Statement rejecting the breakdown of the constitutional order of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. NO to the coup in Bolivia

The contemporary world is currently subjected to great fears, wars that punish civilians more than combatants; threatening disorders in the ecosystem that lead us to doubt the future, unprecedented violence in several of our Latin American countries” (Jorge Sanjinés. Clacso Meeting 2018)

From the Working Group on Art and Politics we express our support for the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Evo Morales, and we say NO to the coup d'état that signifies the breakdown of the democratic state in Bolivia.

On Sunday, November 10, the president submitted his resignation along with the vice president, following various citizen mobilizations led mainly by the Departmental Civic Committees, to which the Bolivian Police adhered, breaking their constitutional mandate and thus undermining the democratic order by actively taking sides in Bolivian politics.

Given the power vacuum, we repudiate the attempt by civic groups to form a Governing Junta composed of representatives of the Bolivian Police, the Army, and civic sectors, bypassing the presidential succession established by the Political Constitution of the State and, consequently, the democratic order itself. This proposed governing junta, instead of strengthening the already weakened democratic institutions that have caused this conflict, seeks to dismantle and circumvent all institutional frameworks, much like the military coups of the 70s and 80s.

As filmmaker and intellectual Jorge Sanjinés so aptly narrates throughout his filmography, but especially in Insurgentes, the history of Bolivia is a history of struggle, oppression, and the battle for a plurinational state, reflecting its customs and roots. Evo Morales embodies the democracy of a culture, the recognition of a mestizo Latin America, a history that is not that of colonizers but rather that of emancipation as a form of resistance.

For all these reasons, we stand with the Bolivian people and the international community in defending the remaining democratic institutional framework and demanding that the presidential succession be carried out as mandated by the Bolivian Constitution and that the Electoral Tribunal be reconstituted with qualified and impartial professionals to conduct the new elections within the framework of the law and democratic institutions.

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 November 2019
CLACSO Working Group
Art and politics