The bicameral parliament of Bolivia officially endorsed, on Tuesday, January 21, the resignation of Evo Morales, presented on November 11, 2019 by the former head of state, now in exile in Argentina, one day before the official end of his mandate. , January 22.
The vote took place in a tense climate, social movements opposed to the transitional government of Jeanine Añez (conservative right) having announced, for several weeks, the resumption of mobilizations on January 22. A week earlier, in order to avoid a vacancy in power before the general elections scheduled for May 3, the Constitutional Court had validated the extension of the acting president’s mandate until the new presidential team took office.
The calls for mobilization raise fears of a renewed violence, two months almost to the day after the signing of a pacification agreement between the transitional government and the representatives of social movements which had allowed the maintenance of a precarious calm. Clashes between supporters of Mr. Morales and his opponents, after the polls on October 20, 2019, then the repression of the armed forces under the interim government, had left at least 35 dead and more than 800 injured.
Militarization
In response to announcements of mobilizations, the government of Jeanine Añez has militarized certain sectors of the country. Since January 16, contingents of soldiers and police have been patrolling large cities. An act of "Prevention" in the words of the Minister of Defense, Luis Fernando Lopez, for "Calm the population". An exceptional deployment of 70,000 personnel that ex-president Morales qualified "De facto siege state".
The mobilized sectors also intended to take advantage of January 22 to denounce the measures of a government judged "Fascist". They denounce political and judicial persecution of former members of the government and opponents of the Movement for Socialism (MAS), while, on January 8, the government announced the opening of 600 corruption investigations.
"It is a question of identifying who are the people who committed corruption offenses, embezzled public money and transferred it abroad", said Mathias Kutsch, director of the anti-corruption unit at the Ministry of Justice. Adding that the procedures are aimed " President (Evo Morales), the vice president (Alvaro Garcia), former ministers and vice-ministers, chiefs of staff " and responsible "Currently refugees abroad". Members of the government are not the only ones targeted. Civil servants, managers of public companies are also.
