Bolivia: Radiography of horror | Opinion

There is no doubt that what happened in Sacaba and Senkata (photo, alarm clock in El Alto) they were massacres, he underlined Patricia Tappatá Vásquez, spokesperson for Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) the one ordered by the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights investigated the raging violence in Bolivia between September and November 2019.

The conclusion was already known but said in the mouth of an impartial arbitrator ended up breaking the chain of lies who had covered the sad events. After the Sacaba massacre at the entrance to the city of Cochabamba, then Minister of the Government and today condemned in the United States for corruption, Arturo Murillo, I specify that the demonstrators had shot at each other

And days later in Senkata, Murillo said protesters wanted to blow up the area’s hydrocarbon plant.

Press stroke

Two insults to human intelligence. Offenses that were approved by the coup press. For example, Page 7 He titled November 19, the day of the Senkata massacre: “Like Evo, they are trying to set fire to the Senkata factory in El Alto”, while Los Tiempos put a very long title: “Peat used firearms and tried to blow up the Senkata factory, according to a confidential report of the armed forces” But this text was not written in full coup d’état but on July 30, 2021 with the sole aim of mitigating the GIEI report which was about to be read.

The TV channels are not left out either. Network One from the Kuljis group which made a lot of money in the Evo government titled: “Minister of Defense: The army did not fire a single projectile”.

In the midst of police persecution, the cadres of ATB, the oldest private television station in the country, were imprisoned or had to go into exile. Marcelo injured, chairman of the channel’s board of directors, said: “The journalists who ran the channel in our absence they forbade talking about massacres in Senkata and Sacaba and they indicated that it was necessary to speak of confrontation ”.

Racism and persecution

In short, those who were killed in the massacres were killed by bullets from soldiers in uniform and also by the coup press.

But the GIEI report is clear and speaks not only of massacres but also of extrajudicial executions, i.e. murders, and sexual violence against women detainees who were forced to undress and were groped by men in uniform.

AND all tinged with racism and persecution of citizens for the simple fact of having indigenous traits.

Experts add that there is no evidence of a confrontation or that there was a will or intention to detonate the Senkata factory.

The center-right misses the train

It was natural for the far right to speak out in forums and defend the government of Jeanine Añez, ultimately Luis Fernando Camacho put ministers and officials. But the strange thing is that Carlos mesa and his own will join him.

To avoid the judgment of responsibilities that would correspond to Añez and company, the former vice-president of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, conditions the vote of its magistracy that justice is first restructured. Something which is necessary and which was recommended by the GIEI itself, but which would take a considerable time, especially since it would require a referendum.

The approach is very risky because with it Mesa could lose part of the middle class which considers that there have been excesses in the repression of the de facto government.

One cannot help but wonder where was the vice-president who, in the name of humanism, broke with his government because he refused to kill? Of course, with this break, Mesa himself was called a replacement card.

“Necessary massacres”

Today it seems that Senkata or Sacaba’s deaths are worth less or that at least part of the messism believes that the massacres were necessary

Behind this line would be hiding who was Mesa’s press advisor, Raul Peñaranda, that in his article of the compilation published by the newspaper Page 7, “The revolution of the pititas”, which emerged in the midst of Jeanine’s dictatorship, says:

“… The MAS received another message: the government was unwilling to give in and would use force even openly, to avoid his downfall and the return of Morales. For this, he approved a DS (decree) which granted immunity to the military for their actions. The examples of Senkata and Sacaba, although they inflamed the supporters of Morales, they also intimidated them ”.

The massacres were the product of racist hatred and the desire to intimidate the population which opposed the departure of Evo Morales. For the analyst Pamela Portillo he was a clear example of state terrorism: “They wanted to touch the psyche of social movements with the message: if you go out and demonstrate, we will kill you. They went so far as to gasify the march which led to the coffins of the victims ”.

Neither Carlos Mesa nor members of his party denounced the killings. Portillo thinks that: “Hatred of masismo prevailed and particularly towards Evo Morales. Previously, Mesa had vetoed any MAS member to replace the native president, allowing Jeanine to enter power illegally. “

Polarization

By seeking to postpone the trial of Añez until the Greek calends, Carlos Mesa leaves Bolivia without a center and further polarizes Bolivian politics. His red circle is nice but … even before the publication of a poll by the company Q Social Now, a majority said they agreed or strongly agreed to prosecute Jeanine Añez and her accomplices.

The survey indicates that 25.4% would strongly agree, 20.6% agree and only 14.6% and 14.1% strongly against.

After the horror x-ray that was the GIEI report, it is certain that these figures have increased in favor of those who consider that the time for justice, for truth and for remembrance has come.