Post by scumbuster on Jan 3, 2020 20:39:31 GMT -5
Bolivia’s Morales Demands Free and Fair Elections
BUENOS AIRES – Evo Morales, who resigned the Bolivian presidency under pressure from the army, said on Tuesday that the interim government in La Paz must stop persecuting his supporters to make sure that the elections planned for 2020 will be free and fair.
“There can’t be elections without democracy,” Bolivia’s first indigenous head of state told EFE in an interview in Buenos Aires.
Morales said that while the crisis in the Andean nation can only be resolved through a “policy of reconciliation,” the prospects for such an approach appear dim in light of the actions of the de-facto regime led by right-wing Sen. Jeanine Añez.
“To say ‘Jeanine out’ is sedition and prosecution. To communicate with Evo is sedition, prosecution and search. To raise your voice to any (government) minister is sedition,” he said, referring to criminal charges brought against himself and prominent members of his leftist MAS party.
Morales, who has found asylum in Argentina, will meet next Sunday with top officials of MAS to initiate the process of choosing the party’s presidential candidate.
The erstwhile president has already excluded himself from the race, but MAS has named him to direct the campaign.
“We will issue an invitation for the national encounter, which will be in Bolivia or Argentina, and the candidate will emerge from that,” Morales said.
Contenders for the MAS presidential nomination include two former foreign ministers, Diego Pary and David Choquehuanca, and Luis Arce, who managed the economy for most of Morales’ nearly 14-year tenure.
There is also Andronico Rodriguez, a rising star in MAS known to some as “Evito” – little Evo.
Without expressing a preference, Morales said that MAS will rally behind a “unity” candidate.
Violence erupted in Bolivia a day after the Oct. 20 elections, driven by claims of fraud from the opposition. Morales, who had been in office since 2006, claimed victory, but then invited the Organization of American States (OAS) to audit the count and agreed to abide by their judgment.
On Nov. 10, hours before announcing his resignation, Morales accepted the OAS proposal for a new election. Even so, the army brass went on television to “suggest” that he step down amid a rebellion by police units and mob violence targeting the homes and persons of prominent MAS figures, including the president’s sister.
“What happened if I didn’t resign, they killed me?” Morales asked rhetorically, defending his decision to leave in order to avoid the “mutinous police” from carrying out a massacre.
He then pointed to the findings of the Bolivian Ombudsman’s Office that 35 people have died in political violence since Oct. 20, the vast majority of them being MAS supporters killed by the security forces during protests against the Añez government.
“If there’s one thing I didn’t do, it was to use the police and armed forces against the people,” Morales told EFE.
He accused the United States – which applauded his departure and has recognized Añez as interim president – of being behind the coup, saying that Washington couldn’t forgive his regime for insisting on developing Bolivia’s natural gas and lithium under state control.
Morales likewise criticized the OAS, asserting that even if its claims of voting irregularities were accurate, they would not have changed the outcome.
“If we give those votes to the opponent, we still win in the first round,” he said.
Morales and other members of his government fled Bolivia for Mexico on Nov. 11, but traveled to Argentina a month later, after a friendly leftist government took office in Buenos Aires.
Argentina’s new president, Alberto Fernandez, says he will not allow Morales or any of his associates to be extradited to Bolivia to face charges of treason and sedition brought against the former head of state by the Añez government.
Despite the threat of arrest, it is only a “matter of time” before he returns to Bolivia, Morales told EFE.
A few weeks ago, one of Evo’s most important international allies, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, denounced last month’s events in Bolivia as a coup, but added that it had been a mistake for Morales to seek a fourth consecutive term.
“Maybe it was, but it’s not that I sought it,” Morales said on Tuesday, adding that Bolivian unions and grassroots organizations asked him to run again “to continue guaranteeing economic growth” and the maintenance of the social advances achieved since 2006.
“You don’t seek office, the office seeks you.”
www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2487119&CategoryId=10718
BUENOS AIRES – Evo Morales, who resigned the Bolivian presidency under pressure from the army, said on Tuesday that the interim government in La Paz must stop persecuting his supporters to make sure that the elections planned for 2020 will be free and fair.
“There can’t be elections without democracy,” Bolivia’s first indigenous head of state told EFE in an interview in Buenos Aires.
Morales said that while the crisis in the Andean nation can only be resolved through a “policy of reconciliation,” the prospects for such an approach appear dim in light of the actions of the de-facto regime led by right-wing Sen. Jeanine Añez.
“To say ‘Jeanine out’ is sedition and prosecution. To communicate with Evo is sedition, prosecution and search. To raise your voice to any (government) minister is sedition,” he said, referring to criminal charges brought against himself and prominent members of his leftist MAS party.
Morales, who has found asylum in Argentina, will meet next Sunday with top officials of MAS to initiate the process of choosing the party’s presidential candidate.
The erstwhile president has already excluded himself from the race, but MAS has named him to direct the campaign.
“We will issue an invitation for the national encounter, which will be in Bolivia or Argentina, and the candidate will emerge from that,” Morales said.
Contenders for the MAS presidential nomination include two former foreign ministers, Diego Pary and David Choquehuanca, and Luis Arce, who managed the economy for most of Morales’ nearly 14-year tenure.
There is also Andronico Rodriguez, a rising star in MAS known to some as “Evito” – little Evo.
Without expressing a preference, Morales said that MAS will rally behind a “unity” candidate.
Violence erupted in Bolivia a day after the Oct. 20 elections, driven by claims of fraud from the opposition. Morales, who had been in office since 2006, claimed victory, but then invited the Organization of American States (OAS) to audit the count and agreed to abide by their judgment.
On Nov. 10, hours before announcing his resignation, Morales accepted the OAS proposal for a new election. Even so, the army brass went on television to “suggest” that he step down amid a rebellion by police units and mob violence targeting the homes and persons of prominent MAS figures, including the president’s sister.
“What happened if I didn’t resign, they killed me?” Morales asked rhetorically, defending his decision to leave in order to avoid the “mutinous police” from carrying out a massacre.
He then pointed to the findings of the Bolivian Ombudsman’s Office that 35 people have died in political violence since Oct. 20, the vast majority of them being MAS supporters killed by the security forces during protests against the Añez government.
“If there’s one thing I didn’t do, it was to use the police and armed forces against the people,” Morales told EFE.
He accused the United States – which applauded his departure and has recognized Añez as interim president – of being behind the coup, saying that Washington couldn’t forgive his regime for insisting on developing Bolivia’s natural gas and lithium under state control.
Morales likewise criticized the OAS, asserting that even if its claims of voting irregularities were accurate, they would not have changed the outcome.
“If we give those votes to the opponent, we still win in the first round,” he said.
Morales and other members of his government fled Bolivia for Mexico on Nov. 11, but traveled to Argentina a month later, after a friendly leftist government took office in Buenos Aires.
Argentina’s new president, Alberto Fernandez, says he will not allow Morales or any of his associates to be extradited to Bolivia to face charges of treason and sedition brought against the former head of state by the Añez government.
Despite the threat of arrest, it is only a “matter of time” before he returns to Bolivia, Morales told EFE.
A few weeks ago, one of Evo’s most important international allies, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, denounced last month’s events in Bolivia as a coup, but added that it had been a mistake for Morales to seek a fourth consecutive term.
“Maybe it was, but it’s not that I sought it,” Morales said on Tuesday, adding that Bolivian unions and grassroots organizations asked him to run again “to continue guaranteeing economic growth” and the maintenance of the social advances achieved since 2006.
“You don’t seek office, the office seeks you.”
www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2487119&CategoryId=10718