BOLIVIA, 6.25 MILLION ACRES DEVASTATED AND THE ECOCIDE CONTINUES

Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
September 23, 2019

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The indifference, tolerance, or perhaps double standard applied to Evo Morales´ crimes continues.  The coca leaf harvester´s union head who became president for five (5) years without the possibility of reelection is at the helm of Bolivian political power for 14 consecutive years and –amongst other crimes- has supplanted Bolivia´s constitution, eliminated the Republic, installed a Castroist Chavist dictatorship, ended the rule of law and the separation and independence of the branches of government.  His regime has political prisoners and exiles, has perpetrated bloody massacres, turned the country into a narco-state, promoted and sustained forest fires.  Along this path, Evo Morales´ ecocide in Bolivia continues unabated with –up to now- 6.25 million acres of forest devastated by fire.

Bolivia´s factual reality corroborates and documents the crimes Evo Morales has committed and continues to commit using the government, the same model and agenda and as an integral part of the crimes committed by the Castros´ in Cuba, Chavez/Maduro in Venezuela, and Ortega/Murillo in Nicaragua.    In Morales´ case, however, a great part of the international community and institutions, heads of State, and the press appear to ignore such crimes and the facts, and continues giving him the favorable treatment of a democratic president.

There is no difference in the conduct and criminal aftermath between Morales and the other known dictators; Castro, Chavez, Maduro, and Ortega.  The assassinations, torture, quantity of political prisoners could be greater in number in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, but in Bolivia Morales commits the same crimes that has included over 20 bloody massacres, dead, political prisoners and exiles, and thousands of persecuted.

In the narcotics´ trafficking realm, Evo Morales takes the lead.  His government has increased the cultivation of illegal coca-leaf from an existing 7,500 acres in 2003 to nearly 200,000 acres currently, including the increase by law –under the false pretense of being legal coca-leaf- from 30,000 to 55,000 acres.  Concrete and newsworthy facts such as; his breach of counternarcotic treaties, DEA´s  expulsion, the increase of cocaine production, the trafficking with Venezuela and Cuba, Morales´ speeches at the United Nations proclaiming that “the war on drugs is the imperialism´s instrument to oppress the people”, are all proof of it.

“CastroChavism is the term that describes the Transnational Organized Crime´s system that usurps political power in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.  Those who comprise it must be treated as part of the organized crime´s structure and not as politicians, let alone as dignitaries”.  Evo Morales, it turns out, is the undercover member, publicly more tolerated than the other Castroist Chavist dictatorships.  Same conditions and same crimes, yet different treatment, a double standard indeed.

The tropical forest fires in Bolivia are Morales´ most recent crime, but just as the other crimes committed they are protected by the indifference, tolerance, or double standard of the international system.  The fires that began in July were promoted by Evo Morales with;  Law 741, Supreme Decree 3973, governmental declarations, and political actions taken in order to expand the cultivation of the illegal coca-leaf, implement internal migration to change the geo-political map of the country, and to benefit the regime´s  entrepreneurs.

Besides promoting the fires, Evo Morales acts with criminal negligence because he did not activate, in a timely manner, the resources and personnel needed to control them.  He rejected much needed aid, such as the airplanes offered by Chile that the Brazilian government, instead, gladly accepted.  Morales is recalcitrant to abolish Decree 3973, he denies declaring the fires a “National Disaster”, manipulates his coca-leaf harvesters to intimidate anyone who attempts to mitigate the consequences of the ecocide and to put off the fires.   He prepares to repeat massacres in Bolivia´s eastern region by again using the fallacious argument of “secession” in order to complete the occupation of the devastated territories.

More than 6.25 million acres have been burned by the fires, there are over 50 active fires, it is estimated that “40 million trees and nearly 1,200 invertebrate animal species have been burned in ten (10) parks and natural reserves”.  To put Evo Morales´ crimes in perspective, the devastated area by the fires is over 6.26 million acres, or 9,615 square miles, an area that is larger than the State of Israel, bigger than El Salvador and double the size of the Bahamas.

*Attorney & Political Scientist.  Director of the InterAmerican Institute for Democracy.

Published in Spanish by Infobae.com Sunday, September 15, 2019

Translated from Spanish by; Edgar L. Terrazas, member of the American Translators´ Association, ATA # 234680.