February 8, 2023, 7:15 PM
February 8, 2023, 7:15 PM
Scandal in the Chamber of Deputies. Representatives Samantha Nogales and Mayra Zalles, both from CC, denounced their colleagues, Celia Salazar Quispe and Miriam Martínez Michaga, both of the MAS, for attending the sessions of the Chamber of Deputies in an inconvenient state. According to the complaint, the two defendants disappeared from the chamber to avoid breathalyzer tests.
The Lower House was in session to approve a $60 million IDB loan. The Minister of Planning, Sergio Cusicanqui, was present in the chamber.
Deputy Nogales requested the floor and denounced that the two MAS deputies were obviously drunk. Then, support staff accompanied both parliamentarians to leave the chamber.
“We have requested the President of the Chamber of Deputies a breathalyzer test is done and the test is not being carried outwe do not know where the deputies are, they have been removed from the chamber and we are on alert because it is a lack of respect for the Chamber and the Bolivian people who entrusted the parliamentary vote,” the deputy later said at a press conference.
The session continued until the approval of the loan. Once the Minister of Planning left the chamber, Deputy Nogales once again requested that the list of attendees be called and it was possible to verify that the denounced deputies were no longer in the room. Celia Salazar Quispe and Miriam Martínez Michaga are MAS deputies for Oruro.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Jerjes Mercado, took note of the complaint indicating that the two deputies were not found. As he explained, they asked for a 90 minute license and for that reason they were not present at the second call on the list.
“The deputies enjoy the inviolability of their mandate and I cannot, in my capacity as president, expel or prohibit entry or forcefully submit to this type of study (alcoholemia)make the corresponding complaint and go to the Ethics Commission, ”Mercado told the deputies who denounced the irregularity.
Nogales recalled that article 10 of the debate regulations of the Chamber prohibit parliamentarians from attending sessions while intoxicated and provides for a sanction of three to five months. The complainant parliamentarians requested the footage from the chamber’s security cameras to prove their accusation against their colleagues.
