MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian Government backtracks on controversial bill

The decision was made “after attempts to destabilize the country,” said Prada.

Bolivia's Minister of the Presidency María Nela Prada Thursday announced the Government had decided to withdraw the Bill Against the Legitimation of Illicit Profits in a move to avoid further confrontation among fellow nationals, following nationwide demonstrations against the initiative earlier this week.

“After attempts to destabilize the country by some groups based on disinformation campaigns, it was decided to withdraw the bill against the legitimization of illicit profits,” Prada told the media.

She insisted the decision had been made “in order not to give rise to destabilization, violence and confrontation.”

The opposition considered the announcement was as a “triumph” of the citizenry that the bill against the Legitimization of Illicit Profits, Financing of Terrorism and Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction or unconventional has been nulled.

The decision was also made amid threats of new mobilizations were made by the opposition, according to Prada. President Luis Arce and former President Evo Morales had said the popular protests were a “failed coup” d'etat.

Deputy Carlos Alarcón said the decision was a “hard setback” for the Government. “It is a great triumph of the mobilized people of the unionists, transporters, miners, professional businessmen and all citizens who have expressed their overwhelming rejection of this law that sought to violate the rights and guarantees of Bolivian citizens,” he said.

Santa Cruz Governor Fernando Camacho pointed out that had the Parliamentary debate gone on any citizen “could be arbitrarily investigated and deprived of his property.”

“A NEW TRIUMPH OF THE PEOPLE The mobilized Bolivian people forced the government of Luis Arce to withdraw from the legislative agency another authoritarian law of the masismo (from the ruling party's acronym in Spanish: MAS - Movement Towards Socialism).”

Former President Jorge Tuto Quiroga said the events were a “thunderous failure” for the MAS. “A resounding failure of the MASist attempt to criminalize informality, expropriate small property and turn our society into 'snitches.' We don't feel like being a Cuban colony, or a Venezuelan dictatorship; we will be a sovereign, free and democratic #Bolivia (sic),” he said.

Most opposition sectors were upping the ante with a 48-strike ahead if Arce's government had insisted on having that bill passed in Congress.