Interim Bolivian President Jeanine Añez agreed to withdraw the military from protest areas and repeal a law giving them broad discretion in the use of force as part of a preliminary “pacification” deal struck early on Sunday with protest leaders. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesAn election where the biggest left-wing party is having its members arrested and tortured, is not a true election.
Nov 25th, 2019 - 04:02 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Are they? This seems like a very positive sign, if the interim government keep their promises. Ending impunity for the army, freeing the arrested protesters and protecting social leaders and lawmakers are necessary for the country to move back towards democracy, and now they have the chance.
Nov 25th, 2019 - 05:45 pm - Link - Report abuse -2F87
Nov 25th, 2019 - 08:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Absolutely. The coup was done by the police, which did not act to protect Evo Morales' government officials when their homes, families and themselves were attacked and torched by groups of thugs, and by the military, which asked Evo to go and then deployed to gas and shot Evo's demonstrators.
Now that the golpistas control the state, are they going to move back towards democracy?, as DT seems to sincerely believe?
Not a chance in hell.
Why d'you think the 'golpistas' made this agreement then? I doubt they want a civil war, and they probably want to keep/gain the support of the OAS and EU... in the UK even the right-wing papers have criticised them, which shows they went way too far. Maybe they decided doing the right thing was actually their best chance of staying in power - before all this happened they weren't so very far behind in the polls.
Nov 25th, 2019 - 09:37 pm - Link - Report abuse -1At any rate, less violence and more negotiation is a good thing for Bolivia, no?
https://twitter.com/brunosgarzini/status/1199030349185134593
Nov 25th, 2019 - 10:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0EM, meant to say that the things they have agreed are a necessary condition for a return to democracy, but not a sufficient one. A chance does not mean it will definitely happen, but it's better than no chance. And I said above the right was doing okay in the polls before the last election, but since then they have shown their true colours, so who knows.
Nov 26th, 2019 - 12:16 am - Link - Report abuse -1Forgetit87, it's the torture part I was wondering about, not arrests. It makes sense to put the best-known members of the opposition into jail and out of the running, but I don't think that deputy on twitter is high up in the party? I'm surprised politicians in Bolivia do not have immunity. Every other country in the region seems to offer it.
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