Six former Latin American presidents question the OAS position on the Bolivian elections

Through a statement, six former Latin American presidents have expressed concern about the position adopted by the Organization of American States (OAS) and its secretary general, Luis Almagro, in relation to the elections called this Sunday in Bolivia.

The former president (2007-2015) and current Argentine vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the former presidents of Brazil Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016), the former president of Colombia Ernesto Samper (1994-1998 ), that of Ecuador Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and that of Honduras Manuel Zelaya (2006-2009) have signed a document in which they denounce that the OAS bears a great responsibility in the deterioration of Bolivian democracy this last year.

The document collected by the Argentine newspaper El Cronista shows that those of us who subscribe to this declaration express our grave concern about the position of the OAS and the attitude assumed by its secretary general before the next elections on October 18 in Bolivia.

The OAS electoral observation mission, made up of 40 experts and observers from 12 nationalities, began arriving in Bolivia last Saturday. It is headed by the former Foreign Minister of Costa Rica Manuel González who due to the limitations imposed by Covid-19, will be present at the meetings virtually.

The mission sent by the organization to the 2019 elections denounced a drastic and difficult to justify change in the voting trend, a statement that the signatories of the declaration have considered served as the basis for the coup against the president. Evo Morales and the constitution of the current de facto government in Bolivia.

In this sense, the OAS has been widely examined by experts and academics from various study centers and universities in the United States, who have identified that 'the change in trend' reported by the organization was not at all irregular and was due to the late entry of votes from geographic areas favorable to MAS, "the politicians have pointed out.

Given this, they have suggested that the agency should have initiated an investigation and "a process of reflection" and have denounced that Almagro has appointed the same person as head of the mission who headed the mission sent to the 2019 elections, which constitutes an "open and irresponsible provocation.

They have also reproached Almagro that instead of condemning the abuses of civil and political rights committed by the de facto government of Bolivia and the undemocratic attempts to ban the MAS and its candidates, and instead of calling for peaceful elections and rejecting the growing and worrying pre-electoral violence "has decided to underline the words of the Bolivian Interior Minister, anticipating the possibility of" a new fraud "of the MAS.

According to the letter, these actions recklessly polarize an already tense and conflictive political scene a few days before the elections. The statement is also signed by six former Foreign Ministers of Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay and El Salvador and as many members of the foreign portfolios of different countries. With the elections called for Sunday, Bolivia aspires to settle the political crisis in which it is immersed by the irregularities detected by the Organization of American States (OAS) in the presidential elections of last October 20. Former President Evo Morales resigned on November 10 amid a wave of violence that left more than 30 dead. He is currently in Argentina as an asylee.