July 31, 2024, 11:05 PM
July 31, 2024, 11:05 PM
Again the Chamber of Deputies is the scene of physical attacks. Not even two hours had passed since the session of this Wednesday, when the opposition benches and the Evos,They demanded that President Israel Huaytari resign; but, as he did not pay attention to them, they tried to suspend him.
None of the requests were taken into account, and the only response the parliamentarian gave was an ironic laugh, so The Evistas, upset, took the head, gave Huaytari a slap and two female legislators came to blows.
Amidst the hurdles, President Huaytari He gave a one-hour recess in the courtroomsent his colleagues to dinner on the 10th floor, and left the chamber.
Meanwhile, representatives of his party denounced that the Magazines wanted to carry out a “coup d’état” against Huaytariall to prevent the approval of the bill that eliminates the primary elections.
They demand that he resign
As soon as the session was started with the verification that there was a quorum, prior to and before beginning to discuss the bills that were on the agenda, several requests arose to take the floor.
The first was the head of the Citizen Community (CC) bench, Enrique Urquidi, who asked Huaytari to resign from his position“because his presence is harmful to the institutionality, his presence is harmful to the depressed image” that the House of Representatives has. He demanded that he submit to the investigations.
“We are demanding that you step aside because you have been involved in complaints, first before the Financial Investigation Unit (UIF), for an irregular purchase and sale of vehicles and, to top it all off, Your officials have turned this institution and the infrastructure of the House of Representatives into an open bar and a place to commit a series of crimes, including rape and others,” Urquidi told Huaytari.
And so the list of speakers is It became a rosary of claims and protests against Huaytari, who did not respond or pay attention to requests to change the agenda.
Other requirements
It was not only Huaytari’s resignation. The opposition and the Evistas also They demanded that a special commission be formed to investigate the military assault of June 26, to determine whether it was really an “attempted coup” or a “self-coup” promoted by the Government itself, as the radicals of the MAS claim.
Another of the parliamentarians’ demands is that form another joint commission to investigate all allegations of: corruption, irregularities, briberyconsumption of alcoholic beverages and even a complaint of rape in the offices of that legislative body, this with the aim of making the work of Deputies transparent and stopping damaging the honor and integrity of all legislators.
In addition, CC requested that a chamber declaration is approvedin which “the recognition of Mr. Edmundo Gonzáles as the winner in the electoral process of the Republic of Venezuela is declared, since all the evidence that he is the winner has been verified.”
The request was presented by the deputy Luisa Nayar who also pointed to the president Luis Arce, because he remained as the only president in the region who supported “a dictatora tyrant who has left the people of Venezuela in misery,” in reference to Nicolás Maduro.
All these requests were not considered by Israel Huaytari, who The only thing a speaker did as soon as he finished speaking was to give the floor to the next one.This fact further irritated the parliamentarians, who accused him of not complying with the session rules.
They try to suspend Huaytari
Little by little, tempers became heated until MP Ingvar Ellefsen (CC), when he spoke, asked his colleagues to rise from their seats and, in accordance with points 13 and 14 of article 8 of the Ethics Regulations, This action would mean the suspension of Huaytari from the position of President, in protest against the various complaints against him.
“I ask the deputies to stand up, and if the majority of us stand up, he will be suspended from the Presidency. (…) the vote is to stop us and suspend him from his duties,” said Ellefsen and immediately afterwards the opposition and Evistas stood up amid the noise and protest of the rest of their colleagues.
Huaytari, who was listening attentively to his opposition colleague, smiled and said: “I’m the one directing, right? Or Ingvar is going to direct… ha ha ha“Yeah, thank you very much… time, buddy,” Huaytari said calmly, while Ellefsen continued to insist on his request and his microphone was cut off.
Next, Representative Samantha Nogales (CC), who took the floor, called Huaytari “disrespectful” because he did not even order the deputies who had stood up to be counted. “You do whatever you want, you are a mockery of the Bolivian peopleeither“I demand that you count the people standing to take into account the request of Representative Ellefsen,” Nogales ordered.
“I am directing, you have five minutes, fellow deputy,” Huaytari responded.to which Nogales said: “I think Israel Huaytari is very ashamed, because he has such deep-rooted machismo that an indigenous woman assumes the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies.”
And when he asked that Deputy Verónica Chalco assume the Presidency, Huaytari cut him off and gave him the microphone to the Arcist deputy Deysi Choque, who came to the defense of Huaytari.
“What is happening is that Officials of former presidents are boycotting their administration and they are making you look bad,” said Choque, showing a paper that, according to her, was the appointment memorandum of the official Omar Carlos M., one of those involved in the irregular events, linked to Huaytari and who would have been hired during the Freddy Mamani administration.
She was the last speaker that Huaytari allowed; he then instructed the deputy secretary to read the agenda to continue with the session. However, This upset the journalists, who were left speechless..
One of them was Congressman Gualberto Arispe, who climbed up to the head of the group, grabbed the microphone from him and demanded that he not give them the floor.
“Let him not be a dictator, let him give us all the floor and the matter will be resolved (…) Huaytari has to respect,” said Arispe, and the other Evo deputies emulated Arispe and climbed onto the head of the board and began to raise their voices. But the Arcists did not stay still and also went to support their legislator and that was when One of the deputies gave Huaytari a strong slap, and seconds later two other parliamentarians started fighting.
All that It was broadcast live on the Deputies’ website; a recess was declared, which lasted about an hour and a half, until the session could be reinstated.
But the session was moved to the old chamber of the historic building of the Legislative Assembly, where everyone met again, now with calmer spirits, resumed the session and The treatment of the first bill began which is to approve the transfer of land in a municipality of Cochabamba.
However, the deputies were not very interested in this project, since they used their speaking time to continue talking about Huaytari’s resignation, the formation of commissions to investigate irregularities, the economic crisis due to the lack of diesel, and of all the topics making the session an “open forum” which, according to the President of the House of Representatives, was going to last about 15 hours, due to the number of speakers waiting their turn to speak.
Huaytari, in a brief meeting with the press during the recess, attributed the attacks against him to a strategy by the Evo supporters to prevent the approval of the bill that suspends the Primary elections.