LA PAZ, Bolivia: Bolivia’s President Evo Morales claimed on Sunday his political rivals were preparing to overthrow him next week as strike action and protests against his controversial re-election continued.
It was the second time in five days that the leader has warned of a coup, and it comes after Bolivia’s electoral court declared him the winner of last Sunday’s poll over his nearest challenger, Carlos Mesa.
The court said Morales had won with 47.1 percent compared to 36.5 percent for Mesa — narrowly giving him the 10-point margin he needed to win outright without a runoff.
But a sudden and unexplained change in the ballot count Monday had boosted his advantage, leading the election court’s own vice president to resign in protest.
Speaking from the rural village of Vila Vila, Morales warned that “various sectors of society... are preparing for a coup d’etat next week.”
Mesa called for a strike on Monday to protest what he said was a fraudulent election.
“All of us have to be determined, without any hesitation, to go out into the street to show that we don’t accept fraud,” Mesa said to a crowd of about 500, speaking in a church in San Miguel, an affluent neighborhood in southern La Paz.
Meanwhile, a powerful farmers’ union announced plans to block roads on Monday “in defense of the indigenous vote” to support Morales.
Foreign powers including the European Union and the United States have called for a second round of voting, while the Organization of American States (OAS) expressed its “surprise” and “concern” over the sudden vote shift.
The Washington-based OAS is planning an audit of the results.
Mesa, a former president backed by a collective of centrist and right-wing parties, has rejected the official tally, calling it “a breach of the popular will.”
The poll triggered a week of violent protests, with rival supporters clashing with security forces and each other in La Paz and elsewhere.
Mesa has called on his supporters to maintain their street protests.
Thousands of demonstrators blocked streets in major cities around the country on Saturday, erecting barricades and waving the red, yellow and green Bolivian flag.
Morales urged those who accuse him of fraud to provide evidence.
“We aren’t hiding anything, we aren’t lying,” he said on Saturday.
Morales had said earlier that he would be happy to contest a second round — and do so “the next day” — if anyone provided evidence of fraud.
His candidacy was itself a scandal. The Bolivian constitution limits a president to two successive terms, but this was Morales’s fourth election victory.
Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Morales lost a referendum in 2016 in which he tried to remove term limits from the constitution, but a year later the Constitutional Court authorized him to stand for a fourth term.
The court, like the election tribunal, is made up of members appointed by Morales’s Movement for Socialism party.
As things stand, Morales — already the longest-serving leader in Latin America, will continue to lead his country until 2025.
Bolivia president Morales says rivals preparing ‘coup’
Bolivia president Morales says rivals preparing ‘coup’
- The court said Morales had won with 47.1 percent compared to 36.5 percent for Mesa
- Mesa called for a strike on Monday to protest what he said was a fraudulent election
Venezuela to debate historic amnesty bill for political prisoners
- Venezuela could pass a landmark bill on Thursday granting amnesty to political prisoners, marking an early milestone in the transition from the rule of toppled leader Nicolas Maduro
CARACAS:Venezuela could pass a landmark bill on Thursday granting amnesty to political prisoners, marking an early milestone in the transition from the rule of toppled leader Nicolas Maduro.
The legislation, which covers charges used to lock up dissidents under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez, aims to turn the page on nearly three decades of state repression.
It was spearheaded by interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who replaced Maduro after he was captured by US forces in Caracas last month and flown to New York to face trial.
Rodriguez took Maduro’s place with the consent of US President Donald Trump, provided she does Washington’s bidding on access to Venezuelan oil and expanding democratic freedoms.
She has already started releasing political prisoners ahead of the pending amnesty. More than 400 people have been released so far, according to rights group Foro Penal, but many more are still behind bars.
Rodriguez also ordered the closure of the notorious Helicoide prison in Caracas, which has been denounced as a torture center by the opposition and activists.
Lawmakers voted last week in favor of the amnesty bill in the first of two debates.
The second debate on Thursday coincides with Youth Day in Venezuela, which is traditionally marked by protests.
Students from the Central University of Venezuela, one of the country’s largest schools and home to criticism of Chavismo, called for a rally on campus.
Venezuela’s ruling party also announced a march in the capital Caracas.
’We deserve peace’
Venezuela’s attorney general said Wednesday that the amnesty — which is meant to clear the rap sheets of hundreds of people jailed for challenging the Maduro regime — must apply to both opposition and government figures.
He urged the United States to release Maduro and his wife, both in detention in New York.
“We deserve peace, and everything should be debated through dialogue,” Attorney General Tarek William Saab told AFP in an interview.
Delcy Rodriguez’s brother Jorge Rodriguez, who presides over the National Assembly, said last week that the law’s approval would trigger the release of all political prisoners.
“Once this law is approved, they will all be released the very same day,” he told prisoners’ families outside the notorious Zona 7 detention center in Caracas.
’We are all afraid’
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa was one of the detainees granted early release.
But he was re-arrested less than 12 hours later and put under house arrest.
Authorities accused him of violating his parole after calling for elections during a visit to Helicoide prison, where he joined a demonstration with the families of political prisoners.
Guanipa is a close ally of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was in hiding for over a year before she fled the country to travel to Oslo to receive the award.
“We are all afraid, but we have to keep fighting so we can speak and live in peace,” Guanipa’s son told reporters outside his home in Maracaibo.
