Yolanda Mamani Cayo / La Paz
After disagreements and complaints of “political and psychological harassment”, the mayor of El Alto, Eva Copa, and the Minister of Government, Eduardo del Castillo, appeared together and smiling at an official act for the delivery of materials to the Police. Likewise, the head of the Government has held more than 10 meetings to date with social organizations of the Unity Pact and other groups of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS).
In the photos that the authority shares on its networks, it appears smiling and surrounded by leaders and in its messages it informs that they are coordination meetings.
In the high
“Minutes ago, together with Mayor Eva Copa, we delivered supplies and material for our Bolivian Police! El Alto on its feet… never on its knees!” Del Castillo posted on January 27, after participating in the act of handing over supplies to the Police.
On her side, the mayor of El Alto, also through her networks, highlighted the act and the presence of Del Castillo: “As public servants, the mandate of the people is to coordinate actions with the national government, which is why I appreciate the participation of the Ministry of Government and the police command in the act of delivery of these teams.
The history between the two authorities has varied nuances since the last years of the last legislative administration, 2019 and 2020, coincided in the Senate. When Copa assumed the presidency of the Upper House, he denounced Del Castillo for “political and psychological harassment.” Copa fired him from the position of senior official in the Senate, a position he held when Adriana Salvatierra was running the Senate.
Until May 2021, Copa insisted on the lawsuit, indicating that its complaint was paralyzed in the Prosecutor’s Office. After that date, Copa sought to meet with Del Castillo to discuss security issues in the city of El Alto.
with organizations
Del Castillo, in the midst of his busy schedule as Government Minister, since January 19 -according to his publications in his cattle accounts- holds rapprochement meetings with different leaders of the Unity Pact and other groups related to the blue party. He also met with the head of the MAS caucus Gualberto Arispe and with former president Evo Morales.
“We met with various social sectors from the department of La Paz, from the COD (Central Obrera Departamental), Ponchos Rojos and Polleras Rojas, and with representatives of the Quechua nation to coordinate work agendas,” says Del Castillo on his Twitter account. of January 25.
Photo: Eduardo del Castillo
The authority also met with leaders of the intercultural, indigenous from the east, COD, neighborhood councils and self-convened from El Alto, with the Popular Civic Committee, Human Rights, all related to the blue party. He also held meetings with parliamentary commissions and with the former president and coca grower leader of the Chapare, Evo Morales.
But these approaches are not well seen by the leadership of the Single Trade Union Confederation of Rural Workers of Bolivia. The leader Omar Ramírez said that these meetings are unilateral and they convene them “as if they were pongos”, to seek support for “exchange of privileges”.
Del Castillo was one of the ministers of President Luis Arce most closely watched by the MAS social organizations themselves, which on more than one occasion publicly asked the president to dismiss him and replace him with a figure such as Juan Ramón Quintana, former minister of the Presidency of Evo Morales.
