The Bolivian justice must settle accounts with the coup repressors installed in 2019, who were removed from power by the struggle of the people in the streets, said to Granma newspapers Andrónico Rodríguez Ledesma, president of the Senate of the Legislative and Plurinational Assembly who recently visited Cuba, invited by the Cuban Parliament.
His history as a social leader began in the universities and when the constitutional order was broken, he was elected senator representing the Movement Towards Socialism-Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (MAS-IPSP).
"In the year of Jeanine Áñez's government, Bolivians lived through an administration that caused health chaos with the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic, negative numbers in the economy and the deepening of the political and social crisis." In the absence of brother Evo, and practically all the national leaders, he took the initiative to mobilize the tropical region first, then Cochabamba, and finally the big cities."
During the 12 months of the coup government, the MAS-IPSP leaders had to go underground when they were seriously threatened with fascist methods. Their offices were burned and their property confiscated. In addition, blackmail and threats against family members were used to provoke fears and rejection.
"When I met with the people," he said, "I spoke to them about breaking the fear of the government, and in the face of the scourge of the pandemic to take strict quarantine measures. We began to organize, to meet with the leaders, with the organizations and with the community bases. We held secret meetings in different places, and at the right time we called the La Coronilla coliseum in Cochabamba. More than 10,000 people gathered there under the slogan Todo por la patria (Everything for the homeland). From that moment on, the struggle gained strength to demand the holding of the presidential elections."
As the MAS-IPSP managed to maintain two thirds in the National Assembly, it forced the de facto government to present calls for elections, which were postponed alleging the scourge of the pandemic, without taking measures to combat its effects. First they were set for May, then for August, and they were finally held in October. "With a lot of pressure from the Legislative Assembly and from the streets we triumphed and the political power was conquered," assured the Bolivian deputy, who lived moments of great tension, where he would go by days without sleeping or eating, traveling from one place to another, without being able to use the airports due to the persecution unleashed by the coup authorities.
"Our objective is to achieve good for the Bolivian people. We have full stability in our country, and the economic indexes are beginning to recover. Bolivia has one of the lowest inflation rates in the continent," stated Rodríguez Ledesma, and explained that they are preparing for the 2025 presidential elections with the goal of continuing the process of change initiated by Evo Morales, based on the political awakening of the people, with a civilizing horizon far from capitalism.
Translated by ESTI
