Spain, Argentina and Bolivia against Ul’s coups d’état …

Gathered in La Paz on the occasion of Luis Arce’s inauguration as President of Bolivia, leaders, former presidents and progressive leaders from Latin America and Europe signed on Sunday the “La Paz Declaration in Defense of Democracy” and “Against the Far Right”. The initiative was promoted by the president Alberto Fernandez, his Bolivian peer, Luis Arce, and the second vice-president of the Spanish government, Pablo Iglesias, among other references.

“Today democracy is threatened and it suffices to analyze the political events of recent months in Bolivia, the host country of this declaration, to verify that the main threat to democracy and social peace in the 21st century is the far-right coup“says the document.” A global ultra-right that spreads lies and systematic defamation of adversaries as political instruments, calling for persecution and political violence in different countries, “the statement warned.

The joint declaration adds that “this anti-democratic action is reinforced where it finds at its service communicational powers which, accumulating an immense power of influence, seek to manipulate and protect democracies to defend their political and economic interests”, and puts Bolivia as “an international benchmark for the citizen response to the coup d’étatThe signatories expressed their commitment to work together “for the defense of democracy, peace, human rights and social justice in the face of the threat posed by the far-right coup.” .

The list of adherents to the declaration is completed by the former presidents of Bolivia Evo Morales, from Brazil Dilma Rousseff, from Ecuador Rafael Correa, from Spain Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Greece Alexis Tsipras. The presidential candidates of Ecuador Andrés Arauz, of Chile Daniel Jadue, of Colombia Gustavo Petro and of Peru Verónica Mendoza, as well as of Jean Luc Melenchon, leader of Francia Insumisa, and Caterina Martins, of the Esquerda bloc in Portugal, joined the call against “anti-democratic actions” in different parts of the world.

Full text of the document

La Paz Declaration

In defense of democracy

The crisis linked to the serious pandemic affecting humanity has highlighted the main weaknesses of our forms of social organization: the fragility of health systems and public services; the erosion, the result of years of neoliberalism, of the social protection mechanisms available to States; the social, economic and ecological non-sustainability of the dominant models of extraction for the exclusive benefit of companies; and, with particularly disturbing intensity, the dangers facing democratic systems around the world.

Today, democracy is threatened and it suffices to analyze the political events of recent months in Bolivia, the host country of this Declaration, to verify that the main threat to democracy and social peace in the 21st century is the coup state of the far right.

A global ultra-right that spreads lies and systematic defamation of opponents as political instruments, calling for persecution and political violence in different countries. It promotes destabilization and anti-democratic forms of access to power.

This anti-democratic action is reinforced where it finds at its service communicational powers which, accumulating an immense power of influence, intend to manipulate and protect democracies to defend their political and economic interests.

Gathered in La Paz on the occasion of Luis Arce’s inauguration as President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, a country that has become an international benchmark in the citizen response to the coup, the signatories of this declaration, the governors, former presidents and progressive leaders in our respective countries of Ibero-America and Europe, we affirm our historic commitment to work together for the defense of democracy, peace, human rights and social justice in the face of the threat posed by the far-right coup.

La Paz, Bolivia, November 8, 2020.