Peasants forget complaints against the police commander and say they “coordinate tasks”

The complaints that the leadership of the Single Trade Union Confederation of Rural Workers of Bolivia (Csutcb) against the police commander, General Orlando Ponce Málaga, seem to have been left behind and this Thursday the senior peasant leadership met with the police chief to iron out the differences.

“We continue to strengthen our relationships with our brothers in the National Police. The National Executive Committee held a coordination meeting with the General Commander of the Bolivian Police, Orlando Vladimir Ponce Málaga, coordinating actions to strengthen our Plurinational State of Bolivia”, indicates a small text published by the official portal of the Csutcb.

On July 1, General Ponce accepted the position of highest authority of the Police in replacement of his predecessor, also General, Johnny Aguilera. A week later the peasant leadership denounced that Ponce had worked with the Government of Jeanine Áñez and accused him of having coordinated the loan of Ecuadorian gases to Bolivia in 2019.

The Police issued a statement in which they denied this point and said that during that administration Ponce Málaga was a police attache in Colombia. But the peasants endorsed his accusation with a memorandum of thanks and congratulations signed by the former president, Jeanine Áñez.

To iron out the differences the police summoned their detractors and asked to coordinate citizen security tasks in rural areas. This Thursday that task was fulfilled and the peasants decided to put aside the complaints they had against Ponce and attended his invitation.