Bolivia: Magical Realism

BOLIVIA

Magical Realism

One has to hand it to Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia for the past 13 years.

The country’s 2009 constitution, which Morales created in order to achieve his style of left-wing Latin American politics, states that presidents cannot serve more than two consecutive terms. The people even voted to retain those term limits in a 2016 referendum.

And yet, he’s still here.

That’s because in 2017, the country’s top court tossed the results of the referendum, a ruling that echoed its decision to allow Morales to run for a third term in 2014. Now Morales is on the ballot for a fourth term in October.

“Such imperial hubris, plus a host of other democracy-bending rules Morales forged on his watch, would leave less stolid supremos vulnerable,” wrote Bloomberg, referring to Brazilian, Ecuadoran, Venezuelan and other left-wing leaders in the region who have fallen from power or preside over instability.

Yet regional leaders appear eager to work with Morales, the first indigenous person to lead the country. He’s also predicted to win reelection handily.

The president of Paraguay recently visited La Paz to ink commercial deals and ballyhoo Bolivia’s growing role in the South American economy, reported MercoPress.

Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer lamented how Organization of American States chief Luis Almagro, who is seeking re-election as secretary-general next year, appeared to be currying favor with Morales despite the latter’s mixed human rights record. “He is propping up a dictatorship in Bolivia,” Oppenheimer wrote.

Human rights activists accused Morales of failing to prosecute the brutal military dictators who ran the South American country from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. A corrupt justice system, violence against women, harassment of human rights defenders and child labor are other violations that Morales has been unable to check.

“I’ve suffered discrimination since birth,” domestic abuse survivor Maria Luque told the Associated Press. “My mom was very poor and she escaped violence. For some, (violence) might be normal, but we want to show that it shouldn’t be that way.”

Unfortunately, Luque has little chance of finding redress in the courts. Judges are a big problem in Bolivia, argued Human Rights Watch. That’s because Morales and his Movement for Socialism political party exert inordinate control over them.

In other words, the same judges who won’t help Luque have rigged the election for the guy who owns them.

Authoritarians create their own realities.