Bolivia’s dictator was removed but the dictatorship continues

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) With Evo Morales’ resignation, Bolivia’s dictator left but the dictatorship as the system that has eliminated all fundamental components of democracy and has supplanted the Republic, continues. The dictatorship that continues ruling Bolivia is based on a legal/constitutional structure that violates human rights, a criminal-territorial structure based on narcotics’ trafficking and an order of impunity. The Bolivian crisis today is the dictatorial oppression that has resulted in -and aggravates- the health, economic, social, and political crisis that has a continental importance as a precedent for the recovery of democracy in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

Democracy in the Americas is “a right of the peoples” in all signatory States of the Interamerican Democratic Charter who, because of this “constituting treaty”, have the obligation to meet the essential components of democracy that are “amongst others; respect for human rights and basic freedoms, access to power and its discharge subject to the rule of law; the conduct of periodic free, fair elections based on a secret vote and universal suffrage practices as an expression of the peoples’ sovereignty; to have a plurality of political parties and organizations; and the separation and independence of the branches of government”.

When Evo Morales ascended into power on 22 January of 2006, he did so in the Republic of Bolivia for a 5-year mandate without the option for continuous reelection, reason why he was supposed to turn the presidency over in January of 2011. He remained in power, however, almost 14 years until his resignation on 10 November of 2019 and he did so by eliminating the essential components of democracy and with counterfeiting, massacres, exiles, and crime, he supplanted the “Republic of Bolivia” with his “Plurinational State”, a Constitution promulgated on 7 February of 2009 -following the Castrochavist agenda- he imposed the legal framework system of the dictatorship, eliminated the rule of law, controlled all branches of the government, eliminated universal suffrage practices and built an order of corruption and impunity.

A “transitional government” has the mandate and objective of “going from dictatorship to democracy”, ending the dictatorial system and its structures to put back the Republic and the essential components of democracy. Transition is the path to recover that which was usurped by the dictatorship, giving back to the Bolivians their rights, freedoms, and basic guarantees such as the respect for human rights, force and equality before the law, adequate and impartial judges, universal vote based on the equality of all citizens, legal and personal guarantees to live once-again in a country with “predictability” and “institutionality”.

The dictatorship’s full force and effect is expressed and demonstrated by:
1.- The legal/constitutional dictatorial structure established with the Plurinational State’s constitution continues supplanting the Republic and maintaining “the branches of the dictatorship” at the National Assembly or dictatorial legislative power, the Supreme Justice Tribunal, the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal staffed with all the dictatorship’s judges, the dictatorship’s prosecutors, the Departmental Electoral Tribunals, and all dictatorial organizations that are disguised as institutions. To eliminate this structure there only has to be the acknowledgement of “the existence of the Republic of Bolivia with its Constitution of 1967/94” that is -up to now- supplanted and captive.

2.- The criminal/territorial structure setup at the Coca/Cocaine Harvesters’ Federations of which Evo Morales is their Chief and at the so-called social movements which are nothing more than groups molded to use 21st Century Socialism’s methodology, equivalent to the “Collectives” (sic: thugs) from Venezuela. Criminal groups that commit crimes of; intimidation, road blockages, destruction of property, assassinations, extortions, and more, with whom Morales -as he has publicly confessed- produced multiple massacres to subject the Bolivian people since October of 2003. The latest was in November of 2019 with recorded/documented proof of his involvement and recent road/street blockages that resulted in dozens of dead. The restitution of the “rule of law” and the return of the “fight against narcotics’ trafficking as a policy of the government” signal the dismantling of this scourge.

3.- An order of impunity generated and sustained by the dictatorship’s legal/constitutional structure protects the criminal/territorial structure. The dictatorship’s criminals know they will not be punished, they are above the law and if necessary, they make sure “despicable laws” are legislated so they can have impunity. Evo Morales is the symbol of impunity due to his being sheltered by Amnesty Decrees for the massacres he produced in 2003, again sheltered for his electoral fraud of 2019, and once again sheltered for the massacres in November of 2019, covered by the “Political Guarantees’ Law” approved and passed by his dictatorial legislative following said massacres. By using his prosecutors and judges, he has also gone unpunished for recent accusations against him for rape and carnal knowledge with minors . Impunity will stop with the Republic.

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

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