Opinion: Luis Arce’s UN speech is a monument to hypocrisy

By Mauricio Ríos García

(Opinion) The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is not usually the most eagerly anticipated event of the year, nor is it the event where one spends too much time listening to the speeches of overly pompous heads of state or prime ministers who are most likely out of touch with the realities in their own countries.

There are also the meetings of the United Nations General Assembly, which have by no means gone unnoticed, such as that of Chilean President Gabriel Boric, who, after his overwhelming defeat in the last referendum, has begun, in the words of Luis Larraín, “to make speeches, thresh contentless phrases and take a series of unpredictable and arbitrary actions that do not bode well for his political future.”

Or Gustavo Petro from Colombia, who started raving that “the solution to migration is to fill the rivers with water again.”

But it is also worth highlighting the speech of Bolivian President Luis Arce, who initially extended the 15 minutes of speaking time allotted to him to 35 minutes and made 14 proposals on various aspects, ranging from the economic model he designed, which has been imposed on Bolivia since 2006, to the military spending of industrialized countries, which affects “the countries in the South of the world.”

Among the 14 proposals, however, the following stand out:

-Rebuilding the productive and economic capacities of peripheral countries affected by the inexorable logic of concentration of capitalism and the effects of Covid-19.

-The climate crisis requires responsibility and harmony between man and nature, not usury. He warned of ecological collapse.

-The industrialization of lithium for the benefit of people and a cornerstone of the energy transition. He pointed out the large reserves in Bolivia.

In other words, since Bolivia is over-indebted (82% of GDP), Arce has decided to throw a tantrum, claiming that the Plurinational State is socialist, green, pacifist, and poor.

Therefore, capitalist countries that pollute, start wars, and are rich should make up for the damage by writing off their debt and buying their lithium.

But proposals that are almost exclusively economic would be nothing without others that deal with human rights.

-Expanding the limited vision of human rights and democracy.

-Declaring the decade of “de-patriarchalization” to combat all forms of violence against women and children, especially indigenous peoples and people living in poverty.

Of course, this all sounds very good.

But Arce is really trying to show the world from the UN forum that the rule of law, separation of powers, and full respect for law and justice prevail in Bolivia.

At the same time, the former constitutional president (emblematic case), Jeanine Áñez, was illegally arrested and has been held in detention since March 13, 2021, permanently subjected to a series of violations of her rights, in a manner known only from the times of military dictatorship.

To make matters worse, Arce met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the same day, without any complexes or remorse, while unprecedented mass protests were taking place – and are still taking place – in that country against the fundamentalist Muslim regime that has subjected its people to slavery for more than 40 years, triggered by the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by Tehran police just two days earlier, simply for wearing a hijab incorrectly.

Can there be greater chutzpah and hypocrisy about human rights, the rule of law, and economics than that of Arce and his regime?

More than that, Arce’s audacity is so disproportionate that after Evo Morales (the regime to which Arce belonged) asked the Organization of American States (OAS) to produce a report on the fraud he had committed, which resulted in his resignation, flight, and abandonment of his office in 2019, he himself promised reforms to the judicial system that he did not comply with or carry out.

He also called on the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) and the United Nations itself, represented by its representative Diego García-Sayán, to assess the state of the judiciary and democracy in Bolivia, a matter that in no case had positive aspects.

In this regard, Arce is determined to do precisely the opposite of what he proposes in his country and even demands for the world.