The representation of the European Union (EU) and other diplomatic missions of that continent accredited in Bolivia denied this Thursday to have encouraged a “conspiracy” or a “coup” against former Bolivian president Evo Morales, ousted in November 2019 after winning the elections that year.
“The delegation of the European Union, together with the diplomatic missions of the Member States of the EU in Bolivia, categorically rejects the accusations of having participated in November 2019 in a conspiracy with the aim of preparing a coup,” he said in a statement from the office of the European bloc in La Paz.
The text maintains that, in the context of the social and political conflict that was developing then, “the EU, under the leadership of the Church, helped facilitate meetings that involved key actors from all political parties, including representatives of the Movement for Socialism (MAS), with a single objective: to help pacify the country in times of extreme tension and to provide a platform for dialogue, with the purpose of avoiding further violence and putting an end to the crisis that shook the country. ”
Statement on recent accusations against the European Union pic.twitter.com/GEowvRqvbN
– European Union Bolivia (@UEenBolivia) August 5, 2021
The note responds to the repeated complaints from the ruling party, the MAS, which holds the EU responsible, among others, for having encouraged the institutional coup against its leader Morales, after the elections in which he reached his fourth term and were branded as “fraud. “for the opposition.
The then president was forced to resign. He then went into exile in Mexico and then in Argentina, until he returned to Bolivia a day after the inauguration of his former Minister of Economy, Luis Arce, as the winner of the presidential elections in October 2020.
Following Morales’s overthrow, the EU quickly recognized the de facto president, Jeanine Áñez, and issued a report in which she spoke about alleged “anomalies” in the 2019 electoral records.
This Tuesday, in a document sent to parliament, the Bolivian attorney general, Wilfredo Chávez, said: “We are not a colony of the Vatican or the European Union, or anyone else. Bolivia is an independent state”. And he affirmed that “the participation of these actors, apart from being a participation contrary to the Constitution, is illegal, criminal involvement“.
Currently, the Government of Luis Arce is initiating legal actions against the de facto ex-president Jeanine Áñez, who has been detained since last March, accused of “conspiracy” and “terrorism” in the context of the coup, as well as against several of her then ministers and chiefs of the Armed Forces.
