Ivan Arias Duran for Pagina Siete:

Amnesty now!

The national Government has been magnanimous with smugglers and common criminals, because for the former, decreed amnesty for smuggled [chutos] cars (2011) and for the latter, the treatment of a law of pardon (2012). However, it insists on denying the existence of political prisoners while Bolivians know that there are, that prisons are witnesses of the pain they suffer from dozens of people who have been deprived of their liberty by accusations, never proven, of terrorism or separatism.

Since President Evo Morales took power in 2006, dozens of opponents took refuge in Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, United States and Spain claiming the Government’s political persecution, while authorities argue that it’s people fleeing corruption processes. In this regard, the Catholic Church authorities requested amnesty for dozens of “imprisoned, exiles and political refugees” as a gesture of ‘reconciliation’, and described as “aberrant” using the justice to persecute those non-conforming with the “political project” that the country is experiencing.

The communiqué of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference (CEB) regretted that these people are “suffering because there is no guarantee of a fair trial” and by the slowness in judicial proceedings: “We let ourselves also suggest, in order to create a climate of peace in the country, to make a gesture of reconciliation, such as a pardon or amnesty in favour of those brothers”. The bishops stressed the importance of the exercise of Justice “being free of conditionalities of economic, social and political, not for impunity but to ensure impartial trials”.

They also warned that if it continues the “instrumentalization of Justice” the democratic foundations of coexistence will be crumbling “seriously” and will be screened “a negative image to the world about the validity of the rights and fundamental freedoms” in Bolivia. The CEB ensures that many people feel that their freedoms “clipped” by judicial delays, but also by “intimidation and unfair use of state coercion and the judicial apparatus”, which creates a “climate of personal insecurity caused by the silence and sometimes even abandonment of the homeland”. These people, say the bishops, feel “persecuted for expressing a dissenting thought with the political project established in the country”.

The most emblematic cases are of Leopoldo Fernández (prisoner more than five Christmas without proving anything) and the request for asylum of opposition Senator Roger Pinto, who sought refuge in the Embassy of Brazil in La Paz since last May 28 with the argument that is the victim of a “political persecution” by accusations of corruption and collusion with drug trafficking to the Government, which has rejected such denunciation.

For its part, the United Nations Organization (UN) in Bolivia also expressed concern by the number of prosecutions against opponents and constant censorship to those who think differently. “We, along with numerous voices of civil society, reaffirm our rejection of this measure and are asking for action in accordance with the existing law of printing”, they added. [the law if printing is for journalists and all media]

The recent discovery of a network of political and economic extortion is the irrefutable proof that in Bolivia the justice is at the service of political power. Jacob Ostreicher statements are striking and is for this reason that Bolivians can not stay indifferent and is our obligation to join the amnesty claim:

“I took the road less traveled. For me it was much easier to pay the extortion and move forward, but what I did is something that Bolivians are not accustomed of doing. I want the people realize that if they want their country to improve, have to fight against the extortion to the latest. This is the way in which it changes, it is the power of people to change a country. I met many innocent people in Palmasola [Santa Cruz jail] which is under the same conditions that I was and are scared. I ask respectfully to the media if there are people who are becoming victims of extortion, to listen to them”.

In 2011, I dared to write a column with the title: “Evo Presi, friend Evo: already no more hate!” in which said: “I don’t know if these short lines will ever be read once, but no matter, write them because I want to get out of me a knot that drowns me in the throat, a pain that haunts my heart.” And that knot and pain are caused by seeing how we invest time, energy, money and human capital in sowing doubts, hatred and feelings of revenge [revanchismo] (‘). Big boss, as they say to you, your minions, there is still time to redirect the process, return hope actually. Unity, justice and freedom is what we all expect. “Please do not encourage more confrontation between bolivian@s”.

Today, with solidarity for political prisoners and their families who will spend the holidays without their loved ones one more year, I come back to ask, with all my heart, forgiveness and reconciliation: Amnesty now!

http://www.paginasiete.bo/2012-12-24/Opinion/Destacados/11Opi00124-12-12-P720121224LUN.aspx

I never thought current president and his acolytes were to do any better for our country. Their political backgrounds, motivations and  socio-pathological upbringings remain as expected…