The president of Bolivia, the leftist Luis Arce, celebrates this Monday one year of government in the midst of enormous polarization. The president had serious difficulties to present the report of his administration, amid the boos and whistles of the opposition parliamentarians. In addition, a coalition of opposition forces and unions began an indefinite strike against a law approved months ago by the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS), the majority in the Legislative Assembly. The strike began to be noticed especially in Santa Cruz, in the east of the country.
Among the organizers of the indefinite strike are the regional civic committees, which played a leading role in the overthrow of President Evo Morales, head of MAS, on November 10, 2019. But the sector that occupies the first line is that of the “trade unions ”, Which are the informal traders who distribute imported merchandise legally or illegally in hundreds of markets throughout the country. Some unions of transporters and doctors have also joined, confronted with the MAS governments for years. The latter will not stop working.
The “unions” and their allies demand the repeal of a law that establishes a “strategy against the legitimation of illicit profits and the financing of terrorism.” This norm incorporates changes in the Penal Code and the approval of other specific laws to improve the fight against money laundering. Entrepreneurs in the informal economy oppose their bank accounts and transactions being investigated more freely and extensively. This has also been expressed by the mining cooperatives, which have a lot of mobilization power, but which until now have remained outside the conflict.
Regular businessmen are also sympathetic to this stance. Some argue that the imposition of more controls and the expansion of the powers of researchers will increase the insecurity of investments and commercial and business work, while the political opposition accuses the Government of wanting to use the new laws to “increase the political persecution ”.
The mainstream media have amplified the suspicions of the opposition, whose more radical groups claim that Arce is taking a “dictatorial” course and that he is following in the footsteps of the socialist governments of Venezuela and Cuba. As a result, doubts about the government’s strategy against money laundering have become widespread and are expressed above all in the middle classes, which are antagonists of the Government, but also in the popular sectors, traditional voters of the MAS.
“Law 1386 violates several constitutional precepts, violates private property and empowers the State to intervene, on suspicion, bank accounts and personal communications, and open proceedings against any citizen, all outside the law,” published the Government of Santa Cruz, led by Luis Fernando Camacho, the main leader of the protests that preceded the overthrow of Evo Morales two years ago. “In the hands of the masista government it is one more weapon to pressure and persecute those of us who do not kneel before his authoritarian regime ”, the publication adds.
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Government technicians have made an effort to deny these accusations. They point out that their intention has been to update the legislation against financial crimes, so that Bolivia is not observed and sanctioned by the international organizations that are in charge of combating them. They assure that it will not affect the unions or the transporters, since it is directed against criminals who take advantage of the financial system and legal economic activities to legitimize the results of their misdeeds. And it does not authorize the interception of telephone calls.
President Arce tweeted that unemployment affects the economy and economic reactivation. “We have been rebuilding the economy in unity for a year and the right wing is afraid of that unity of the Bolivian people. Bolivia does not stop! ” And he posted images of the resolutions of the unions that decided to ignore the call to strike.
This Monday, while Santa Cruz was quite affected by the strike and street blockades, La Paz, El Alto and other cities in the west of the country carried out their activities normally, although there were some blockades and marches. Some analysts believe that it is not a good time for the opposition to take such a drastic and difficult to maintain measure, at a time when the majority of the population needs to work to recover from the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.
Arce presented the report of his one-year tenure in the Legislative Assembly while the opposition parliamentarians used whistles and booed him, while the ruling party applauded and shouted slogans favorable to the Government. The noise made it difficult to hear the Bolivian president. It is not the first session of its kind to take place in the Assembly. Last weekend there was a brawl between the opposition representatives over the election of directors. And on August 6, Arce’s speech for the national ephemeris was delivered loudly and amid constant interruptions.
The MAS also called on its supporters to take to the streets to prevent the destabilization of the government by the “coup forces,” as the civic committees are called. In addition, he planned to mobilize this November 10, when the second anniversary of the fall of Morales is celebrated, after a strike with the same characteristics as the current one, but against an alleged official fraud in the 2019 elections. towards the most tense and polarized days since Arce began his government promising to achieve the reconciliation of Bolivians.
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