Bolivian ‘Government’ Terrorizing Opposition Lawmakers, Journalists, Morales’s Base
Nov. 18, 2019 (EIRNS)—Lest anyone dispute that a coup d’état has just occurred in Bolivia, consider that the illegitimate government imposed by allies of the City of London and Wall Street has launched a terror campaign to kill, jail, and repress any and all opposition; that includes legislators, journalists and key sectors of deposed President Evo Morales’s base. To make that possible, on Nov. 16, the illegal President Jeanine Añez Chavez first announced a decree by which the armed forces will now be exempt from any criminal prosecution for actions taken to “preserve public order,” the Bolivian Information Agency (ABI) reported.
That decree came one day after a violent confrontation in Sacaba, Cochabamba, in which military and police opened fire on an outdoor “town hall” meeting of largely indigenous “cocalero” (coca-producers), backers of Morales who were demanding, among other things, an end to military and police repression. There were 9 people killed and 153 wounded in that confrontation. Over a five-day period last week, 23 people died and hundreds more were wounded as a result of violent clashes.
The situation is such that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet—Chile’s former President—issued a statement warning that the Bolivian situation could spin out of control, due to the “unnecessary or disproportionate use of force by the police and army. I condemn these killings. This is an extremely dangerous development, as, far from quelling violence, it is likely to make it much worse,” ReliefWeb reported on Nov. 16.
Lawmakers from Morales’s MAS party control both houses of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, and thus would also control convening new elections and election of new authorities of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal which oversees all national elections. The government can’t dissolve the Assembly, so it either has to govern by decree, bypassing the legislature, or wage a terror campaign to jail, kill, or for opposition legislators into exile.
On cue, bloodthirsty Interior Minister Arturo Murillo, who has vowed to “hunt down” and try any of Morales’s former cabinet ministers or close collaborators still in the country, announced yesterday he had discovered there are MAS Senators and Deputies who are “inciting violence,” and that lists of their names, he said, were being provided by concerned citizens. In the same breath, he claimed he had detected an assassination plot against Jeanine Añez, by a “criminal group.” As reported by the daily Infobae, Murillo said he had created a special task force which will find and arrest subversive lawmakers. At the same time, according to ABI, Communications Minister Rosana Lizarraga charged there are journalists “guilty of sedition,” who will have to be punished.
