LA PAZ, Bolivia – Terrorism rates against former Bolivian President Evo Morales appear to be politically motivated and part of a broader crusade across Bolivia’s interim government to use justice against political opponents, Human Rights Watch said Friday.
The human rights organization has published a report alleging violations of judicial proceedings, adding unfounded fees and arbitrary use of pre-trial detention, after Interim President Jeanine Ooez took force after Morales’ dismissal in November 2019. administration, the organization said.
The report arrives as Bolivia prepares for an October 18 vote that has been delayed while the country’s fitness formula deals with the coronavirus pandemic. A Bolivian court prevented Morales from running for a Senate seat in elections, but his Movement to Socialism still controls Congress.
After 14 years in power, Bolivia’s first indigenous president resigned under pressure from the army and police on November 10, 2019, amid widespread protests and riots, claiming he was fraudulently seeking re-election. Morales went into exile, first in Mexico and then in Argentina.
Officials from the interim Bolivian government alleged that Morales, following the riots that persist after his resignation, had told them in a phone call that fans deserve to surround the cities to prevent food materials from reaching residents.
“The Attorney General’s workplace has the right to investigate, however, this (from Morales) is not a terrorist act,” said César Muoz, editor of the Human Rights Watch report and the group’s principal investigator for the Americas.
“Morales is a victim of the judicial weakening he himself has initiated,” Muoz said.
Human Rights Watch said its report on alleged political interference in Bolivia’s justice formula was largely based on interviews with officials and others across the country in February, as well as on the review of police reports, court decisions and other judicial records.
Bolivia’s interim government did not comment without delay on the report of Human Rights Watch, which in the past said that some Morales-appointed judges and prosecutors were still running for it.
On Wednesday, the leading prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Bolivia had asked him to investigate whether Evo Morales and his supporters had committed crimes against humanity in August by setting up barricades to prevent Bolivians from accessing important fitness services during the pandemic.
Referral of a case through Bolivian leaders does not automatically generate an investigation through the global court based in The Hague, but it means that if prosecutor Fatou Bensouda makes the decision to open a formal investigation, she does not want to seek permission from the court first. . Judges.
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