MAS and Narcos Push to Oust Paz | MAS y Narcos Buscan Tumbar a Paz

By Germaine Barriga, Vision 360:

Convulsion

Government Denounces That Evo Morales and Drug Trafficking Are Behind the Plan for Paz’s Resignation

Presidential spokesman José Luis Gálvez said that the top leaders of the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), the Túpac Katari Departmental Federation of Peasants, and substitute senator Nilton Condori are part of the plan.

El Gobierno nacional denuncia un "plan macabro" del expresidente Evo Morales, que busca la renuncia del presidente, Rodrigo Paz, financiado por el narcotráfico. Foto Urgente.bo

The national government denounced a “macabre plan” by former president Evo Morales, allegedly seeking the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz, financed by drug trafficking. Photo: Urgente.bo

The national government denounced this Thursday the existence of a “macabre plan, conceived, operated, and financed from the Chapare,” under the command of former president Evo Morales, aimed at forcing the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz by generating social conflicts financed with resources coming from drug trafficking.

At a press conference, presidential spokesman José Luis Gálvez addressed the social unrest taking place in the country for the past 13 days, including the declaration of an indefinite strike by the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) and road blockades that left the seat of government isolated. Later, a march by Morales’ party was added, along with the arrival in the capital of rural teachers and mining cooperatives, who today led a violent day of protests.

He recalled that, amid the conflict, COB executive secretary Mario Argollo and the leader of the La Paz Departmental Federation of Peasants Túpac Katari, Vicente Salazar, signed an agreement that set aside sectoral demands and turned their backs on dialogue in order to unite around a single objective: the resignation of the president. Substitute senator Nilton Condori also joined the effort. Gálvez claimed these were “corrupt leaders” who are “functional” to Morales’ political interests.

He assured that “drug trafficking financing is behind these leaders” and then stated that Bolivia faces one of its greatest historical challenges: “To definitively eliminate the tentacles of drug trafficking and its international criminal networks that were sheltered by previous governments for many years. Honestly, this is the real struggle we face today,” he added.

In that context, he stated that these “dark forces” want to destabilize democracy. “The social demands presented to us during these weeks have largely been addressed according to reality. However, there are leaders who insist on remaining in the streets and promoting blockades and marches that only seek to break the constitutional order,” he said.

The spokesman assured that this “macabre plan” will fail and said Bolivians must know that the struggle is against those powers and “forces of evil that receive money from drug trafficking and use terrorist tools to generate mobilizations, blockades, and violent methods to seize power by force.”

Referring to the agreement among the three figures, he said the Bolivian population witnessed a pact not to engage in dialogue and not to solve the problems the leaders claim to represent.

“What interests are they responding to? What financing is behind this? What do they propose? What is the alternative? To return to the same model they used for 245 months and that failed? Why are they not honest with the country?” he asked.

He said it is not the workers marching or the peasants carrying out blockades who “have received dark financing,” but rather the leaders. Therefore, he urged rank-and-file protesters to ask their leaders about the origin of the money financing the protests. “It is time they render accounts to the Bolivian people,” he declared.

He also referred to the deaths caused by the road blockades and asserted that the number has risen to three: Ana Enz, a 56-year-old woman from Bélice; Nelly Villanueva, from the town of Guanay; and a 20-year-old woman who could not receive medical attention. “These are new victims of Evo Morales and drug trafficking,” he concluded.

Gálvez insisted that there are politicians in the country seeking to seize by force what they did not win at the ballot box and reiterated that the underlying struggle for Bolivians is against drug trafficking. He announced that the Executive Branch will use “all its constitutional powers” to prevent this from happening.

“A thousand mobilized people arriving from the Chapare, no matter how much money they brought, cannot decide by force the destiny of our country, breaking what millions of Bolivians decided through voting and the ballot box,” he warned, before announcing that those who conspire against democracy and make deals with drug trafficking “will have to face the consequences of their decisions before justice.”

The presidential spokesman also announced that efforts to clear blocked roads have already begun, although he clarified that the government still believes dialogue is the mechanism for resolving the country’s conflicts.

“We are still working with teachers, peasants, healthcare workers, and others; whenever we have sat down to work together, we have found and built solutions. What is the common denominator among these sectors? They came with legitimate demands and their intentions were not political,” he said.

Finally, the spokesman announced that the government will use all its prerogatives to prevent drug trafficking from achieving its objective of attacking Bolivian democracy.

“The government is the guarantee we have of a democratic regime and it will exercise all its constitutional prerogatives to ensure that drug trafficking does not take over the country by force. We will not yield in this struggle because we are on the right side of history. Bolivia will not live kidnapped by politicians from the Chapare who, in alliance with drug trafficking, want to seize power by force,” he affirmed.

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