For the former chancellor of administration of Jeanine Añez, the current president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, “enters dangerous ground” with the arrest of the ex-president by interim and of some of his former ministers.
“The idea that it could be moderate management, dialogue, is buried,” Karen Longaric, 63, told Folha de La Paz, which is not on the list of prison orders ordered by Bolivian justice.
Emeritus professor of international law at the University Mayor de San Andrés, she says she has received anonymous threats and does not intend to return to politics.
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How do you assess the arrest of former president Jeanine Añez? I am very worried for the Bolivian people who are once again witnessing an arbitrary gesture on the part of the MAS [Movimento ao Socialismo, partido do ex-presidente Evo Morales e de Luis Arce]. The arrest is a demonstration of political persecution and an advance by the executive against the institutions. Public prosecutors and the judiciary are used mercilessly to serve the objectives of this government.
Fortunately, we have the demonstration on our behalf for Brazil, the European Union and other international organizations. We appreciate that the government of President Bolsonaro has shown solidarity and we know that we are counting on the solidarity of all truly democratic governments.
Do you think President Luis Arce is involved? Obviously, the MAS leadership weakens and destroys the independence of the institutions. There is no project of stability in Mr. Arce’s plan, as he promised in his campaign speech. Rather, the project of implementing the system of 21st century socialism in Bolivia.
Bolivians want to live in peace, with clear rules and independent justice, not in a government for that purpose.
The construction of Luis Arce’s candidacy was based on the idea that one had to present oneself as a moderate, different from Morales, but this idea that it could be a question of moderate management, of dialogue, is buried.
It is strange that in the Añez administration Evo Morales was denounced for terrorism, and now that the MAS has returned to power, this charge has been dropped and the former president is accused of sedition, at first, and of terrorism. Are the alleged crimes different? They are completely different. Our government intended to punish crimes proven to be linked to a terrorist campaign. There is evidence presented for this process and we regret that it fell. It is very different now to blame ex-President Añez for a sui generis legal figure, that of an alleged crime, while she was still a senator, for allegedly articulating to take power.
We must remember that Añez did not take the lead in this process. The Legislative Assembly itself, the majority of which was MAS, decided to annul the election after evidence of fraud. Subsequently, there were several requests to resign from Morales, social organizations, the Ombudsman’s Office, due to the violence unleashed in the streets, and resulted at the suggestion of the armed forces. There was no coup, there was fraud. And those who decided to cancel the election were the parliamentarians of the MAS, not Añez.
Then, the question of succession was decided by consensus in the legislative sphere and then ratified by the Constitutional Court. So there is no crime.
Do you and your political group see a reaction to what is happening in Bolivia? I have no reason to react because I am not part of a political party, I do not intend to return to politics. I think that as a former employee of this government and as a citizen, Arce is entering dangerous ground, advancing against the institutions.
I never knew about them [o MAS] have something against me, but if I am called to justice, I will respond by showing that my time in government has been transparent, with a view to peace and institutionality in Bolivia. In addition, my idea is to continue my academic life, which is my natural territory of activity.
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Karen Logaric, 63
Chancellor under the interim government of Jeanine Añez, she is a diplomat, professor emeritus of international law at the University Mayor de San Andrés (Bolivia), where she graduated in the region, and a doctorate in economics from the University of La Habana (Cuba))