Between the threat of the dictatorial regime and hope
Next Sunday, October 18, Bolivian society will decide by means of general elections on the appointment of the president, vice president, 36 senators and 130 deputies, who are elected by simple majority or by proportional system.
In the case of the president and vice president, they must reach more than 50% of the validly cast votes or a minimum of 40% with a difference of 10% against the second most voted candidate, so that it is not necessary to hold a second round of elections between the two most voted candidates.
The announcement of these elections was made 7 hours before his resignation by former president Evo Morales on November 10, 2019 and was ratified by interim president Jeanine Áñez ten days later by a bill, which called for elections and completely renewed the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).
This electoral process does not end with a formal election in which the people elect new authorities, because they are the product of a political crisis in which a coup d'état ends up being perpetrated in November 2019, with the participation of the Organization of American States (OAS), a body used by the United States as an instrument of manipulation of the countries of the rest of the continent, and with Luis Almagro at the head of the tasks that legitimize destabilization and the subsequent coup d'état. So much so that the great majority of the countries of the international community have not recognized the interim government as legitimate and demanded that the electoral process be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the laws of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, immediately restoring the rule of law and fully respecting the human and civil rights of all inhabitants.
These elections are not the result of a negotiated solution to the conflict. On the contrary, they were the result first of the destabilizing action promoted by the Bolivian oligarchy and then of the breakdown of peaceful coexistence where the bullying of the racist and exclusionary interim government irresponsibly placed all the people of Bolivia in a confrontation, which had a high cost in human lives and which did not escalate further thanks to the assertiveness and capacity of the Movement to Socialism (MAS) to understand that differences should be resolved in democratic elections and that the violent ones should not be played.
In this pre-electoral environment, Bolivia is increasingly close to a military regime. All the actions of interim President Añez have been characterized by their authoritarian form, with widespread abuses against human rights, including restrictions on freedom of expression and arbitrary arrests, promoting terror in the population in the face of the irruption in the streets of fascist, racist, macho and class violence, delaying elections, with cases of corruption in her team and a disastrous management of the pandemic, which has further deepened the deep political, social and economic division of the country and the public distrust of its institutions.
Talking about Bolivia implies understanding a country that had a change in its own conception as a nation of nations in the 13 years and nine months that Evo Morales was in the Presidency (during three terms). Bolivia will always have a before and after of Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of the country, who carried out the indigenous refoundation of the country, integrating a delayed majority in their economic, social and political rights.
During his presidency, Bolivia ceased to define itself as a republic and became a "Plurinational State" in which the different peoples live together with equal rights. This historical fact is an example for many other Latin American countries, where indigenous peoples have been marginalized and their cultures disrespected.
Evo Morales made a difference that was reflected in the development and well-being of his country. When he first won the presidency in 2006, according to ECLAC, 80% of Bolivians lived in poverty and 60% in misery, making it the poorest country in Latin America after Haiti. When he left in 2019 the situation had been reversed, poverty was already 35% and misery 10%, the minimum wage had risen 500% and many industries had been created; health and education were free and universal. The Bolivian indigenous people regained their rights and when they walk on the sidewalk and a white person comes along, they don't have to go down to the street.
During the governments of Evo Morales, the economy of Bolivia grew on average around 4.9 % per year (according to World Bank data) and welfare also reached the population through many social programs, such as the creation of a minimum pension for all Bolivians (where citizens over 60 years old receive a monthly payment of around two hundred dollars), generated economic incentives to avoid school failure and aid to reduce maternal and infant mortality, contributing to alleviate poverty among those social groups especially marginalized.
Humanists have always accompanied the process carried out by MAS, being aware that the social revolution we are aiming at passes through the seizure of political power to carry out the transformations in question, but the seizure of power is not an objective in itself. Evidently, the humanizing dimension of the Bolivian political process has contributed to break with a corrupt historical dynamic of marginalization and poverty and gave voice to those who did not have it, allowing inclusion, reducing inequality and redistributing wealth in a more equitable way.
Evidently Bolivia has been hit by imperialist and oligarchic policies that seek to recover its lost spaces and be able to do business with the enormous mineral resources that the country has, such as the lithium reserves that are geopolitically strategic resources. Now more than ever, Bolivia needs a new economic engine, particularly one based on green energy that uses sustainable lithium extraction technologies.
Luis Arce, is a presidential candidate for the Movement Towards Socialism - Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (MAS-IPSP). He was the Minister of Economy and Public Finances of Bolivia during twelve years of the government of Evo Morales and he is the one who must take charge so that the setback suffered by democracy with the coup d'état does not happen again, for that it will be necessary to work on the strengthening of an institutionality that goes through the respect of the Constitution.
There are many pending political tasks, such as the strengthening of democracy and its institutions and reducing the historic distrust of Bolivians in their political institutions. This requires reforming the judicial system by strengthening its independence and solving problems of efficiency in the State, reducing spaces for corruption, making progress in overcoming the historical difficulties of the patriarchal culture and recognizing the rights of sexual diversity, and working on the economic side to achieve greater added value in the exploitation of energy resources in order to invest in improving education and health systems.
Finally, we must denounce that the current electoral process is plagued by threats and manipulations of all kinds. The current regime seeks to prevent the voting of Bolivians abroad, especially in countries like Argentina and Chile where MAS can make a good difference in their votes.
There are threats that the armed forces, police, and irregular paramilitary groups will be mobilized, in case MAS tries to expose some fraud by mobilizing in the streets.
This has placed the Bolivian people in a situation of uncertainty and fear for the events that may occur, even a self-coup would not be ruled out.
For all the above reasons, from the International Coordination of the Federation of Humanist Parties, we denounce the state violence that accompanies the electoral process and we give our decided support to the Movement towards Socialism (MAS), as the only option that the Bolivian people have in these circumstances to get out of the dictatorship that has subjected them.
Coordination Team International Humanist Party