Arce’s site

“Wherever we go, we will maintain our commitment to continue this work, with the firm conviction of doing independent journalism and thereby contributing to the strengthening of democracy,” wrote the journalists, workers of Página Siete, in which they headlined: The last note for our readers, leaving testimony of what they did consequently with Bolivian journalism and democracy that, among other things, is maintained because there is free thought and freedom of expression, which are essential and not necessarily the same thing.

Raúl Garafulic wrote earlier, in the same newspaper, about the difficulties he and the group of people who accompanied him had to go through to get the newspaper out on the streets every day. They rather endured!

It shouldn’t have happened, but it did. The pandemic contributed, without a doubt, but that was the small part of the problem. The rest? Well, power, which uses state money to reward and punish with publicity, which continued with its relentless practice, rewards those who write or say what they like to hear or read or, what is worse, what they are looking for. let it be said and they achieve it. When it is denounced, when it is criticized, when it is said what the power does not want to hear or that is known; that is to say, when journalism is done, there is no publicity, there is pressure by the coercive means of the State; they are placed at the service of that power that wants docility. Thus, the media are leaving.

Evil for many, comfort for fools, says the adage. It is useless to say that this happens everywhere and that other places do not close, that the written press no longer works, that technology, the internet, what, what, what. The “what” (if the term is valid) are useless. Page Seven should not have closed for the reasons that Raúl noted, it can be closed for other reasons, not because political power wins over you; that is not right.

National journalism loses a lot with this closure and it had to be written down, so that the readers, for whom it is written, said or shown, follow this “minute of silence” on Página Siete, one more that goes away, when it is so lack.

Let’s see this from Arce’s Site:

Let us agree that President Arce had no ethics or political correctness when he replaced the censured Minister of Government Eduardo del Castillo, who received 101 votes in favor of his censure, against 42 in support and 1 blank out of a total of 144 assembly members.

The constitutional practice, so little “practiced” in this country, says that the mechanism of interpellation and censorship is used with the aim of attracting attention, we could even say to warn the president for his policies in one of his ministries; in a presidential regime, the mechanism is not only constitutionally valid but also necessary; oxygenates democracy and restores its value to the first power of the State.

The president is obliged to replace the minister if censure has been reached; in no case should he make fun of the Constitution, parliament and the country itself, doing what he did; especially if he himself had sent a Bill (PL 350-22-23) that “determines the legal effects of the Censorship agreed by the ALP, within the framework of its constitutional powers”; in the text he says, in the part that interests us, it reads:

Article 3.- (Effect of Censorship).- I. Censorship has the effect of removing or dismissing the questioned minister. III. The censured minister may not be reinstated in the same position within the constitutional period.

Let’s try to understand why Luis Arce Catacora presented or sent on April 19, 2023, to Vice President Choquehuanca the bill whose text differs so radically from the decision made last Thursday; because it is not possible to be told that the law allows it because it is not true; the law says that the censured (a) must be dismissed (a), so that it can be “reinstated” immediately is a legal and formal inconsistency, and a basic political necessity; it is understood that, if the consequence of the censorship is that the citizen minister is dismissed, he or she cannot be reinstated in the same position; If not, what is the point of censorship? What’s more, this is how Luis Alberto Arce Catacora, the constitutional president of this country, understood it with PL 350/22-23, whose text, in what matters, is written above. I emphasize the term “constitutional” to understand that he owes obedience to the CPE and that making fun of it is not in his powers.

Are we going to be told that President Añez did it with 2 ministers? It is true, but immediately that happened, Mrs. Eva Copa, president of the Senate, approved a law that prohibited such a situation, forcing the dismissal and prohibition of reinstating the censured in the same or another similar position; that in 2020. The law was not promulgated by President Añez and, complying with the constitutional procedure, Mrs. Copa promulgated it as a State/Republic law.

Obviously it does not make sense to refer to the fact that the Constitutional Court annulled the “Cup” Law, because what we are refuting has to do with what was done by Arce Catacora, who acted against a project signed by him in order to make it clear that the dismissed does not return, so we are going to conclude that such nonsense is only due to desperate political incorrectness and his need to “put Evo Morales on the path.”

After the 101 votes, in an excess of 2/3 of the parliamentarians present, President Arce has felt the need to “break lances” with his political mentor, that is, the break with Evo Morales, and del Castillo is the means to reach to an end (the end of Morales, from the political field is understood).

Incorrect politics won over legality and ethics; This is the only way to understand someone acting against his own project, but that is the least of it, Arce needs del Castillo to face Morales from power and be in charge of “putting things in their place; Let’s understand, in the “Arce site”.

And what is Arce’s site? Let’s see: the president began a while ago to find a way to build his political power. Let’s see what he has to go for himself: he has the Government, he manages the State, let’s understand the institutional framework and the money (scarce but money in the end), he has control over the judicial system, although he shares it with Morales, even if it is with the latter in minority; He commands the Electoral Power, the Prosecutor’s Office and, given that he already has the Bartolinas, the COB, the Interculturales and part of the CSUTCB on his side, not counting the other social movements and even Mayors and Governors to whom the wallet Thickness and power tilt them on the side of the government. Now he goes for the party, that is, the instrument. For that, he needs Del Castillo “foking” Morales, just as he did in the reinstatement speech. You don’t need more than that from him, but, from the position.

The rest does not depend on him, but on the ability to achieve something beyond the 25 or 30% that the MAS represents at this moment in the country, and it is early for that. Arce rushed his time and Morales fell into the game; The corregidor’s horse has more air, the fugitive will lose.

Will Arce manage to consolidate, the one who understands that it is “his place”? Time will tell; intentions he has.