January 26, 2023, 4:00 AM
January 26, 2023, 4:00 AM
Unlike the previous two councils, with which a “timely and transparent” census was called for, the one last night did not approve deadlines to carry out strikes and other protests. This time, the order was for the government of President Luis Arce to release “political prisoners” and the reform of the judicial system, described as “corrupt”, is underway.
In time to question “the abuses of central power” and, particularly of the Police, the president of the Committee for Santa Cruz, Rómulo Calvo, asked six questions to those attending the town hallgathered at the foot of the Cristo Redentor monument.
“Does everyone agree to demand the government of Luis Arce to instruct and make possible the approval of an amnesty law for a period of no more than 30 days that determines the release of Luis Fernando Camacho and all political prisoners in Bolivia?” indicates the first part of the fifth question. And he continued: “In case of non-compliance, do you all agree to commit to actively promote a constitutional process to revoke the mandate of President Luis Arce Catacora from next May, for constituting your government a dictatorial and anti-democratic regime? The answer was a “yes”.
According to the Political Constitution of the State, the revocation of mandateas well as any other citizen legislative initiative, is launched with the explicit support of 20% of the electoral roll. In this case, 1.5 million signatures are required to promote this citizen consultation. In addition, for the process to proceed, more than half of the mandate of the elected authority to be revoked must have elapsed.
With backup refrains, attendees demanded the release of Governor Camachor, who has been incarcerated since December 30, 2022 in the Chonchocoro maximum security prison. He arrived there after a violent operation carried out by hooded police officers. After that, he was transferred to La Paz by helicopter with a technical stop at the Chimoré base.
“This council is for the freedom of each one of us and that is personified in the unacceptable, illegal and abusive kidnapping and imprisonment of our current governor, who personified the country’s fight against the biggest electoral fraud in the history of Bolivia, he did it as president of the Committee for Santa Cruz, as a citizen he led the everyone’s fight for democracy”, said Rómulo Calvo.
The Government and organizations related to MAS They accuse Camacho of being part of an alleged “coup d’état” in 2019 and they ignored the OAS report with which Evo Morales was accused of setting up a fraud to be re-elected for the fourth time in a row, a prerogative that is not recognized by the Constitution, but that was endorsed by the Constitutional Court.
The Second Constitutional Chamber of Sucre rejected this week a popular action filed by the deputy Marcelo Pedraza (CC) so that the Bolivian judicial system adopts the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Justice (IDH Court) with which it sentences that “Indefinite presidential re-election is not a human right.”
In the council and regarding the judicial system, Calvo went into a tailspin against the Government, which he described as “criminal and abusive”. In this context, questions three and four were formulated. “Do you agree to participate in the collection of signatures, so that, through a referendum, a partial reform of the Constitution is demanded that allows judges and prosecutors to be honest citizens and you try?”, indicates the third question that was asked last night.
Yesterday the collection of signatures began throughout the country to validate a referendum that allows this constitutional adjustment. The citizen initiative was raised by the group of independent jurists who even proposed four questions to partially modify the Carta Marga.
The Chairman of the Committee considered that, given the deadlines, a core part of the initiative can only be applied in the next judicial mandatel and not before the elections for magistrates that will take place in November. Thus, he posed the fourth question “Do you agree with giving the mandate to the Departmental Brigade so that, within the framework of the Political Constitution of the State, present a law to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly that allows the departmental legislative assemblies to prepare and approve regional shortlists to shortlist candidates for magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice, Agro-environmental Tribunal and advisers of the Council of the Magistracy?”, pointed out the civic.
Under the current system of selection and election of magistrates of high courts of the Judicial Branch, the Legislative Assembly, controlled by the MAS, approves the candidacies on the basis of political criteria and not meritocratic. The reform aims to change this procedure, but also to improve the judicial budget.
Calvo delivered the bill to Deputy Walthy Égüez, from Creemos, founded precisely by Governor Camacho.
With the first two questions, last night the council handed over to the president of the Departmental Legislative Assembly, Zvonko Matkoviv, two bills. First, gives life to the “Departmental Guard”, an entity that, according to the proposal, “will ensure public safety and the tranquility of the people of Santa Cruz.” The civic leader presented several videos showing attacks against the demonstrators who came out to protest after Camacho’s capture on December 28.
“We are not safe with this criminal and corrupt police. The greatest source of insecurity comes precisely from these police officers who hate Santa Cruz,” Calvo said during the presentation of the issues that thousands of attendees were asked about.
The other departmental bill Matkovic received is for lthe creation of a Departmental Ombudsman, an entity, according to the criteria of the leaders, which must ensure the rights and freedoms of Santa Cruz. The proposal, according to the leader, does not violate the constitutional powers of the autonomous regime.
The sixth and last question was to require the political leaders of Opposition to working on a “unity” project to confront the MAS in the next national elections of 2025.
“May this become the daily agenda. We have a commitment and a demand. On the buses and on the networks. We want a single candidacy to defeat the dictatorship. A single candidacy to recover freedom and restore peace and justice. This is the new war cry that has been born in this town hall and it is called unity, ”he complemented before thousands of attendees.
In the rest of the country, with themes specific to each region, thousands of people approved an agenda linked to the change in the judicial system and democracy. In Oruro, supporters of the MAS staged a sit-in to prevent the council from installing itself. The march of the activists had to change route and denounced violence.
The Ministry of Government, through a statement, reported five injuries after “an attack” of those attending the town hall yesterday.
“There is a right that tries to teach usto us, who have defended not only now, but it has been a permanent fight, the defense of democracy,” President Luis Arce responded.
The right, said the president, “wants to fly the flag of democracyWoe to freedom, which belongs to the people, for their destabilizing efforts,” he added at a national mining congress that was held in Tarija.
On Tuesday, in Buenos Aires, on the stage of the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), Arce asked that “attacks on institutions that cannot be tolerated” be condemnedr”, alluding to the protests that were repressed by the Police between December 28 and the first week of this year.
The Minister of Justice, Iván Lima, questioned the amnesty because, as he said, it will affect compliance with the recommendations made by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) on the 2019 crisis.
