The date of the Population and Housing Census has been, this time, the pretext chosen by the Bolivian right wing to try to destabilize the constitutional government of President Luis Arce, which revives the ghost of a coup d'état in the South American nation.
Photo: Página Siete
By María Josefina Arce
The date of the Population and Housing Census has been, this time, the pretext chosen by the Bolivian right wing to try to destabilize the constitutional government of President Luis Arce, which revives the ghost of a coup d'état in the South American nation.
Back at the forefront of the attacks against the authorities is the current governor of the department of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, one of the main promoters of the 2019 coup assault against the then president Evo Morales.
Scheduled for next month, the authorities decided to postpone, due to technical problems, until 2024 the census, which Camacho and his followers demand to be carried out in 2023.
Although Arce and his cabinet have at all times promoted dialogue, the governor of Santa Cruz has not shown the slightest interest in the matter. In fact, no authority from that department attended the dialogue meeting convened by the government on the 11th.
He also broke off a few hours later the talks initiated last Saturday, the day on which an indefinite strike, organized by the oligarchy and which has already claimed one mortal victim, began in this vast and rich Bolivian region.
Governors of other departments, including opponents of Arce, have joined the criticism against Camacho, who they consider wants to impose his regional point of view that impacts on the agenda of the whole country.
Bolivian social organizations described as illegal and unconstitutional the strike which costs the country 36 million dollars a day, while denouncing the actions of intimidation, racism and blows of the right-wing shock groups to impose it.
Prensa Latina news agency Prensa Latina states that reports from the state channel Bolivia TV from Tarija, Beni, Chuquisaca, La Paz and Cochabamba showed how in spite of the attempts of the forces related to the Santa Cruz elite to impose blockades, these plans failed due to the scarce convening capacity of these groups.
It is noteworthy that in the midst of this panorama of tension and when the oligarchy was preparing its destabilizing actions, the U.S. administration sent to Congress a report from the interferenceist OAS, Organization of American States, about an alleged fraud in the elections of October 2019, in which Evo Morales was reelected.
In spite of all the maneuvers of the right wing, the government of President Luis Arce maintains its willingness to dialogue, to find a solution among all, and called the different sectors for next Friday to a Plurinominal Meeting for a consensual census.
