ALBA-TCP Secretary Sacha Llorentti condemns OAS position on Bolivia

La Paz, March 16 (RHC)-- The executive secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), Sacha Llorentti, said that the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, has no moral authority to offer advice to the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

On his Twitter account, Llorentti said: "Almagro has no moral authority to give his opinion on what is happening in Bolivia.  The peoples of our America know that he is responsible for the coup d'état, accomplice of the massacres and that he supported the de facto government in Bolivia."

Llorentti referred to the issue after the OAS General Secretariat issued a statement on the apprehension and subsequent preventive detention of former coup President Jeanine Áñez; former Minister of Energy, Rodrigo Guzmán; and former Minister of Justice and Institutional Transparency, Álvaro Coímbra, for committing the crimes of sedition, conspiracy and terrorism.  In the statement, the OAS calls for the release of the coup authorities.

Two years ago, the OAS published a preliminary report in which it questioned the transparency of the presidential elections in Bolivia.  This situation provoked mobilizations in different sectors of the country, a political crisis and the resignation of then president Evo Morales.

On October 18, 2020, when Luis Arce won with 55.11% of the valid votes as candidate of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), the regime of Jeanine Áñez came to an end, one year after Evo Morales, leader of the Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples, denounced the coup d'état.

For his part, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Freddy Mamani, recalled that former senator Jeanine Áñez violated every legislative procedure established in the Political Constitution of the State (CPE) and the Regulations of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly (ALP), to assume the presidency of the State in November 2019.

"Mrs. Áñez was not president of any of the Chambers, she was a senator, she was only the second vice-president of the Chamber of Senators.  By constitutional succession, she was not entitled to assume the office of president of the State.  In this sense, the steps that should have been taken according to our Constitution were violated," he emphasized.

Mamani explained that what corresponded in the absence of the presidents of both legislative chambers, who under threats and aggressions were forced to resign their positions, was to call a session of the ALP to proceed with the designation of a new authority, which did not happen.

"In the absence of the presidents at that time, what should be done immediately is to convene a session of the ALP, which was not done; then at this moment she (Áñez) is being judged for these crimes that this lady has committed and others that she committed together with the members of her bench at that time", highlighted the legislative authority.

In the same way, the legislator ratified that as former senator Añez does not enjoy privileges and can be judged as any other citizen, since as an elected authority she does not have immunity.

"We want to point out to the Bolivian people that Mrs. Áñez is being prosecuted as a former senator and we all know very well that elected authorities do not enjoy absolute immunity.  We who are now in office do not enjoy immunity, if at any time we commit a crime we will immediately be judged accordingly," he said.