August 19, 2022, 2:33 PM
August 19, 2022, 2:33 PM
The bench of the alliance We believe sent a letter to the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations (UN) on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Diego Garcia-Sayan, where dthey state political persecution, intimidation and violation of political rights against opposition national assembly members by the government of the day.
“With the coming to power of President Luis Arce Catacora, persecution began (…) We senators and deputies have not escaped this reality, and despite the fact that we enjoy inviolability for our declarations communications, representations, requirements, interpellations, complaints, proposals and expressions”, reads the document to which EL DEBER had access.
The parliamentarians consider that the masismo has not ceased to censor and delegitimize the opponents’ work as part of a retaliation that is reflected, according to the complaint, in serious violations of their rights and carrying out acts of political violence, especially against women assembly members.
According to Political Constitution of the State, lThe members of the Assembly shall enjoy personal inviolability during the time of their mandate and after this, for the opinions, communications, representations, requirements, interpellations, complaints, proposals, expressions or any act of legislation, information or supervision that they formulate or carry out in the performance of their functions may not be criminally prosecuted.
However, the parliamentarians exemplified the actions in detail, issues for which there is also documentary evidence.
One of the most recent cases is that of deputy Tatiana Áñez, who wasa Prosecutor charged for the crime of serious and minor injuries to the complaint of the masista legislator Héctor Arce, who accused her of having caused a slight scratch, after a situation that arose in an embarrassing session of Parliament where the opposition assembly members were verbally and physically attacked in 2021.
Áñez was attacked in that situation and also filed a complaint, but this was not accepted but yes that of deputy Arce. Given this situation, the opposition deputy was granted precautionary measures such as presenting her to the Public Ministry every 15 days and taking custody, “which denotes an excess, lack of proportionality, So as a political dependency of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Two other cases occurred during the 48-hour departmental strike that took place in Santa Cruz on August 8 and 9. The first was that of Assemblywoman Eliana Muñoz, who was apprehended by the Police in the Plan 3000 at a blockade point near her home, a situation for which she was released due to complaints that jumped out in different media.
In this way, the police officers took away those arrested during the unblocking of Plan 3,000 on Paurito Avenue, among whom is the deputy of Creo, Haidy Eliana Muñoz, who gave birth 10 days ago. pic.twitter.com/ZzWm6vNjfw
– THE DUTY (@grupoeldeber) August 8, 2022
The second complaint of the strike was filed by deputy Moira Osinaga, who accompanied the residents of Virgen de Luján avenue during the strike, when suffered an attempted hit by an unidentified vehicle driven by masista youth leader Reynaldo Ezequiel, who later fled. The events were filmed by several citizens. Deputy Osinaga filed the respective complaint with the relevant authorities; however, to date there is no progress in the investigations of the fact.
This also details other facts such as notarized letter of injunction received the deputy Erwin Bazán so that he could send evidence of the information he had about his complaints about drug trafficking and the links between the corrupt police officers involved and drug trafficking networks, an issue for which the corresponding discharges were made, after a request for an Oral report to the Minister of Government, Eduardo del Castillo, on the cases of drug trafficking in the country’s natural parks.
The deputy José Carlos Gutiérrez also suffered an altercation in a hotel with officials from Interpol and Immigration, as well as the legislator María René Álvarez, who denounced that her office was raided by officials of the Transparency Unit of the legislative entity and the Force to Fight Crime
“Those of us who today turn to your authority as victims, are authorities elected by popular vote (…), we exercise control and supervision over government acts; however, we are prevented from fulfilling our functions normally, due to illegitimate restrictions that hinder our parliamentary work and seek to annul our Institutional Independence”, denounce the deputies.
That is why legislators They requested that the Rapporteurship objectively assess the information transferred on the violations committed by the Bolivian Government and pronounce on the matter in the corresponding reports, declarations or communications.
El denouncing these events before international organizations is to “accumulate evidence, because we are going to make a visit, to show that The possibility of generating parliamentary actions does not exist in Bolivia; that Parliament is a smoke screen because their rights are not protected,” according to Senator Centa Rek.
