military or police personnel, it rises to 30 years without the right to pardon.
Currently, former Ambassador Alvarez is the Minister of Labor in the Province of Jujuy. Meanwhile, former Commander Calderon is a fugitive from justice and former Commander Terceros is detained for the case called “coup”, in the framework of which he offered his version of the events of 2019 and the role of Evo Morales, which sparked criticism from of the MAS.
[Riot] Gear
According to Del Castillo, on 11 November 2019, the Argentine Ambassador to Bolivia sent a note to the Foreign Ministry requesting authorization for the entry of personnel, material, and equipment for the Special Forces Group called “Alacran” from that country.
Del Castillo reported that the Bolivian Police authorized the internment and temporary carrying in Bolivia of firearms, ammunition, and materials related to the group of special forces “Alacran” of Argentina, which was requested by the Embassy of that country through the Foreign Ministry in order to protect its facilities.
He also indicated that the aforementioned material was transferred by a Hercules C-130 aircraft from Argentina to Bolivia, arriving on November 13th in the city of La Paz.
“There are two types of materials that entered the country that November 13th. One in a legal manner that was authorized by the Institute of Technical Scientific Research (IICUP) with a prior note in the Foreign Ministry specifically to provide security to the Argentine Embassy and other unauthorized anti-riot weapons, because it does not have any type of formal registration or has followed the procedures established in Law 400,” denounced the Minister of Government.
The authority asserted that, irregularly, about 27 thousand cartridges of rubber pellets, 28 MK-4 aerosol gases, 19 MK-94 aerosol gases, 55 CN [gas] grenades, 53 H gas grenades, and 19 CS gas grenades have entered the country.
Source: https://erbol.com.bo/nacional/gobierno-apunta-30-a%C3%B1os-de-c%C3%A1rcel-para-personal-militar-y-policial-implicado-en-caso-del#:~:text=El%20Gobierno%20ratific%C3%B3%20este%20lunes,personal%20policial%20y%20militar%20implicado.
THE REVOLUTION OF THE PITITAS BOOK
THE REVOLUTION OF THE PITITAS BOOK
21 June 2021
PAGINA SIETE NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL
Former President Jeanine Añez has based part of her statement before the Prosecutor’s Office on the book La revolucion de las Pititas [The Revolution of the Pititas], which was prepared by the journalists of Pagina Siete after the crisis of October and November 2019. It must be remembered that Evo Morales’s resignation was produced on November 10 and that this publication was published on December 19 of that year, therefore, its content is only a reflection of what journalists saw or heard during that crisis, without time to create rhetoric that has nothing to do with reality.
The book contains 34 journalistic chronicles, whose authors are or were Página Siete journalists at that time, except for our two former directors, Raúl Peñaranda and Juan Carlos Salazar, who were no longer part of the staff, but who very graciously agreed to collaborate with a chronicle each. one.
The story begins with the structural causes of the conflict that have to do with the decision of Evo Morales and the MAS [Movement Toward Socialism] to ignore the result of the referendum of February 21, 2016, and to prolong themselves in power. It continues with the chronicles of the elections, the allegations of fraud, the violence unleashed after the TREP cut-off, the 21-day protest, the deaths of Montero, and the OAS report on the malicious acts committed in the elections.
Now entering the most critical days, the chronicles of the book reflect the mutiny of the Police, the role of the armed forces, the resignation of Evo Morales and the entire chain of command, the acts of violence that affected groups on both sides. There are reflected the atrocities committed in Vila Vila against the civics that traveled to La Paz to reinforce the protest, the burned houses of the MAS representatives, and then the overflowing violence in La Paz, which led to the burning of the houses of Waldo Albarracín, Casimira Lema and Puma Katari buses.
Of course, there are also chronicles about the attempts of the Church and the European Union to pacify the country, the assumption of Jeanine Añez, and, later, the violence unleashed by the security forces in Sacaba and Senkata. It is a plural book, which includes the list of the dead on both sides and which even reflects the IACHR report, which talks about “the massacres” committed by the Añez Government.
The title of the book was inspired by Evo Morales himself because in full citizen protest he made fun of the pititas [common household threads] that the protesters used to block the streets, so the popular revolt was renamed the revolution of the pititas. It is not a panegyric book, as some MAS supporters wanted to believe, on the contrary, it has a plural look at the facts, so much so that now the MAS supporters themselves highlight it and value it because that is how it suits them for their purposes.
Página Siete journalists are proud to have produced this and other books throughout their short history, but at the same time, it is striking that former President Añez has decided to read that document as part of her statement because it is assumed that a witness only testifies to those facts that he or she has witnessed (worth the triple redundancy).
Añez is based on the book until the events of November 10 because she was in Trinidad and she only became the protagonist of the events as of November 11, when she arrived in La Paz to become temporary president.
Based on Raúl Peñaranda’s chronicle, the former president says that Mesa, via telephone and through radio, rejected the idea that Adriana Salvatierra or any other low-level senator could assume the presidency, in the first case because the protests would not cease and in the second because it would be unconstitutional.
In any case, it is not only surprising that Añez has relied on the book to testify, but that the Prosecutor’s Office itself has admitted it and that it has transcribed some episodes of the book as such. The revolution of the Pititas is a journalistic book and does not claim, in any case, to be a legal document.
Control the past?
20 June 2021
Control the past?
I have the habit of re-reading Orwell from time to time, so it is not difficult for me to go to him every time the MAS tries to “write the past” to justify the present and, to a certain extent, ensure its future; today the Government tries to cause doubts on the Report of the Dialogue Facilitation Process 2019-2020 published by the Bolivian Episcopal Conference.
From time to time it gives the impression that at that time there were only a couple of meetings and that from all sides there was pressure for the cornered Masism of November 2019 to accept what they imposed on it; when actually there were several meetings and the representatives of the ruling party were treated with respect and with the proper considerations because that is what a negotiation is about.
I am going to limit myself to giving the reader the details of each of the meetings and who was present in them, making a minimum of clarifications (those who read will know if they value them).
1. The dialogue process began on 7 November 2019, and ended on December 5th, leaving an accompaniment that lasted until approximately 20 January 2020. In other words, Evo Morales was in government, and “solutions” to the crisis were already being provided.
On November 8th, a commission of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference: Monsignor Toribio Cardinal Ticona, Monsignor Edmundo Abastoflor, and Monsignor Percy Galvan met with Evo Morales, who insistently asked them to publish a call for peace. The Bolivian Episcopal Conference (CEB) agreed to his request.
The CEB attended a meeting called by the Brazilian Ambassador Octavio Enrique Cortez on November 9th. Meeting in which diplomatic delegations, concerned about the uncertain climate and growing national violence, consulted the Church if it could be the one to convene a dialogue process, protecting the safety of those who would intervene, especially that of government agents and the sectors in protest and, of course, that of the dialogue facilitators.
First meeting: Sunday, November 10th, in the late afternoon, at the Catholic University. Attendants: for the Bolivian Episcopal Conference (CEB): Monsignor Aurelio Pesoa; Eugenio Scarpellini; Monsignor Giovani Arana, Father Jose Fuentes Cano and Juan Carlos Nuñez. For the diplomatic corps: Ambassador of Brazil, Octavio Henrique Cortes; Ambassador of the European Union, Leon de la Torre; Ambassador of Spain, Emilio Perez de Agreda and the former Ambassador of Spain, Carmelo Angulo. For the civic committees: Jerjes Justiniano; for the National Committee for the Defense of Democracy (CONADE), Waldo Albarracin and for Comunidad Ciudadana (CC): Ricardo Paz. It was very clear to all the participants that without the presence of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) it was not possible to find viable proposals.
November 11th: In addition to the facilitators; for the parties: MAS, Adriana Salvatierra, and Teresa Morales; for (CC), C. Mesa and Ricardo Paz; for (UN): Samuel Doria Medina (invited by Hector Arce); Jorge Quiroga and Luis Vasquez; Civic Committees: Jerjes Justiniano did not arrive (he excused himself) and for the CONADE, Rolando Villena.
November 12th: Former President Evo Morales arrived in Mexico. They met, for the MAS, A. Salvatierra, S. Rivero and T. Morales; for CC, C. Mesa, R. Paz and C. Alarcon; for UN, Samuel Doria Medina, and Roberto Moscoso; for UD, Oscar Ortiz. Jorge Quiroga, Luis Vasquez, Jerjes Justiniano for the civic committees, and Rolando Villena for the CONADE, were also present.
The country had a president
Agreements that allow the pacification of the country. This stage was the longest and represented the continuity of the dialogue process already in place. It had more participants among the facilitators in addition to the clergy. For the parties: MAS: A. Salvatierra, B. Yañiquez, and P. Menacho; for CC: R. Paz; for UN, S. Doria Medina and R. Moscoso; for UD, O. Ortiz and S. Franco. Also L. Vasquez; for the Government, the Minister of the Presidency, J. Justiniano.
November 16, Carlos Romero contacted the dialogue facilitation group. He expresses the need to create dialogue roundtables with political parties, to agree on a law calling for elections, as well as the members of a renewed Electoral Tribunal. On the occasion, the former Minister stressed that former President Evo Morales was the key political actor because everything depended on him. Romero participated in all the preparation of the dialogue roundtables to agree on the law.
November 18. It was evident to the dialogue facilitators that there were two positions in the MAS: that of the former authorities and that of those who were in office. Participants, on behalf of the MAS: Javier Zabaleta, Hector Arce, Carlos Romero and Adriana Salvatierra; Omar Aguilar; Eva Copa, Milton Baron, Betty Yañiquez, Efrain Chambi. On behalf of the Government: the Minister of Justice, Alvaro Coimbra, and the Minister of the Presidency, Jerjes Justiniano. On the part of the facilitators, the commission of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference and the European Union (EU). Is it necessary to add something else? The MAS proposed the law to call for elections and they negotiated and managed; they went in and out of the Mexican Embassy; the dialogue worked. The details can continue to be explored, but the country has been pacified. There was a fraud and then he resigned and then there was a constitutional succession.
Source: https://eldeber.com.bo/opinion/controlar-el-pasado_236001
My Word to the Country
16 June 2021
My Word to the Country
Throughout my life I have been committed to Bolivia and to democracy, I have practiced it, I have defended it and I have detached myself from power when I had it, because of my conviction that respect for human rights and life is one of its most important values.
Evo Morales is the author of the largest electoral fraud in democracy and of having mocked the Bolivian people on 21F [21 February 2016] by not respecting its decision against his indefinite re-election. Not satisfied with these irreparable damages, he decided to subordinate the interests of the country and the dramatic health and unemployment problems that citizens face, to his own interest, which is none other than his unhealthy obsession to return to the presidency at any cost. For this he wants to whitewash the fraud he perpetrated, inventing a non-existent coup d’État.
By accusing me of being the author of the alleged coup, Morales has decided to complete his plan, destroy me and destroy the main democratic opposition force in the country, represented by Comunidad Ciudadana.
The one who fled Bolivia after resigning the presidency, the one that organized a plan to interrupt the constitutional line of succession and generate chaos and civil confrontation between compatriots, the one who instructed his militants to block and cause shortages in our main cities, speaks today shamelessly about a coup and coup plotters.
Morales, the government, and the MAS want me to lower my head and provide explanations. I won’t do either. There is no explanation for those who, like me, have done and would do a hundred times what must be done in defense of peace, democracy, and the Constitution, which is what I did between 2018 and 2020. As a presidential candidate, I faced the autocracy and as a democrat, I supported the recomposition of the constitutional line of succession that Morales tried to destroy in order to lead us to an internal war. A task that included the participation as facilitators of the Catholic Church, the European Union, the United Nations, and the Embassy of Spain.
It was my candidacy in 2019 that forced Morales to make a [electoral] fraud to avoid his certain defeat in a second round. His resignation and escape were the product of desperation to remain in the presidency at any price, in this case, to circumvent the popular sovereignty expressed through the vote.
Now, on Morales’ orders, orders accepted by Luis Arce, the Public Ministry and the Judicial Branch, proven executing arms of the governing autocracy, have put together in the most sloppy way a “case”, that of the delirious invention called the coup d’État. The district attorney’s office, at the height of the illegality of form and substance, gives more credibility to the pages of a book than to two State laws: Law 1266 that annulled the fraudulent elections and Law 1270 called “Exceptional Extension Law of the CONSTITUTIONAL mandate of elected authorities,” which prolonged the term of the then President Añez.
Both laws enacted by the Legislative Assembly –controlled by the MAS– on 24 November 2019 and 20 January 2020, generate State jurisprudence and recognize the full legitimacy and constitutional legality of the Government of Jeanine Añez and of its origin. To open a process invented by a coup d’État, the unconstitutionality of both norms should be previously declared and the president of the Senate Eva Copa, the president of the Deputies Sergio Choque, and the other five members of the board of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly and all the legislators who approved these laws should be prosecuted as co-authors of the alleged coup d’État.
Precisely because of these terrible events, I ask President Luis Arce: Will you continue to support the actions filled with hatred and ambition of power of Evo Morales? Will you continue to send your ministers and spokesmen to lie to the Bolivian people by denying the constitutional succession that you yourself publicly admitted? Are you willing to remain subordinated to Morales, even at the risk of leading your administration to disaster? I accuse Evo Morales, Luis Arce, and the MAS of lying, of distorting the facts, of inventing a crime to destroy the opposition, destroy me, and lead the country into a spiral of confrontation in the midst of a profound health and unemployment crisis. All planned and forced by the disproportionated ambition of a man who has already done too much harm to Bolivia before fleeing on 10 November 2019 in a foreign-flagged plane.
Source: https://carlosdmesa.com/2021/06/16/mi-palabra-al-pais/
Reunión Biden-Putin: de los ataques cibernéticos a la política energética, el Presidente debe enfrentarse a Rusia
Biden está malgastando la ventaja con relación a Rusia que heredó de la administración Trump
El Presidente Biden se reunirá con el Presidente ruso Vladimir Putin en las próximas 25 horas. Lamentablemente, para la seguridad estadounidense, se presenta con una mano débil auto-repartida que pudo haber sido mucho más fuerte.
Nosotros, en la administración Trump, creamos una ventaja real contra Rusia que él podría haber utilizado. En cambio, ha optado por abandonar dicha ventaja. Incluso en solo unos meses en el cargo, Biden ya le ha señalado a Putin que es tímido y no está preparado para enfrentar el desafío ruso, una debilidad que el ex-agente de la KGB Putin seguramente presiente.
Espero que Biden ejerza las opciones disponibles para enderezar este barco y proteger a los Estados Unidos de la actividad maligna rusa.
La administración Trump fue más dura con Rusia que cualquier otra desde el final de la Guerra Fría, algo que nunca oirás reconocer a los medios. Ya sea imponiendo una campaña de sanciones sin precedentes contra entidades rusas, armando a nuestros amigos en Ucrania con armas de guerra para resistir la agresión rusa, convenciendo a nuestros aliados de la OTAN de aportar 400.000 millones de dólares en nuevos gastos de defensa u otras medidas, reafirmamos la fuerza estadounidense para frustrar el sueño de Putin de un imperio ruso restaurado.
Pero Biden ya ha comenzado a malgastar esta ventaja, en parte al telegrafiar el cambio climático como su principal prioridad de seguridad nacional. En comentarios sobre este viaje a las tropas estadounidenses estacionadas en el Reino Unido, contó una historia de sus días de vicepresidente. Dijo que el Estado Mayor Conjunto, los principales generales del ejército, le dijeron que el “calentamiento global” era “la mayor amenaza que enfrenta Estados Unidos”.
Alentar a nuestros combatientes a adoptar esta ridícula mentalidad, aparentemente compartida por los que se supone que son algunos de los líderes militares más talentosos de los Estados Unidos, es extremadamente peligroso. Les dice a los agresores que nuestras prioridades estratégicas están fuera de lugar y que estamos listos para que se aprovechen de nosotros. Biden debe dejar en claro a Putin que nuestro ejército coloca una agresión rusa en el escalón más alto de las amenazas, y apoyará a nuestras fuerzas armadas para disuadirla.
En la misma línea, el Presidente Biden debe dejar en claro que el cambio climático no es en absoluto el único tema que Rusia debe abordar para complacerlo. De hecho, Biden debe darse cuenta de que a Putin nada le encantaría más que ver materializarse el Nuevo Acuerdo Ecológico de la izquierda estadounidense.
Cualquier promesa que haga Putin de abordar juntos el cambio climático es falsa. Rusia es una de las principales naciones productoras de petróleo que ganará influencia geopolítica en todo el mundo si Estados Unidos recorta su producción de petróleo y gas. Una agenda de que priorice el cambio climático es una estupidez en más de un sentido. En el frente cibernético, Biden debe decirle a Putin que los ataques cibernéticos se los tratarán de la misma manera que a cualquier otro ataque contra los Estados Unidos desde suelo ruso. El mes pasado, los ciberdelincuentes llevaron a cabo un ataque de cibersecuestro de datos dirigido al oleoducto Colonial, una arteria energética esencial que transporta casi la mitad del suministro de combustible de la Costa Este. La evidencia apunta a esos piratas informáticos que operan dentro de Rusia, al igual que muchos delincuentes informáticos que buscan extorsionar y robar a los estadounidenses.
Biden también debería amenazar con una respuesta cibernética despiadada contra Rusia si continúan los ataques cibernéticos respaldados por el gobierno y su intromisión en nuestra democracia.
El equipo de seguridad nacional del Presidente Trump coordinó para otorgar al Poder Ejecutivo mayor autoridad para responder a tales ataques. Biden debe utilizar esa laxitud para perseguir y paralizar a estos terroristas digitales, y exigir que Putin también se niegue a permitirles operar con impunidad dentro de Rusia.
Biden también debería amenazar con una respuesta cibernética despiadada contra Rusia si continúan los ciberataques respaldados por el gobierno y su intromisión en nuestra democracia, un ataque que debería llegar al corazón del aparato de seguridad de Rusia y al círculo íntimo de cleptócratas de Putin, si es necesario.
El equipo de seguridad nacional del Presidente Trump coordinó para otorgar al Poder Ejecutivo mayor autoridad para responder a tales ataques. Biden debe utilizar esa laxitud para perseguir y paralizar a estos terroristas digitales, y exigir que Putin también se niegue a permitirles operar con impunidad dentro de Rusia.
El Presidente Biden debe dejar en claro que está preparado a revertir su indecisión para proyectar unilateralmente el poder estadounidense. Biden mostró una gran hipocresía al cancelar el Oleoducto Keystone XL, al mismo tiempo que permitió que Rusia completara el gasoducto Nord Stream 2 que suministra gas a Alemania. Este movimiento sin sentido hará que los aliados de Estados Unidos se vuelvan más dependientes de la energía rusa.
El nepotismo también apesta. El Director General de Nord Stream, Matthias Warnig, era un agente de la policía secreta de Alemania Oriental que, según los informes, trabajó con Putin cuando era un agente de la KGB destinado en Alemania.
Biden debería detener Nord Stream 2 en seco imponiendo sanciones a las entidades involucradas en su financiamiento y construcción, incluido Gazprom, el gigante estatal ruso del gas natural. Las personas que se verán más gravemente afectadas por detener el proyecto son las élites alemanas corrompidas por el dinero de Moscú.
Habiendo dicho todo esto, todavía hay margen para cooperar en intereses comunes estrechos. Biden debe exigir que continúen las áreas críticas de cooperación en materia de seguridad.
En 2017, cuando dirigía la Agencia Central de Inteligencia, informamos a Rusia sobre un inminente ataque terrorista en San Petersburgo que habría matado a muchos, posiblemente incluidos estadounidenses. Pese a que la CIA y el Servicio de Inteligencia Exterior de Rusia estaban lejos de ser amigos, nunca puse la política antes que salvar vidas inocentes.
La cooperación entre estas dos agencias fue fuerte en la administración Trump, lo que hizo que los estadounidenses estuvieran mejor protegidos de las amenazas. El intercambio continuo de inteligencia recíproca sobre actividades terroristas es crucial para nuestra seguridad nacional.
Finalmente, Biden debería argumentar a Putin que el acercamiento a China hará de su país un Estado tributario del Partido Comunista Chino. A largo plazo, la mejor apuesta de Rusia es separarse del Partido Comunista de China (PCCh).
Biden debería presionar a Putin para que presione al PCCh para que se una al tratado de armas nucleares Nuevo START entre Estados Unidos y Rusia. Al ayudar a detener una acumulación nuclear china en curso, Putin ayudará a salvarse a sí mismo y al mundo de una posible devastación a manos de un régimen incluso más agresivo que el suyo.
Putin también podría ganarse un poco de buena voluntad de Occidente al liberar al activista demócrata encarcelado Alexei Navalny y honrar las libertades básicas de su pueblo, un punto que Biden también debería plantear.
En la década de 1980, yo comandaba una unidad de tanques que patrullaba la Cortina de Hierro. Nuestros ejercicios incluían demostraciones precisas y sin complejos de potencia de fuego, porque sabíamos que los rusos respetaban la fuerza por encima de todo. Esa misma actitud rusa se manifestó una y otra vez cuando serví en el Congreso, como jefe de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia y Secretario de Estado. Durante años, los Demócratas se quejaron de que el Presidente Trump no fue duro con Rusia, mientras ignoraban los hechos. Ahora el Presidente Biden tiene la oportunidad de predicar con el ejemplo. Si Biden se disculpa por Estados Unidos o proyecta visiones de cooperación como castillos en el aire, Putin sentirá debilidad y la política de Estados Unidos con Rusia tendrá unos largos tres años y medio de incertidumbre.
ANGELA FROM HER OWN DARKNESS: A TALE BY RENÉ BASCOPÉ ASPIAZU
ANGELA FROM HER OWN DARKNESS: A TALE BY RENÉ BASCOPÉ ASPIAZU
I cannot recall when I began to feel fear for that room in the second courtyard. However, I think I remember an afternoon when we were playing soccer, when the rag ball hit the closed door with force, making its worn-out structure creak. Suddenly it seemed to me that the noise that had entered the room was slowly transforming itself into a resounding echo that kicked up dust, stirred cobwebs, and shifted things. Then I felt how it quieted and took hold of the air, filling it and absorbing everything, in such a way that if the door were suddenly opened, the overgrown noise would have overflown into the patio, dragging and drowning us.
Never before, until the day the house keeper’s son swallowed poison to kill himself for Yolanda, did I realize that the room was occupied by two old women and a tall, pale girl named Angela. Just that day, as my mother and I watched Roso rolled on the cobblestones, vomiting and screaming in pain, I was surprised to see the door open imperceptibly. The blood froze in my veins, because I had the intimate assurance that this room was uninhabited. Luckily Roso was slow to die until night fell, and I took the opportunity to look in more detail through the small opening left as if on purpose. Angela was motionless in a chair and the two old women took turns watching the spectacle of the poisoned young man who did not allow himself to be touched by anyone, while his father cried hysterically in a corner. Just as I had unconsciously assumed, the objects I saw were older than my imagination could tolerate. What depressed me the most was the large number of pictures of saints with faces that were satisfied with so much suffering that were hung on the back wall, and a small, crucified Christ, bleeding everywhere and with so long a hair that it scared me and made me nauseous. We stayed that way until Roso died and we still remained that way until the police arrived to take the body away. By then the door had closed completely, pretending that no one existed behind it.
(During All Saints’ Day, my mother and my grandmother spread a black cloth on the small table in the darkest corner of my room. On top of it, they slowly place the portrait of my grandfather who had died fifteen or twenty years ago, while they dust it off with a cloth; then they light a candle and fix it with the melted wax that drips from it in a porcelain saucer. The portrait is dazzled. My grandmother brings a glass full of crystal clear water and places it on the cloth; then we all pray while I chew a piece of bread. At night I cannot sleep with the candle lit and with the fear of seeing the sad look of my grandfather enclosed in his photograph, while his soul drinks the water from the glass crying and in great gulps. Flame sizzles and my mother doesn’t realize my fear, so she sleeps instead of hugging me.)
My childish cunningness, with truculence, made me devise a thousand ways to be able to carefully observe the interior of that room. Sometimes, however, the door would remain closed for several days, although I knew from the smell that came from the cracks that Angela and the old women were inside.
In time, the features of the three women became familiar to me; I looked at them without their noticing, while playing anything. When they went out, she always walked between the two old women, and it seemed that she was suffering so deeply, that I began to love her with all the strength that fear allowed me. I was sure that the hair in a bun, the black veil, the hump and the coat down to the shins, were imposed by the women to make her look like them. But Angela had an original pallor that totally differentiated her from them.
When my mother realized that I liked to stay longer than necessary in the yard, she inexplicably began to demand that I leave the games before dark. But it was precisely at the time of the beginning of the night when Angela left guarded by the old women. So the first few times, I refused to obey with gambling pretexts, but later, in the winter, when the night came earlier, my excuses ended. I hence decided to tell her that I wanted to go to the bathroom. That was how I deceived mother, by making her see me enter, and then sneak out and hide in the darkness of the alley that connected my patio with the second, until Angela went out to the street.
I cannot remember when I found out that Angela was not her name; that it was Elvira, that the old women were her mother and aunt, and that every night, inevitably, they went to the 7 o’clock San Francisco mass. Since then I dared to approach the door, shamelessly, as they were leaving, to see each night, from different angles, the room; I would mentally put together the interior images, until I knew well the location of the table, the two beds, the pictures, the wooden trunks, the old chairs, and all the other things.
(In the mornings of All Saints’ day, my mother is the first to wake up, she gets up and looks indifferently at the almost empty glass, picks up the remains of the burning candle and throws them into the garbage can. I still feel my grandfather’s soul crying deeply when we go out. In the courtyard, the dog looks at us with the eyes full of rheum because it has seen the spirits roaming the house all night. In the cemetery I still hear the distant crying, interspersed with the tolling of the bells that bring the smell of corpses and flowers. When we are done praying rain begins to fall on the graves and the morning seems late.)
A long time ago, due to bad luck, while I was hiding waiting for Angela to leave, Mrs. Juana and Carlos’s father appeared at the other end of the alley. Without seeing me they began to hug and kiss and touch everywhere, hastily. But when Carlos’s father aw me, I only managed to run towards Angela’s door, while he chased me tying up his pants. Just as he reached me, the three women were leaving the room. That day I saw for the first time that Angela was looking at me, that’s why I didn’t feel the blows that Carlos’s father gave me as he dragged me to my room.
From that moment on, my mother would not let me go out to the patio, because I was corrupted. But the only good thing that happened was that she didn’t find out that I loved Angela or that I was afraid of the room on the second patio.
I thought my confinement would not last long, but my mother did not forget that night in the alley, and she even thought about us going to live somewhere else, because she was way too ashamed of Carlos’s father. But my grandmother, who advocated for me a bit, told her not to do crazy things, that nowhere would we find a room for rent so cheap, and that she should finally stop bothering, that it was not a big deal. It seems this made my mother settle.
For Christmas I found, under the bed, a wooden truck, painted purple and blue. I believed that by giving me that gift, my mother forgave me, because she also was so happy that she got distracted and I went out to the patio dragging my toy towards the alley. When my mother found out, she called out to me, angry, but I could see that Angela’s door was locked with a large, half-bolted padlock.
Since the morning in which we heard an infernal shouting in the courtyard, because Carlos’s father had split his wife’s head with an ax, while Mrs. Juana cried out, taking her hands to the deep wound the dead woman had inflicted on her face, my mother breathed calmly and let me go out to play for a few moments. However, the longtime of confinement prevented me from having fun as before, and, what was even worse, I found out that my friend Carlos had been in the hospice since his mother died and his father had been imprisoned. In the moments when I could go to the second patio, I always found the door closed, as if no one had ever lived in that room. There was a moment when I wanted to beg my mother to let me go out, even for five minutes, at nightfall, on condition that I did not go out all day, but I could never do so. (During All Saints’ day [Todos Santos festivity], I run to the room on the second patio and when the door opens, I see in the background, on top of a black table, a candle burning in front of Angela’s portrait. At night my mother makes me pray and gives me cookies. I can’t sleep afterwards because, while my grandfather’s soul drinks the water from the glass, Angela slowly places herself on a spot lying down, from which she stares at me and whispers to me with her soft voice. I see her paler and more hunched over than before. At dawn, she begins to cry silently and leaves. My mother wakes up, prepares breakfast and changes the candle that is about to go out. My grandmother gets up and scrapes with her nails the fly excrement that has accumulated in the portrait. As we left for the cemetery we found the dog asleep, with a great deal of rheum in its eyes, my mother comments that if you want to see the spirits of the dead, you just need to smear your eyes with the rheum of a dog’s eyes. In the cemetery, we pray a great deal and my mother greets the two old women in Angela’s room as it starts to rain, I look at them with hatred. Then we put the white illusions in an antique vase. My grandmother says that her husband’s grave deteriorates more every year. Upon returning to the house, it rains harder and the rain does not let the tremulous sound of the bell tower be heard. I mentally pray for old women to never die. The moment my mother opens the door to our room, I take the eye-rheum from the dog that is still sleeping.)
LA PANDEMIA DEL COVID-19 VERSUS LA POST-VERDAD
LA PANDEMIA DEL COVID-19 VERSUS LA POST-VERDAD
Las teorías la conspiración constituyen un desafío creciente para abordar el COVID-19. Junto a la propagación mundial de la pandemia en sí, las falsas acusaciones de engaños, curas y cábalas secretas circunnavegan los bienes comunes de la información mundial, envenenan el debate, erosionan el consenso de la comunidad y paralizan la formulación de políticas. Las afirmaciones conspirativas que desafían la gravedad del virus, la necesidad de esfuerzos de mitigación y los motivos de las comunidades estatales y de salud pública se han trasladado de los rincones oscuros de Internet a las páginas de Facebook e incluso a los funcionarios electos. Estas narrativas socavan los mensajes y las medidas de salud pública. Al erosionar la confianza en las instituciones y crear confusión sobre los hechos, las teorías de la conspiración estimulan la acción colectiva y la cooperación. Específicamente, estas narrativas de conspiración no solo comprometen los esfuerzos de mitigación como máscaras y cuarentenas, sino que los grupos asociados también intentan revocar estos mandatos de salud pública para otros. En general, los grupos de teorías de conspiración amenazan con descarrilar los mandatos actuales de mitigación de la salud pública, así como los esfuerzos futuros de vacunación, con impactos a más largo plazo en torno a la politización de las organizaciones científicas y el personal. Cuando se racionaliza la violencia para lograr estos objetivos, los grupos de teoría de la conspiración pueden poner en peligro tanto la seguridad sanitaria como la seguridad nacional.
En los estudios de seguridad, la desinformación se analiza con frecuencia como una táctica de actores estatales extranjeros hostiles, mientras que la desinformación puede abordarse en relación con variables nacionales como ecosistemas mediáticos y poblaciones políticamente polarizadas. Independientemente del origen o la intención, todo lo anterior se puede propagar a través de vectores como las redes sociales, las celebridades y los funcionarios electos. Aunque solo un pequeño porcentaje de personas respalda las teorías de conspiración, las consecuencias nos afectan a todos. Al igual que con el COVID-19, las teorías de la conspiración amenazan con abrumar nuestros sistemas, incluida la salud y la toma de decisiones políticas.
En 2019, la Oficina Federal de Investigaciones (FBI) declaró a los grupos de teoría de conspiración como una forma de terrorismo nacional. Un grupo identificado en el informe, QAnon, ha aprovechado las teorías de conspiración de COVID para reclutar nuevos miembros. El grupo ahora cuenta con más de 1 millón de miembros en los Estados Unidos, con sucursales en 15 países. Su alcance global se ve acelerado por la conectividad tecnológica, su influencia expandida por señales de élite y mensajes partidistas. Estos grupos de conspiración son peligrosos porque postulan que ciertos otros grupos o individuos son amenazas existenciales. Actualmente, los objetivos de estas narrativas incluyen a los funcionarios de salud pública, gobernadores estatales, académicos, investigadores, filántropos y otras figuras públicas en la primera línea de las noticias de COVID-19. A medida que estos grupos aprovechan su popularidad para postularse para cargos electorales, pueden incluso llegar a influir directamente en la formulación de políticas y la financiación pública. Aunque Estados Unidos es el foco de este informe, el impacto de las teorías de conspiración de COVID-19 es potencialmente global. En lugares tan lejanos como Melbourne, Australia, los manifestantes desafiaron las órdenes de cierre y gritaron “¡Muerte a Bill Gates!” – una figura clave en las afirmaciones conspirativas basadas en Estados Unidos. El debate público sobre la pandemia debe tener en cuenta la propagación viral de las teorías de conspiración que la rodean y los impactos a largo plazo de la era de la “posverdad” en la que prospera.
[…]Teorías de conspiración
Las teorías de conspiración no son nuevas, pero tradicionalmente han encontrado un terreno fértil en tiempos de gran incertidumbre a raíz de eventos importantes. El peso y el impacto de eventos importantes como el 11 de septiembre, el asesinato del presidente John F. Kennedy, el alunizaje o el inicio del cambio climático son un fenómeno tan complejo y significativo que, para algunos, solo las cábalas secretas y la orquestación estatal podrían explicarlos. El realizador de documentales Michael Krik sostiene que las teorías de conspiración se elevan a la proporción y la importancia del evento. Con el aumento del desempleo y el aislamiento social, ha habido un aumento tanto en el tiempo del que la gente tiene disponible, como en la necesidad de información actualizada regularmente. Estados Unidos se ha visto particularmente afectado por la pandemia, con más de 40 millones de reclamaciones por desempleo y varios millones de personas perdiendo el seguro médico proporcionado por el empleador junto con sus trabajos. En medio de la tensión de salud, financiera, emocional y mental, plataformas populares como Facebook, YouTube y Twitter albergan focos de teóricos de la conspiración listos con respuestas (claridad) y comunidad en una época de miedo y aislamiento. Las teorías de la conspiración son inherentemente adaptativas, y la crisis de COVID-19 ha proporcionado una audiencia cautiva para reclutar a partir de narrativas preexistentes. Algunos son simplemente viejos tropos reempaquetados, como la teoría de la conspiración de que el “coronavirus es una herramienta para que los judíos expandan su influencia global” o “se beneficien” de ella. Otros grupos de conspiración en línea como QAnon, aprovechan la preocupación por los cambios de niños y Cultos satánicos para etiquetar al COVID-19 como un engaño y una distracción de estos problemas. En el caso del COVID-19, las teorías de la conspiración cubren varios ángulos, desde el origen y la gravedad, hasta la necesidad y eficacia de las respuestas de salud pública y los esfuerzos de mitigación, hasta los motivos ocultos. de funcionarios e instituciones. Algunas teorías de conspiración de COVID-19 en los Estados Unidos se detallan a continuación. Tenga en cuenta que estas teorías de la conspiración pueden variar de un país a otro. Por ejemplo, investigadores de la Universidad de Oxford documentaron varias teorías de conspiración ligeramente diferentes basadas en encuestas de opinión pública en Inglaterra, que incluyen que “los musulmanes están propagando el virus como un ataque a los valores occidentales” y que “políticos como Boris Johnson han fingido tener coronavirus”. Si bien no son exhaustivas, las principales categorías presentadas a continuación ofrecen un marco para clasificar las futuras teorías de la conspiración del COVID-19 a medida que surgen. Como las teorías de la conspiración tienden a emplear una retórica populista sobre el ‘pueblo’ puro y la ‘élite’ corrupta, Ilya Yablokov argumenta que las teorías de la conspiración funcionan para “unir al público como ‘el pueblo’ contra el ‘Otro’ representado como un bloque de poder secreto”. En esta narrativa, las máscaras y los encierros son la subyugación y el control estatal de “la gente”, en lugar de medidas razonables para limitar la propagación de un virus contagioso. Por el contrario, “el pueblo”, defendido por un líder populista, puede resistir racionalmente estos ataques a su libertad, con la fuerza si es necesario. Donde estas medidas restrictivas son el consejo de una “élite” científica en instituciones prestigiosas como los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC), la OMS o las Naciones Unidas (ONU), estas instituciones ahora también constituyen una amenaza.
Source: https://www.ghsn.org/resources/Documents/GHSN%20Policy%20Report%201.pdf
‘SYSTEMATIC FRAUD’
13 June 2021
‘Systematic Fraud’
The three times defeated presidential candidate in Peru, Keiko Fujimori, coined a new expression in the already long list of (unproven) complaints in electoral processes in the region: “systematic fraud.” And with that flag, she intends to annul 200,000 votes to reverse the narrow victory of Pedro Castillo (just over 60,000 votes, with 100% of the minutes processed). Conveniently, Fujimori spoke of “fraud” only when Castillo surpassed her in the official count.
Regardless of how the electoral authority resolves the challenges of the alleged “election board fraud”, as well as the observed records, with errors or incompleteness, it is a matter of concern that political actors agitate the “fraud” narrative instead of accepting the result of the elections: the public will manifested at the ballot box. In 2016, when Kuczynski beat her in the second round with just a 41,000 votes difference, Keiko acknowledged her defeat without alleging fraud.
In order not to go further back or stay in the region, let us remember that another losing candidate, Donald Trump, insisted until the end, without any evidence of course, that the elections had been stolen from him. The Republican spoke of “large-scale fraud”, assuring that it was “statistically impossible” that he lost. And he declared that there were “illegal votes” against him. In his failed attempt to reverse the outcome, he even degraded the American electoral system.
In Bolivia, we also know these stories. I will mention only two. After coming third in the 2002 elections, the presidential candidate Manfred Reyes Villa denounced “informatics fraud” (sic). He obviously couldn’t prove it. It also happened recently, in the 2019 elections, when one day after the vote, without the results for the official count, “monumental fraud” was sung. The same formula was replicated by the CC candidate for Mayor of Santa Cruz uttering: “colossal fraud.”
Systematic, election-board, large-scale, informatics, monumental, scandalous fraud… and so on, fraud. And the evidence, ladies, and gentlemen? In general, electoral regulations in the region establish mechanisms, procedures, and legal deadlines to file appeals against possible anomalies and irregularities in all phases of the process, especially in voting, counting, and computer counting. Of course, it is more comfortable and profitable for the defeated to shout “fraud” in front of the audience and the media spotlight.
Any indication of electoral fraud must be reported, investigated, verified, and, where appropriate, receive the maximum penalty. We should also think about sanctions for those who proclaim “fraud” without evidence, damaging the legitimacy of the result and democracy.
Curious Fadocracy
Jeanine Áñez’s recent statement to the Prosecutor’s Office raises valid questions about the events of 2019. Let us see: 1. Who called her on the phone on November 10, on loudspeaker, from the Catholic University, to offer her the presidency? Ricardo Paz, according to Áñez herself, or Tuto Quiroga, as Father Fuentes swears? Someone is lying. 2. Why, on November 11, when the senator arrived in La Paz, was an Air Force helicopter waiting for her at the airport!? Who sent it? 3. Why did the man in uniform who received her “have instructions” to take her to the Military College? Yes, to the Military College. 4. Why did they “tell” her to go to the Hotel Casa Grande to meet Luis Fernando Camacho (and nine other men) and talk about “taking office”? 5. Why, after meeting with her keen in the Assembly that afternoon, was she taken to the Police Academy, where she was waiting for Camacho, Murillo, Ortiz? 6. Who organized the operation, in short, on November 12, to “instrumentalize the norms” (including the unprecedented TCP communiqué) and force the presidential self-proclamation ipso facto? 7. Was this how Plan B worked?
José Luís Exeni Rodríguez is a political scientist
Source: https://www.la-razon.com/voces/2021/06/13/fraude-sistematico/
JORGE TUTO QUIROGA, THE ‘YUPPIE’ THAT DAZZLED GENERAL BANZER
Tuto has not stopped losing, although he takes the consolation of having participated in the successful conspiracy that ousted Morales from the presidency in November 2019.
13 June 2021
JORGE TUTO QUIROGA, THE ‘YUPPIE’ THAT DAZZLED GENERAL BANZER
It is an interesting challenge to establish which of Jorge Quiroga Ramírez’s paternal references has most influenced his life as a winner, who graduated from a Texas university and returned to Bolivia to work in the financial system and then be recruited by the Foreign Minister of the Republic, Carlos Iturralde Ballivián, during the government of Jaime Paz Zamora.
Quiroga’s takeoff begins in foreign trade, undertaking a public career with that winning vocation that is instilled in the redoubts of individualistic competition, from La Salle school, through the practice of basketball in the Nonis de Santa Cruz de la Sierra and later climbing mountains, wiphala in hand, to prove to himself that if he had a vocation for marathons and the horizontal conquest of the world, he could also do it vertically, seeking to reach the highest peak.
Fernando Ramírez Velarde, Quiroga’s maternal grandfather, who died at the age of 35, is the author of Socavones de Angustia [Caverns of Angst] (1947), a mining novel that narrates the daily suffering and sacrifice of that workers’ vanguard in Bolivia and that, according to a critical review by Guillermo Lora (Revolutionary Working Party), bets on a depoliticized vision in which the conflict seen from the Marxist analysis of class contradictions does not appear on its pages. For Ramírez Velarde, according to Lora, the salvation of the miners is found in education, not in social struggle. In these terms, the working class was never an issue that may have taken away the sleep of this second Tuto, because the first, his father, is called Jorge Joaquín Quiroga Luizaga (1933).
Tuto the son learned from his father, and to verify this assertion, only elementary deductions are needed, insofar as he became the ambassador of the dictatorship of Colonel-General Hugo Banzer Suárez before the International Tin Council based in Malaysia, a country to which he moved with his entire family to exercise said commercial diplomatic representation, with his eldest son moving from childhood to adolescence.
If the maternal grandfather, the writer of a single and well-known novel, did not particularly influence the life of Tuto Jr., Tuto Sr. did, who in 1987 was part of the board of directors of the National Electricity Company (ENDE) together with personalities such as Carlos Morales. Landívar, alias Quinciño, General José Antonio Zelaya, Joaquín Aguirre Lavayén, Iván Guzmán de Rojas and Roger Levy. Two decades later, already in his capacity as Vice President of recycling Banzer to Democracy, Tuto Jr. organizes the Strategic Affairs Unit of the Presidency (Unasep), conformed with the same criteria by his own younger brother, Luis Fernando –later Vice Minister of the Coordination Sector (Ministry of Economic Development)–, José Luis Lupo, Salvador Romero, Raúl Peñaranda, Alberto Valdés, and Alberto Leytón.
The criteria for Tuto father and Tuto son appear to be identical: formin teams in which surnames and professional qualifications are tied. The Unasep conceived by Vice President Quiroga is constituted, in this logic, in the thinking team of the second Banzer government for the purposes of early warning, monitoring, conducting opinion studies, and other investigative methods, all aiming at improving levels of governance.
The link with Banzer
We already have that the novelist grandfather did not leave a deep mark on the grandson, but instead, the father stood as the link that allowed him, years later, to approach General Banzer, who was very excited to have found his dolphin, who would lead him in 1997 to the vice-presidential candidacy. For Banzer —that wolf in sheep’s clothing that from his dictatorship-era became obsessed with moving toward democracy and that discovered this systems engineer, the son of a friend whom he made ambassador during the dictatorial seven years—, Tuto is the complement of the new generation, who had already shown his accounting and organizational skills as Undersecretary of Public Investment and International Cooperation and as Minister of Finance of the government of the so-called Patriotic Agreement chaired by Jaime Paz Zamora, which has the General as its main partner.
Tuto was fast. He was a minister at 32 years old. Paz Zamora was delighted with the efficiency of this yuppie who, according to some urban legend, was capable of mentally adding eight-digit figures. A prodigy that in 1993 had been appointed campaign manager of the Banzer-Zamora Medinacelli binomial, in 1995 Tuto assumed the national sub-presidency of the party –the Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN)– and in 1997 he formed an electoral tandem with the General to come to power with a 22, 26% of the votes, with the return of favors from Jaime Paz Zamora and his party, the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), to become president. By then, the Banzer executioners of the dictatorship and its victims, the MIR member, had already crossed closely together and several times the so-called “rivers of blood”, from a coalition that was expanded with the participation of other political parties such as Condepa (Carlos Palenque), UCS (Jhonny Fernández), NFR (Manfred Reyes Villa) and FRI (Óscar Zamora Medinacelli).
With the fortitude of Forrest Gump, but with the ego of the handsome boy at a party, Tuto became president (2001-2002) because his political mentor and father resigned to die of lung cancer. With the General buried, the story began to take another flight after being part of a government, three years as vice president and one as the first president. From then on, over time, he will stop citing Banzer and will sabotage the binomial of his own party –Ronald MacLean-Tito Hoz de Vila (+)– for the 2002 elections, when the ADNhad entered the line end of its existence, on the way to disappearance. The ADN binomial obtained 3.4% of the votes.
[…]
Against Latin American progressivism
In his systematic purpose of detracting from the authenticity of the achievements of the governments of Evo Morales, Quiroga declared in 2014: “Enough with the lies that the bonanza is due to nationalization. It is absolutely false. Today the country exports 10 times more than a decade ago. Nationalization has nothing to do with it. There is an economic bonanza due to high prices. Neighbors buy more raw material from us (…) In addition, there is money due to the gas bonanza that occurred due to various factors … There is a bonanza due to the sale contract to Brazil entered into by Herbert Müller (his Minister of Hydrocarbons), which stipulates the costs and volumes with which it is sold today; to the gas pipelines that were laid during my government; due to the Hydrocarbon law proposed by Hormando Vaca Díez (president of the Senate) and there is a boom in the sale of raw materials.”
For Tuto no actual nationalization took place and therefore there was no transformative action in the Bolivian State-foreign investors’ relationship, a topic on which he has been replied the following: The executive president of YPFB, Carlos Villegas, accused Jorge Quiroga, candidate of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC, for its Spanish acronyms) of trying to give away all the “rich gas” that today benefits Bolivians through the nationalization of hydrocarbons.
“You, Mr. Jorge Quiroga, are the main promoter of giving away our gas with all its components to Brazil,” he emphasized when recalling that throughout the privatization period that Bolivia experienced at the end of the 1990s and the middle of the decade In 2000, neither his government nor other allied parties took steps to recover the liquid fractions contained in the rich gas exported at dry gas prices.
Based on the steps taken personally by President Evo Morales, as of 2006, we have made recoveries; Petrobras has just paid YPFB $ 434 million for the debt of the components of the “rich gas”; and the Río Grande Liquid Separation Plants, which are in full operation in Santa Cruz, and the new Gran Chaco, soon to be inaugurated in Tarija, allow the separation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and gasoline that stay in and self-supply Bolivia and also facilitate the export of surpluses to several countries in the region.
On the other hand, Carlos Villegas said that in the dark pages of our history have recorded the way in which Jorge Quiroga Ramírez finished off or privatized the Gualberto Villarroel de Cochabamba and Guillermo Elder Bell de Santa Cruz refineries, in addition to the transfer of private wholesalers of the powers of fuel marketing in Bolivia.
“I am sure that if we did not recover our refineries, an energy crisis of magnitude was imminent in Bolivia today,” Villegas stressed. (Press release of August 31, 2009, YPFB).
In the presidential elections of 2014 –he did not participate in the 2009-elections–, when Tuto was already perched on social networks to embark on a new career, this time with always adjectival disqualifications against Evo Morales, the MAS, and a large part of Latin American progressivism, Tuto stood once again as a candidate for the presidency without Podemos but with the acronym borrowed from the old Christian Democratic Party (PDC) and forming a binomial with Tomasa Yarhui, who was his Minister of Indigenous Affairs in 2002. On this occasion, Morales won elections with 61% and Tuto finished third with only 9.02% of the votes.
True to his style of stepped-participation in elections, Tuto did not appear on the 2014 ballot and was re-enabled for 2020. Then things looked much worse for him: the polls did not give him more than 1% of citizen preferences, much less under Luis Arce (MAS) and even Carlos Mesa (CC), a harsh reality that led him to get off the candidacy, after having been a fundamental strategist in the constitutional interruption perpetrated between November 10 and 12, 2019 with the indispensable advice from his lawyer and friend, Luis Vásquez Villamor, the one who was president of the Chamber of Deputies and specified the expulsion of Evo Morales in 2002. Tuto walked through the Murillo square on Saturday, November 9 and was the one who directed key operations such as the exit of Evo Morales, after his defenestration, with the Military High Command headed by General Williams Kaliman.
Tuto is the prodigal son of Bolivia, a country in which, by class or caste, those above must command. Those below have historically obeyed until they learned to win elections in 2005. For historical memory, it is always necessary to emphasize that when citizens resisted the instructions based on the manual for good citizens, they ended up massacred, dead without names, without German or Jew surnames surviving, and undeserving of portraits for their services to the nation by the Establishment newspapers.
Tuto enters his old age with his friend Raúl Garafulic Lehm, owner of Página Siete, asking that we should not vote for him because Mesa represents the useful vote to beat the MAS. Garafulic says that Tuto is the best, but that he will not win, and in the logic and vital itinerary of Banzer’s heir, what counts is winning and since 2005 he has been dedicated to losing, and losing against the MAS is strictly prohibited. This close friend of the United States Embassy has not stopped losing, although he has the consolation of having participated in the successful conspiracy that ousted Evo Morales from the presidency on 10 November 2019.
La Razón publishes a series of articles related to power and the media in Bolivia. The journalist Julio Peñaloza Bretel investigates trajectories of the political sphere with specific weight, as well as the complex and conflictive relationships between public figures and the dominant urban media structure in the country. The basis of this proposal is inspired by the need to remember to combat forgetfulness and ignorance.
Source: https://www.la-razon.com/nacional/2021/06/13/tuto-quiroga-el-yuppie-que-encandilo-al-gral-banzer/
THE JOKER, FRANKENSTEIN, OR CONCURRENCE
12 June 2021
THE JOKER, FRANKENSTEIN, OR CONCURRENCE
At the outset of the 19th century, Mary Shelley wrote and portrayed the character created (with good intentions) by Dr. Frankenstein, from whom the latter’s creation receives the name, and who has become an “evil” being due to his ugliness and marginality (social process of interaction and labeling).
Recently, a character of the last century has allowed the actor portraying it to obtain an Oscar award: the Joker (the last version that is worth watching more than once). Beyond the evident psychosocial positivist tendency of how the child victim is constructed and its process (of marginality) towards the adult victimizer, the film Joker shows us the complex circumstances in which the character develops, the values that are constructed, the marking labels, and the ultimately self-marking labels, etc., from the perspective of the influence on individuality and the criminalization of socioeconomic marginality.
Along the same lines of “monsters”, it is possible to make mention to the children who are kidnapped by irregular groups that force them (without any option of choice in freedom) to kill their parents as a process of initiation, to later become “murderous perverts”.
A few days ago I heard an old criminologist friend, Chisthopher Birkbeck, handle the novel category of “concurrence” to show how an old victim also incarnates and transforms into the new victimizer. I believe that a long seminar where we also made presentations, but heard more, was properly justified with this category: concurrence.
It is from this double condition of victim and victimizer that doubts about freedom and free will assail us. Which is the freedom of the marked victim, induced to a kind of social gap (those woods that mark the narrow path for the cattle to be able to mark them, vaccinate them, etc.)? And where does it come from? Which is the freedom of choice between good and evil displayed by the “free will” of the former victim turned —not freely— into a victimizer? And where does it come from? How can we, criminologists, contribute to understanding this situation and thus make proposals for the implementation of public policies that do not replicate this perverse vicious circle?
How can we from the perspective of criminology analyze this situation in societies like ours, where there is more than 60% of poverty, without criminalizing and falling into social determinisms that only replicate this vicious circle?
How can we translate it into the Penal Code, when there is awareness of it? What is the standing of guilt? What is the standing of the co-responsibility by the omission of society and the State apparatus that it must protect by constitutional mandate? If the state’s sense of existence is the protection of the “social being”, does it delegitimize itself in the face of the failure to protect? Is democracy being delegitimized?
Without trying, in the least, to justify the existing violence, or to alarm about the actual de-legitimization of the state institutions, social responsibility by omission, and the natural consequence of an alarming decrease in democratic values, it is fitting to stop and reflect on this matter to come up with answers. It is obvious that I have become a deep questioner of the existence of freedom and free will. Since the past constrains us to the point of being able to question the existence of freedom and free will, and the present is determined by said past, of what capacity to choose freedom are we talking about?
Alejandro Colanzi is a criminologist and a fanatic destroyan.
Source: https://www.la-razon.com/voces/2021/06/12/guason-frankenstein-o-concurrencia/
Prosecutors of hatred and submission
10 June 2021
Prosecutors of hatred and submission
All the powerful, throughout the ages, have had justice under their feet. Surely, in the last century, Hitler and Stalin were the most notorious masters of justice, although surely that Trujillo, Somoza, Castro and other banana autocrats had it in our Latin America. Today Maduro, Ortega and Morales (from his Chapare[1] power) strut vaingloriously as prototypes for whom justice is their own, and which can be used to eliminate adversaries without having to kill them; locking them up until they rot is enough and looks less messy.
Among the most brutal totalitarianisms of the last century, when the victims were counted by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, were –undoubtedly– those of Hitler and Stalin. It was political hatred that kept them awake, but, perhaps more than hatred, [it was] fear. They dreaded even their shadow –more the Russian than the German– and for that very reason they distrusted the people who were close to them. They were permanently spied on by State Security, and as soon as they became a nuisance, they were passed on to the people’s justice system or shot. It goes without saying that those who were in the hands of the prosecutors ended their public life, because they had already set up a case and that could not be revoked even with the best legal arguments.
Among all this lower ranked “prosecuting”, there were untouchables, the subjects who had the entire trust of the power, who did not discern between good or bad, fair or unfair, when an order came from the supreme chief. Nazism had among its great scoundrels Judge Roland Freisler, later also in the office of prosecutor. And the Soviet Communist Party had Andrey Vyshinsky, a great actor in the purges that took place in Moscow in 1937 and 1938. For Vyshinsky, confession was the main proof of guilt, even if it was [obtained] through torture. Nothing had to be proved; instead, declarations had to be forced to hear what they wanted to hear. He imposed aggressive and rude interrogations to extract confessions.
However, Freisler, president of the People’s Court in times of Nazism, has been the judge whose worst memories are of defeated Germany. He enjoyed the trust and sympathy of the leaders who were closest to Hitler, and the Fuehrer himself was fond of him, according to historians. After the failure of von Stauffemberg’s attempt on Hitler in July 1944, fierce persecution against the regime’s enemies was unleashed. At least a hundred defendants passed through the hands of the robed Freisler, turned prosecutor. There was not enough rudeness or humiliation for those who were guilty of the attack. Great personalities, military and civilian, were forced to declare without belts, so that they would be permanently gripping their underwear or else their pants would fall to the ground. It was the best way to humiliate and hang the undesirables. A building collapsed on Freisler at the end of the war, as a result of the bombing, giving him his well-deserved end.
In Bolivia there is neither Hitler nor Freisler, but there are bosses in justice, those who finger-appoint mediocre strangers as robed and then stage a sham election to sanctify them. Therefore, justice is totally subject to power. Corrupted from top to bottom. Greedy for the defendant’s bribery or for forced extortion which is worse. Those who are summoned to testify, better bring their toothbrushes and blankets, because, surely, they will spend a long “preventive” imprisonment in the cells of San Pedro or Palmasola. We are living a terrible judicial ordeal, because there is no respect for anyone who is undesirable to the regime. A Minister of Justice is appointed who, due to so much lies and ignorance, is a source of ridicule. But his lies hurt society, they create confusion. They imprison former President Añez because they feel like it, out of sheer revenge, being scoundrels. And they do the same with those who have collaborated with her. No matter how responsible they are, the important thing is to get revenge for what they call a “coup”, which was just a well-deserved little peaceful push because Morales wanted to be a smartass blinded by his desire to stay in power eternally through fraud. That is the justice we have and the one that must be changed by punishing, in due course, those who administer it today.
[1] Chapare, (…) is a rural province in the northern region of Cochabamba Department in central Bolivia (…) In recent decades, the Chapare province has become a haven for illegal cultivation of the coca plant, which can be used to produce cocaine. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapare_Province. Visited on 14 June 2021.
* Translator’s note: All footnotes are introduced by the translator in order to help clarify unfamiliar terms.
Source: https://eldeber.com.bo/opinion/fiscales-del-odio-y-el-sometimiento_234829
The Scam
9 June 2021
The Scam
“In the end, what is the future?” reflects the curator, “an excuse to talk about the present.” Gregorio Belinchon.
To speak, also, of the past. In today’s Bolivia, since the current Covid-19 pandemic, it is impossible not to remember the burden of the past almost 14 years of President Evo Morales. It is a past that is cast as a dark shadow over the present and the future, no matter how much the regime and its men deny it. Consummate deniers.
However, some people remind the current President, Luis Arce, strongly: “Shut up, Mr. Arce, you’ve already done a lot of harm to our country… For years he was the cashier of the MAS [Government’s] waste that left us a health system, almost in ruins… he preferred spending on helicopters, museums, and palaces for his boss, rather than spending on hospital beds… he preferred spending on Persian carpets for his office rather than spending on intensive care units…”
This was reminded by the current Mayor of La Paz, Ivan Arias[1], who beat the candidate appointed by Morales himself, in the municipal elections of last March. And there is much more to remind the “cashier of the waste.” He was Minister of Economy for 12 years of the Morales era, 2006/2019, in times of hyper commodity prices. He believed that it was all due to his merit; perhaps, that’s why he was his heir apparent in the 2020 elections.
The Mayor of La Paz rubbed salt into the wound in this ill-fated third wave of the pandemic, without [the appropriate] health infrastructure to face this virus that infects and kills relentlessly, without beds for intensive care, without oxygen, without medicines, doctors without contracts and vaccines, against a legitimate desire to survive.
Today we are suffering the consequences of that enormous waste. In reality, it is a scam against the Bolivian society through the deceptive propaganda of the “process of change” and of the “native-indigenous-peasant” ethnic imposture, which did not lift the indigenous people or peasants out of their ancestral poverty. For economist Gonzalo Chavez, “in Bolivia, poverty, social exclusion, centralism, and racism were and are long-standing and just causes.” Morales deepened extractivism, he points out, taking advantage of the external boom in commodity prices. Oil expert Carlos Delius corroborates this, because the prices of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil, which influence the price formula for gas exported by Bolivia, “were on the rise.” From $14.24 per barrel in 1998, it rose to $66.05, at the beginning of exports to Brazil, in 2006. “The highest average price of the decade 2010-2019, was 93.28 dollars, that is, multiplied (93.28/14.24) = 6.55 times.” This variable “was not, nor is it, under the control of the seller Bolivia, or the buyer Brazil.” The bonanza was not the work of either Morales or Arce. (Hydrocarbon policy in crisis. The perfect storm. Millennium Foundation. May 2021.)
Morales and his Minister of Economy, current President, squandered that bonanza to the detriment of the national heritage and human development: health and education, above all. They ignored the development of the productive forces, the creation of productive work and employment, to reduce the phenomenon of “informality,” a true survival strategy practiced by between 70 and 80% of the population, given the meager supply of the public and private sector. At the same time, the corruption of the regime was a daily occurrence: influence-peddling in the entire State apparatus, total subordination of the Judicial Power, award of direct contracts without bidding, overprices in works and purchases without accountability, in addition to slapping the rule of law, the democratic coexistence among different people, with deaths, persecution, exiles, and all in collusion with coca-growing corporatism, so close to drug trafficking, smuggling gangs, and other atrocities.
The fact that the regime is tearing its hair out today for the $2.3 million bribe, via intermediaries, for the former government minister, Arturo Murillo, sounds like hypocrisy. It is to see the speck in another’s eye and not the beam in one’s own, which does not prevent demanding absolute transparency in past and present events. To cite an example, beyond the Indigenous Fund or the “favors” to Gabriela Zapata, Morales’ former sentimental partner, to the Chinese CAMC Company, and other cases: who authorized in 2012 the payment of more than $28 million to buy 16 barges and two pushers from the Korean company General Marine Business? Of those almost $30 million, “$3 million went into personal accounts,” according to Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra, years later. (Pagina Siete Newspaper. La Paz. 23-IV-2017) The barges never arrived. No highest authority of the Executive [Power] was prosecuted. “Rotten to the core,” Hannah Arendt would say. There are no excuses to leave the scam inflicted on Bolivian society buried in the past. It cannot be covered up by the denials of Morales, Arce, and the entire MAS. This multiple scam must be settled.
[1] [Author’s footnote] The Central Government subjects Arias to budget cuts, freezing of accounts; they invent lawsuits, they summon him to procedural hearings only for having been a minister in the Transitional Government of former President Jeanine Añez, whom they denigrate without measure or clemency.
Source: https://www.icees.org.bo/2021/06/la-estafa/
Light at the end of the tunnel or more tunnel at the end of the light?
6 June 2021
Light at the end of the tunnel or more tunnel at the end of the light?
After the worst global economic crisis in decades, several international organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), forecast a strong recovery from the recession.
The world economy will rebound by 5.8% in 2021. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States will grow close to 7%. The Eurozone 4.3%. Other regions of the world will also have interesting economic recoveries. In this context of relative optimism, the Bolivian authorities have revealed that in the first quarter, the economy will grow by 5.3%. If the data is correct, this is good news, this could be light at the end of the tunnel.
The sectors that lead the recovery in Bolivia are mining, construction, and hydrocarbons. Sectors such as tourism, gastronomy, and banks react with less force.
The coming economic expansion will not be evenly distributed, either among the various countries or within each one. Whether the recovery takes the V-shaped (a steadfast and rapid return to growth), U-shaped (a slower recovery), K-shaped (certain sectors growing well and others still in recession), or W-shaped (with a relapse into recession starting in 2022) form, will depend on several factors, according to the economy and region in question.
Let us mention six factors: 1) The advances in vaccination. 2) The quality and scope of fiscal, credit, and exchange rate policies. 3) The financing capacity of these policies. 4) The reaction of the private sector. 5) The ability to reinvent the economy. 6) The recovery of per-capita income to pre-crisis values.
In the case of Bolivia, the analysis of each of these factors does not fuel optimism.
- The main instrument for economic recovery is in the health area. The higher the vaccination rate, the faster it returns to normal and, therefore, the faster economic growth returns. In Bolivia, the population vaccinated with two doses is around 3%. Immunization programs are very slow and disorganized, mainly due to the lack of vaccines. Here the Government failed. The third wave hits the defenseless population and reveals the failure of the health policy. In this context, the economy may recover, but very slowly.
- Fiscal, credit, and exchange rate policies have been unbalanced, disjointed, and insufficient. Indeed, public spending, especially with the provision of the bonus against hunger, and public investment skyrocketed. In addition, the private sector credit payments to banks have been deferred through different instruments, as a result of which private credit is slowly recovering. Likewise, the real exchange rate remained appreciated by consuming foreign currency and promoting imports. In terms of income, it was decided to get for cigarettes (low income). For example, the Wealth Tax is much ado about nothing. The newly rich in the informal sector remains tax-free.
- The financing of these macroeconomic policies was at the expense of loss of international reserves, increased domestic debt, and growth in the public deficit. These funding sources are drying up. To cope with the starvation of resources, the general budget of the nation in 2021 foresees an external debt of 5,750 million dollars, 2,750 from international cooperation, and 3,000 from private markets. There is no significant progress on these issues. The financial constraints cast doubt on the sustainability of the Bolivian recovery in the medium and long term.
- The Government supply support policies have been weak; therefore the private sector reacts very slowly. The Government’s flagship program –import substitution– is under-resourced and is not making significant progress. There is a better response from the informal sector, especially in trade. With an appreciated real exchange rate that makes imports cheaper, much of the resources placed in the economy by the Government go abroad via the purchase of goods and services.
- The Government’s economic activation policy is based on the assumption that until 2019 everything was very well before the Añez administration, therefore, the only objective of the current economic policy is to replace the primary export model destroyed by the coup d’état mentality. No change is needed. Meanwhile, many neighboring and northern economies have taken advantage of the crisis to reinvent the future, betting on digital and energy transformation. Here we seek to reissue the old bondholder normality.
- The central closing question is to know in how long the per-capita income of Bolivia will return to the pre-pandemic levels. Several neighboring countries, such as Argentina or Peru, are estimating that they will need between four and six years to recover the pre-crisis level of wealth. Probably, in our case, we are in the same time range. So while there is light at the end of the tunnel, the candle is dim and the corridor to cover is quite long and has subtle political winds.
In sum, the recovery in the world economy is very promising, although diverse; however, in Bolivia, the Product’s reaction is also fragmented and has too many threats. Economic recovery is also hampered by political uncertainty.
Vaccines and Geopolitics
8 May 2021
Vaccines and Geopolitics
President Luis Arce has told Bolivians that the contract for the purchase of Russian vaccines against the Chinese virus cannot be disseminated because it contains a “confidentiality clause.”
The Argentine Peronists[1] agreed to something similar with the Chinese: there, too, the [vaccine] details cannot be disseminated, but it is known that in exchange for vaccines, Argentina will surrender vast territories in Patagonia for the deployment of observation bases of the Chinese Communist Party. They say that said bases would be of astronomical interest, which leads you to ponder about the size of the bill.
Bolivia’s agreement with Russia regarding the vaccines has the same degree of secrecy as the one signed by the coca grower Morales for the nuclear plant in El Alto, very close to Senkata[2], an agreement that was happily halted during the Government of Jeanine Añez.
It will have to be assumed –since the [vaccine] details are not known– that the “confidentiality [clause]” refers to what Bolivia will pay for the vaccines, either in dollars, in [Chinese] yuan or with sovereignty, that is to say, surrendering territories.
It would be naive to think that the clause refers to the delays that could occur in the delivery of vaccines by Russia, delays that are already taking place at this time and have forced the Bolivian Government to order a change in the [time] interval between the first and the second doses. The deliveries are so delayed, that the interval [between doses] will no longer be 19 days, but three months. We will have to pray that there will be no further changes as the new deadline approaches.
In that case, Bolivian citizens would remain unprotected against the Chinese virus as they have been up to now, which is perhaps not a cause for concern for the MAS[3] Government, which is much more concerned in carrying out the anxious orders of revenge that the coca grower [Evo Morales] has than in caring for people’s health.
The worst thing would be for the clause to refer to what Bolivia will surrender to Russia in exchange for vaccines. The secrecy allows us to speculate that perhaps the Russians are now choosing as if they were reading a restaurant’s menu, what to order. It would be an “à la carte” surrender.
In order to stop these speculations, which are already widespread among Bolivians, the MAS Government would have to lift the veil that hides the agreement with the Russians… and the Chinese.
The people need to know what the price of this agreement is. And if it involves surrendering territories, it would be appropriate to submit this issue to a referendum, clarifying that, this time, the MAS [Government] must respect the result and not invent hoaxes like those invented for 21-F[4].
[1]“Definition of Peronism: the political, economic, and social principles and policies associated with[former President of Argentina, Juan] Peron and his regime and usually regarded as fascist.” Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Peronism.Visited on 9 June 2021.
[2] Senkata: Senkata is an area of El Alto, the second most populated city in Bolivia according to the 2012 census. It is located south of the city in District 8. Source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senkata.Visited on 9 June 2021.
[3] MAS – Movement towards Socialism: The Movement towards Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (MAS-IPSP) is a Bolivian socialist political party founded in 1997 and led by Evo Morales. The MAS-IPSP has ruled Bolivia since 2006, following its first victory in the December 2005 elections, with a single interruption during the 2019 political crisis. Source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movimiento_al_Socialismo_(Bolivia). Visited on 9 June 2021.
[4] The 2016 Bolivian constitutional referendum was held on Sunday, February 21st of that year. The objective of that referendum was the approval or rejection of the constitutional modification project to allow the president or vice-president of the Bolivian State (who at that time were Evo Morales and Alvaro Garcia) to run for reelection in an election. The “No” option won with a total of 51.30% of the votes, while the “Yes” option obtained 48.70% of the remaining votes. Source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refer%C3%A9ndum_constitucional_de_Bolivia_de_2016. Visited on 9 June 2021.
* Translator’s note: All footnotes are introduced by the translator in order to help clarify unfamiliar terms.
Source:
THE “PITITAS”, THE BEST OF 2019
28 December 2019
THE “PITITAS”, THE BEST OF 2019
Its content is very comprehensive, as it would have acquired a plurality of connotations such as: freedom, resistance, rebellion, emancipation, organization, union, integration, etc. Due to its effects, it also reached a highly philosophical content, without prejudice to what those who have been displaced from power think and interpret, for whom, given the trauma and their pain, it could be synonymous with a coup d’état.
Who would say, some harmless and innocent pititas, managed to put an end to a disgraceful regime. The creator of its impact, Evo Morales himself, surely must endure terrible sufferings when that magnificent word and its meanings echo in his ears, which he paradoxically coined himself. Not to mention his militancy. Perhaps they will ask, in “safeguarding their human rights”, to withdraw the word, pita from the Dictionary of the Royal Academic of the Spanish Language, because of the suffering and torture that hearing it causes them.
The anthology speech made by Morales in Cochabamba on Thursday, October 24, four days after the intense conflict began, triggered, 17 days later, the dictator’s departure. The word pititas quickly became the symbol of resistance, to later crystallize into an emblem, to which Bolivians will surely resort to, whenever a ruler, be it from the left or the right, tries to impose abuses, whims, or arbitrariness. For Bolivians, this emblem is today, the greatest expression of participatory democracy, given the intrinsic limitations of representative democracy and the ballot box.
Now, with the pititas, we can be subjects and first-rate actors in crucial political decisions. From now on, the pititas will not only become the best safeguard against bad governments, but also the demand for good governments. It will also be instituted as a latent threat, in the face of any iniquity or evil slip. This lesson would have to be very well learned by the political class. They should never forget that the rebellion of the Pititas put an end to an abominable regime, with claims of eternal power.
As almost everything in political life has its paradoxes, the author of the meaning and connotations of the term, ended up being the main victim; like, according to legend, Guillotin, inventor of the guillotine. Morales must curse that hour in which, in an ironic and burlesque tone, ridiculing the pititas, he offered to give workshops and seminars on how to block efficiently. Suddenly, if he hadn’t spilled those words, “… I’ve been surprised, now two, three people tying up threads”, he would probably still be in power. The truth is that those words encouraged and inflamed the rebellion uncontrollably. Those who speak of a coup, by the way, do nothing more than highlight their acute levels of mental retardation.
Now, in terms of its multiple connotations, the term expresses freedom, that freedom of the sovereign and his own will, to act against situations and laws that repel reason. It also denotes resistance, in terms of active and defensive reaction, against despotism and injustice. Likewise, it enunciates rebellion, that is, the public uprising against the abusive regime, with the intention of overthrowing it. Among its various meanings, it also expresses emancipation, that action of freeing oneself from servitude, subordination, or dependence. It also manifests organization, as the main force of political action in the streets. Without organization, we would not have had this outcome. Also, among its various connotations, it shows the union, beyond the differences of class, origin, or race. That was seen in the roundabouts and street corners. Likewise, it expresses integration, in this case regional, between East and West.
Notice, then, the qualities of the senses that the term acquired. It undoubtedly keeps an extraordinary potency. In historical terms, it would have been great to gather the thousands of pititas, perhaps millions, that were “tied up” throughout the country and place them in a museum, as a sample, for the next generations, of the force of their meaning and the unwavering struggle of Bolivians in defense of democracy.
Thus, this crystallized emblem is the most important of 2019. It marks a milestone in the history of our rugged democracy. It also leaves many lessons to the general public, and, fundamentally, to the political class, who should never lose sight of the meaning and meanings that the term acquired.
Those pititas can be reactivated at any time.
Source: https://www.lostiempos.com/actualidad/opinion/20191228/columna/pititas-mejor-2019
