Anti-government protests return to the streets in Bolivia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A number of civil organizations and opposition political parties in Bolivia on Thursday protested in several of the country’s cities to oppose the dismissal of the court case declaring that no fraud was committed in the October 2019 elections won by ex-president Evo Morales.

In La Paz, the rally will convene outside the headquarters of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly’s new building, but there will also be demonstrations in Cochabamba, Sucre, Potosí, Tarija, Oruro and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, according to local media.

“The people in general are summoned by activists, platforms that want to express to the government that they will not allow their rights to be violated, that they do not want to lose their freedom, that they do not want to be subjected to a government of terrorism, persecution, pain, death, which they are seeking to implement,” said the Pro Santa Cruz Committee’s president Rómulo Calvo.

In 2019 a social and political crisis was unleashed after the October 20 general elections in Bolivia. After then president Evo Morales was accused of electoral fraud by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the country’s political opposition, civil protests erupted over three weeks until on November 10 the Bolivian Armed Forces commander-in-chief Williams Kaliman suggested the head of state should step down.

Morales did so and on November 11 Senator Jeanine Áñez assumed the Presidency, which would trigger another wave of social demonstrations against the new government.

On November 15, in the course of military interventions aimed at controlling the protests, 11 civilians died and 120 others were wounded in Sacaba (Cochabamba). On November 19, in Senkata (El Alto), another 11 civilians were killed and 78 wounded. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) described these events as massacres.