TODAY, at the request of the Spanish far-right Vox members of the European Parliament, the European Union will hear a discussion on the subject of human rights in the Plurinational State of Bolivia. 

They are putting the case of the Bolivian far right which claims that “democracy is under threat” and whose main aim is to undermine the newly, legitimately elected government of Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca and whitewash the crimes against humanity committed during Jeanine Anez’s dictatorship.

The MAS-IPSP government is in a half-hearted way pursuing Anez for her part in the November 2019 US/EU/OAS/British coup that overthrew another lawfully elected government under the first indigenous president, Evo Morales. We want to emphasise, there was a coup in Bolivia. 

All basic human rights were taken away without mercy from more than 1,500 prisoners — in contrast Anez is receiving VIP treatment and due process. 

One must ask, would the EU give any attention to Donald Trump and his Capitol-storming bands of white supremacists in their claims that the US electoral system robbed them of a rightful victory? We do not think so.

The claims by the Bolivian fascist right exist for the purposes of preparing more coups and covering the tracks of their own atrocities perpetrated during the year of lawlessness and oppression when Anez and her murderous collaborators were in office.

And where were the EU and the Organisation of American States when the massacres, mass arrests, persecution and torture of opponents were happening?

Every day we hear heartbreaking testimonies of victims who were ruthlessly beaten, tortured, stripped naked, forced to stand day and night, plastic bags put on their heads and gassed, forbidden to use the toilets, forbidden to sleep properly – forced to wake up every hour or so. 

Women were sexually assaulted. Younger prisoners were forced into cold showers and beaten, forced to clean the toilets with their toothbrushes. 

Prisoners frequently were not provided with food and water, they were forbidden to receive medical attention, forbidden from seeing their relatives and humiliated at all times.

They were all planted with false evidence and accused of “sedition and terrorism” without any proof whatsoever, leaving a trail of pain, trauma and sorrow, with orphans, widows and disabled people behind. 

In the case of Bolivia, the vast majority of the victims were the poor, the indigenous. In short, dark-skinned indigenous people who have never counted for anything in the European scheme of things.

When Covid-19 struck, they left the Bolivian people to die asphyxiated in the streets and in their homes; arresting, beating and imprisoning anyone who came out of their houses. 

The true number of dead people amounts to more than 25,000, not 5,000 as Anez said.

The needs of the EU are economic and geopolitical. It is the junior partner to Uncle Sam. 

No doubt there are European and US industries casting envious eyes on Bolivia’s lithium deposits.  

They whisper to themselves: “If only there were a compliant Bolivian government that would let us get our hands on them at favourable rates.”

Bolivia was robbed of its tin and silver deposits which served only to enrich the European elite. 

Bolivian indigenous people were exploited and forced to work in the mines alongside African people who were uprooted from Mama Africa, treated ignominiously as slaves and all regarded as expendable. 

They died like flies. One day history will have to acknowledge this genocide.

This is one of the reasons why the Bolivian people have previously elected Morales and now President Arce of the MAS-IPSP to government: to put a stop to the rape of our country.

The corrupt Bolivian elite who are now pleading with you for support seek to keep this murderous history going on.

If the European Union votes to support the Bolivian far right in its efforts, we can only assume that the same values that motivated the conquistadors are in operation today in the democratic EU.

Our people seek justice and reparation for the coup victims. Our people want to live in peace and harmony with the rest of the world. 

We lived for millennia practising human values with the wisdom and teaching or our ancestral roots that define our identity and culture as reflected in the famous Quechua phrase “Ama sua, ama llulla, ama quella!” (Do not steal, Do not lie, Do not be lazy).

We cannot allow impunity to win. Enough of killings, enough of destruction, enough of interference and enough of injustice!

Jallalla Bolivia!

Miriam Amancay Colque is a spokesperson for Bartolina Sisa Resistance.