Statement on the situation in Bolivia

As the Working Group on Critical Studies of Rural Development (CLACSO), we reject the disqualification of the peasant and rural vote as one of the elements used to justify the call to disregard the electoral process, making the peasant vote invisible compared to the urban vote, since the mobilizations of the urban opposition sectors intend to impose their anti-democratic decision on the rest of the Bolivian population, particularly the rural population.

On the other hand, the wave of racism and violence unleashed against Indigenous and peasant communities is worrying. They are being attacked for declaring their political support for the Movement for Socialism (MAS), the party that has embodied their historical demands and managed to garner majority support from the Bolivian population, particularly peasants, Indigenous people, and the general public, in the last elections. Equally worrying is the imminent breakdown of democratic order following the
Calls to disregard the electoral process and the unilateral demand by civic committees for President Evo Morales to resign within 48 hours, with threats to escalate violence until that happens.

In this sense, as GT we call on the political actors and social organizations of Bolivia to abandon all attitudes of confrontation and violence, and to seek scenarios for dialogue to resolve political differences through available democratic mechanisms.

We demand an end to all racist, classist, discriminatory, and patriarchal attitudes against indigenous, peasant, and rural populations in general, by radicalized sectors of the urban opposition in Bolivia that are leading to a spiral of violence.

We urge the recognition and support of the international audit process on the electoral process of October 20, led by the OAS mission, as the ideal mechanism to clarify the allegations of fraud and lack of transparency in the past elections. 

November 2019
CLACSO Working Group
Critical studies of rural development