OAS rejects Argentina’s allegations of involvement in alleged coup in Bolivia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Amid controversy over the arrests of Jeanine Áñez and 5 of her ministers, the Organization of American States (OAS) on Monday, March 15th, rejected Argentina’s allegations of having been involved in an alleged coup against ex-president Evo Morales.

“Since the OAS was the only multilateral organization to argue that the ex-president’s constitutional mandate should be respected and that all institutions should act in accordance with the Constitution, the utter untruth of any accusation against the Organization of having been involved in a coup is clear,” the international body said in a statement.

Regarding the elections held in 2019, the OAS assures that the electoral authority was undermined. It denounces “significant changes in the composition of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), as well as in its internal structure.”

“It is important to note as a background to the resignations of the TSE magistrates the countless pressures they suffered in the context of this election. On November 21st, 2018, in the weeks prior to defining the qualification or disqualification of registered candidates for the primaries, the members (Dunia) Costas and (Antonio) Sandoval had lodged a complaint before the Public Defender in which they claimed that they had been intimidated and requested guarantees for the exercise of their duties. On November 25th, 2018, both members also lodged a request for precautionary measures before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR),” the OAS states.

The organization also denounces a “fraudulent stoppage of the Preliminary Results Transmission System (TREP).” It alleges that this was done intentionally, arbitrarily and without any technical basis to justify such stoppage. This was done when 83.76% of the polling stations had been audited and disclosed, out of the 89.34% that had already been reported and stored in the TREP system, according to the OAS.

In the statement the OAS also pointed out that during the election day, clandestine servers were used, to which TREP data was intentionally diverted. In addition, there was manipulation and concealment regarding the use of these servers.

“The auditing company’s controls were intentionally circumvented and the traffic was redirected to a network that was outside the domain, administration, control and monitoring of the TSE officials. The parallel and uncontrolled technological scheme that was deliberately created enabled an environment that allowed data manipulation, record tampering or any other scheme, helped by the volatility of the digital evidence,” the OAS denounces in its statement.

In addition to the above, there was undue remote access to the system, access to the system by unauthorized persons, submission of false information and a deliberate attempt to conceal servers.

The OAS also denounces that there was a fraudulent and irregular filling of ballot forms that affected their computation. According to the investigation conducted, out of a sample of 4,692 ballots examined, 226 had been manipulated. There was also the destruction of sensitive electoral material.

The OAS also points out that the TREP image metadata, which determines the authenticity of the images and the identification of the file source, was not preserved.

Among other complaints made by the Organization of American States are: unexplained and unauthorized entries to the system, modifications on more than one occasion of the Official Computing software during the process, modification of databases.

The OAS warns that there was no adequate preservation of the electoral evidence, nor guarantees in the chain of custody of the electoral material.

Finally, the OAS denounces that “original (unfilled) ballots were found in the TSE’s facilities” and that “authentication for the use of the computer system software was poor and allowed anyone to take control through administrative roles.”

On the other hand, Argentina’s Foreign Minister Felipe Solá described the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, as “completely immoral” and held him responsible for the coup he says Evo Morales suffered in 2019.

“He is completely immoral (…) who places himself under the orders of the strongest, under the orders of Donald Trump (at that time US president), betrays all his political history and mandates,” he said about Almagro and his “contribution” to the “coup d’état” in Bolivia.

Morales was forced to resign from the Presidency of Bolivia on November 10th, 2019 and has always accused the OAS and Almagro of supporting “the coup d’état machinery” after the report on that year’s elections, which were nullified due to allegations of fraud against him.

The ex-president of Bolivia lived for almost 11 months in Argentina, from where he directed the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) campaign through which Luis Arce won the presidency last October.

The ties between Argentina and Bolivia go back to the governments of Evo Morales (2006-2019) and Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and his wife and widow Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2007-2015) and now they renew this alliance with Luis Arce.

The Argentine Minister, speaking to a Bolivian TV channel on Thursday night, also lashed out against the transitional government of Jeanine Áñez, with whom Argentina had no relations, and said that “she governed with hatred.” Solá further said that at the inauguration of the President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, on March 1st, 2020 in Montevideo, he refused to greet the then acting Foreign Minister of Bolivia, Karen Longaric, because his country’s government did not recognize her as such, and neither did he greet Almagro because it would be “shameful” for him.

Foreign Minister Solá arrived in La Paz, seat of the Government and Parliament, on Wednesday night and began his official agenda on Thursday with meetings with his Bolivian counterpart, Rogelio Mayta, the Vice President, David Choquehuanca, and the President of the country, Luis Arce, in which they discussed several matters.

During his visit, the Argentine Foreign Minister expressed his country’s commitment for Bolivia to become a full member of MERCOSUR and said that the issue is expected to be discussed at the regional bloc’s summit on March 26th in Buenos Aires. Solá, who was also decorated with the Legion of Honor Mariscal Andrés de Santa Cruz, in the Grand Cross rank, will return to his country on Friday.

Source: infobae