EspañolLess than a month before presidential election in Bolivia, opposition parties find themselves scrambling to raise money through raffles. This is because the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the fourth power of the Bolivian state and completely aligned with the government, requires that every penny spent on the campaign have documentation.
This is how the government limits the ability of opposition parties to raise funds from the small number of business leaders and individuals who do not fear the political persecution of “citizens opposed to change” — as Evo Morales would say. The hunt for them has been five years in the making.
Meanwhile, as opponents fight for every penny, Bolivia has turned into a country that resembles George Orwell’s 1984. Instead of Big Brother, Evo Morales appears around every corner, on every television show and every radio station, in children’s stories in government schools, and even on state-made products like laptops and toothpaste.
These socialist demagogues not only squander public funds, they intimidate people who should be able to vote freely.
According to opposition Senate candidate Oscar Ortíz, the uncontrollable campaign of Morales’s Movement for Socialism (MAS) has spent more than US$150,000 per day in taxpayer money.
The government squanders dollars taken from the people on camouflaged propaganda — using facilities, vehicles, furniture, and even government officials in its dirty war.
In addition to the extensive campaign apparatus, MAS candidates give eloquent speeches, promising utopias — all while they deliver inefficiency and phony salary increases via mandate, including a second Christmas double bonus. The government has won the support of millions of poor voters, mostly uneducated, who are being deceived by the lies of the socialist discourse, and will be condemned to continue down a road of poverty and economic informality.
These socialist demagogues not only squander public funds, they intimidate people who should be able to vote freely. MAS members have even called for whipping of all citizens who do not vote for the president in his reelection bid.
This was confirmed by MAS legislator Luis Gallego, when he said that social, indigenous, and labor groups in the Bolivian state of Potosí agreed in “a great meeting” to ensure that their families vote for Morales’s party. According to Gallego, organizations from the north of Potosí “are going to whip those that [vote for opposition candidates]” because “they can’t be traitors.”
As soon as Evo Morales is able to take the presidential office for the third consecutive term, he will attempt to change the Constitution … to establish indefinite reelection, and who knows what other abuses.
This close the October 12 elections, the force MAS has acquired becomes evident to all, thanks to the aformentioned political maneuvers. Political analysts predict a fraudulent victory with a 70 percent majority for Morales. That means five more years of price controls, nationalizations, human-rights violations, political persecution, underdevelopment, and extreme poverty.
Worst of all, the broader socialist regime will have the opportunity to strengthen their position and perpetuate themselves in Bolivia. As soon as Evo Morales is able to take the presidential office for the third consecutive term, he will attempt to change the Constitution — as he is accustomed to doing — to establish indefinite reelections, and who knows what other abuses, to complete the destruction of what was once known as the Republic of Bolivia.