At the request of the government of Luis Arce and the previous government of Evo Morales, several international organizations such as the OAS, the European Union, the Catholic Church, the GIEI, the UN, the IACHR, and, more recently, the United States, have corroborated the monumental fraud of late 2019 and the fact that, in Bolivia, there is no rule of law.
The Executive and Legislative Power in the hands of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) has subjected the judiciary.
Recently, an audio document was leaked -among many others that have put either Arce’s government, his party, or Evo Morales in trouble- which reveals how at least nine legislators, MAS leaders, and even a governor held meetings to appoint judges in the country in November 2021.
In this recording, Marvin Molina, president of the Magistrates Council, is heard asking for unity between Morales’ followers and Arce’s supporters to face the judicial elections of 2023 to control the Supreme Court of Justice and the Plurinational Constitutional Court.
Molina’s initial reaction to the audio was denial. He said that it had been taken out of context, that the only thing that had happened in that meeting had been questions and comments without any bad intention, and that the audio could be interpreted as if there was a national campaign for the appointment of judges, “but nothing to do with it”.
Moreover, the demand from members of the Magistrature, opposition legislators, and members of MAS itself for Molina to resign only succeeded in getting him to acknowledge having made a mistake that he does not point out and to ask for “a thousand apologies for it”, but he did not resign.
After growing pressure from different fronts, Marvin Molina presented his resignation to the presidency of the Magistrates Council this Wednesday, but he did not resign as councilor.
However, as early as this Thursday, 468 transitional judges running for the position of judges decided to withdraw their nominations in search of institutional credibility as long as Molina does not entirely resign from his functions within 24 hours.
MORALES RECOGNIZES HIS RESPONSIBILITY IN THE HOTEL DE LAS AMÉRICAS RAID
On his side, while trying to remain in force and not go unnoticed with concrete issues as serious as the quotas of positions in the Judiciary, Evo Morales has demanded an investigation in this regard and has also said from his social networks:
“The allegations of corruption, drug trafficking, and quotas of positions in the judiciary harm our government led by the brothers Lucho and David. But some ministers, instead of managing and fighting against corruption, are dedicated to persecuting the MAS-IPSP leadership”.
And he added: “I regret very much that the Ministry of Justice becomes a parallel prosecutor’s office to manipulate politically. It tried to cover up the corruption in ABC and is doing the same with the denunciation of quotas in the justice system. But against MAS-IPSP, he uses false letters to try to proscribe us”.
However, Morales remains in force also because of other even more serious problems with which he would not like to be involved because they affect him directly and exacerbate the impotence he exudes in his agonizing political decline.
The coca growers’ leader knows that Arce has decided not to proscribe him, or at least not yet.
That is why he has had the nerve, and also in a haughty and arrogant tone, to reaffirm his responsibility for the operation of the Las Americas hotel in 2009, where the forces of the Plurinational State, under orders of Morales himself, tortured and extrajudicially executed foreign and Bolivian mercenaries.
Morales has recently said about the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) report: “In the face of so many attacks and lies, we have the right to tell the truth and clarify.
I do not regret having defended the integrity of our homeland. If necessary, we would do it again. Whatever the cost. Let them prosecute us if that is why we will be prosecuted”.
One more fact of manipulation and interference in Justice in Bolivia has been exposed, among hundreds of others that have been denounced, but what is even more serious is that in the face of the permanent denunciations of this type of crime, we also see the permanent impunity of all those who share the MAS religion, regardless of the seriousness of the crime, and even though the party is more divided than ever.
With information from Gaceta