Intervention by María Fernanda Egas at the presentation of the book “Manual to sink a country by Israel Mérida Martínez”.
A cordial greeting to all who accompany us in this presentation of this book so necessary for the historical memory of another country kidnapped by the organization of the SXXI.
It is a privilege for me to comment on the work carried out by my dear colleague Israel Mérida Martínez, since I understand his need for a chronological record to help these and future generations to remember and understand the misfortune of their homeland.
Manual to Sink a Country, assures Israel Mérida Martínez, is a chronological narration of the presidential succession of Jeanine Añez, who held the position of Vice President of the Senate Chamber when Evo Morales resigned from the presidency of Bolivia on November 12, 2019, after 21 days of civil resistance and the annulment of the presidential elections.
Although the line that leads her chronicle runs parallel to a criticism of an ethical and moral order, even citing Jesus Christ’s vision of life of service according to the Bible to relive that moment in which Jeanine Añez entered the Palace to take office holding the sacred deeds, Israel Mérida Martínez does not skimp on recalling that the mandate that fell to Añez after the people’s struggle in the streets consisted of pacifying the country, calling for new elections, politically confronting the outgoing government. And that due to personal ambitions or submission to interest groups, she hopelessly missed the road.
The Añez administration in record time did not differ much from the governments that preceded it, it was filled with allegations of corruption, nepotism, questioned economic measures, a health crisis, and the icing on the cake, its own presidential candidacy.
But the author needs to tell how Bolivia lost such a golden opportunity to get rid of the Castrochavista franchise.
Bolivia had lived 14 years of being a living laboratory of the dictatorial experiments of XXI Century Socialism. The Movement for Socialism of Evo Morales did not consider the alternation of power and had been cementing its permanence, using what Israel Mérida Martínez calls “the judicialization of politics and the politicization of justice”, abusing power to repress the opposition and all dissent, institutionalism disappeared, the rule of law, the system of checks and balances, and the entire script to perpetuate oneself in power.
Mérida Martínez writes to remind us that blood, a lot of blood, has been shed in Bolivia for freedom. It accounts for almost a hundred deaths due to sociopolitical conflicts and gives us a very important piece of information: “Before 2005 there were human rights organizations that were in charge of registering people who died during social conflicts that disappeared with the arrival of the MAS to power, and lists several confrontations that deserve to be named and that I am going to take advantage of this opportunity to mention them: (Pages 14 and 15).
2006 Confrontation between salaried miners and cooperative members in Huanuni: 12 dead and 130 wounded.
2007 La Calancha, Sucre. They demanded the restitution of the full capital: 3 dead, 130 wounded.
Cochabamba, confrontation between peasants and inhabitants of the city: 2 dead, a hundred wounded.
2008 El Porvenir, Pando: 13 dead, 53 wounded and more than 30 arrested.
2009 “Hotel Las Américas”, Santa Cruz: 3 deaths.
2010 Confrontation between residents and community members of Alto Beni and Caranaví, with police intervention: 2 dead and dozens injured.
2012 Yapacani. Community members in protest demanded the resignation of the MAS mayor. Police intervention in the conflict. Balance: 3 dead.
2013 Violent incursion into the communities of Apolo: 4 people killed.
2014 Confrontation between police and cooperative members over Mining and Metallurgy Law: 2 dead and 60 injured.
2016 Panduro. Cooperative miners and police confronted: 5 dead. Among them the Deputy Minister of the Interior Regime, Rodolfo Illanes.
2018 The Assumption. Confrontation between police and coca growers: 2 dead, dozens injured.
2019 After the presidential election, the allegations of electoral fraud and the 21 days of citizen resistance: 30 deaths and more than 200 injuries.
However, the version that Evo Morales maintains to this day is of zero deaths from conflicts arising from the process of imposing another Castro-Chavista dictatorship in Latin America.
Another historical chapter that should have been recorded for history is the Constitutional Referendum of February 21, 2016 in which Bolivia Said NO to the presidential re-election of Evo Morales, which would be his fourth term and that, however, contrary to the decision of the Bolivian people, and after a ruling by the Constitutional Court that recognized his human rights to be a presidential candidate, he ran again. And Bolivia went back to the polls. And when the dictator saw with 83% of votes counted that he should go to a second round, it was announced that the Rapid Transmission of Results system had been paralyzed.
The commotion inside and outside Bolivia was decisive. The OAS ended up carrying out an audit that concluded with a report that certified that there was fraudulent manipulation, serious irregularities in the results and in the final calculation. In good Spanish: fraud.
Evo Morales had not only lost the support of the Bolivian people. The images that can never be erased from memory, of the public force supporting the people in the streets, were reinforced with the letter from the junior officers of the Armed Forces reminding Morales of the Political Constitution of the State.
Evo Morales had lost the support of the Police and the Armed Forces.
On November 12, after 21 days of strikes, Evo Morales resigned from the presidency and traveled to Mexico. From there he would have made calls to the coca grower leader Faustino Yucra Yarwi, which were confirmed by the Institute of Technical-Scientific Research of the Police University.
Evo was condemned by the United States, the European Union, Argentina, Brazil and Great Britain. But especially, for a brave and determined civil society that, despite the violence of those who tried to blow up reserves of liquid hydrocarbons and thirty deaths, burning houses, setting fire to 64 public buses, once again said NO to Evo Morales.
The author makes his justified criticism of the management of Jeanine Añez relentlessly. Leaving Evo Morales had not been easy at all and it was his duty to set Bolivia on the path of freedom and democracy. Among Añez’s weaknesses, he considers having changed ministers like having changed socks. In one year, Ella Añez swore in 34 chief ministers and made 17 changes, ending her government with just 7 ministers from the original cabinet. She emphasizes the “little presence of professionals from the civic and citizen movement that led to the resignation of Evo Morales. He is critical of his international policy as a communication policy in which he creates fronts with international correspondents, the media and the practice of cyber patrolling in social networks during the pandemic,
Manual to Sink a Country describes step by step the mistakes that Jeanine Añez made and that ruined a historic opportunity that took a long time and cost many lives to achieve. We all know the outcome of this Bolivian tragedy, in which Jeanine Añez ends up in prison due to her own mistakes and Evo Morales regains power via Arce Catacora.
Enrique Rosenthal, quoted here, said: “A true leader does not create separation but unites people and the goal of a real and ethical politician should be to unite his people.”
Congratulations to the author for his new book.
“The opinions published here are the sole responsibility of their author.”
