State Attorney General’s Office Urges Bishops to Declare for Bolivia’s 2019 Crisis

The State Attorney General’s Office (PGE) said will insist legally so that the Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office summons the catholic bishops as “witnesses” and explain their involvement in the 2019 political crisis.

During a press conference, the prosecutor, Wilfredo Chavezconfirmed a request at the end of January to the public prosecutor so that the members of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference (CEB) in 2019 testify “as witnesses” to the events that led to the resignation of then-President Evo Morales that year.

In the request, the prelates are designated vice-president of the CEB, Ricardo Centellas; episcopal secretary, Aurelio Pesoa; and former Auxiliary Bishop of El Alto, John Aranaamong others.

The case grew out of a 2019 meeting at the Catholic University of La Paz, which was attended by the bishops, several opposition political leaders and representatives of the pro-government Movement for Socialism (MAS), which served to define presidential succession.

“Nobody can deny that during the days of the ‘coup’ these meetings took place (…) with the active participation of the Catholic Church,” noted Chávez, who was Morales’ lawyer.

The lawyer spoke of an alleged “media victimizationfrom representatives of the Catholic Church when they learned of the request for their testimony and said it was “issue“bishops if because of that”his conscience“It makes them”guilty”.

“If they have nothing to hide why they are not going to testify, what is the impediment,” Chávez questioned, in addition to stressing that the PGE will “resubmit a brief” for the bishops to testify.

The FGE’s request is part of the investigation of the so-called “coup d’Etat I” file for the crime of terrorism which was presented at the end of 2020 by a former MAS deputy.

For this process, the former interim president is accused Jeanine Anez and the leader of the opposition and governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camachothe two prisoners.

On several occasions, the Catholic Church has highlighted its mediating role during the political and social crisis of 2019, after the resignation of Morales from the presidency and from the transitional government led by Áñez.

In 2021, the CEB submitted to Pope Francis a report on the role of the Catholic Church between October 2019 and January 2020 in which “denied any charges“of your work which relates to”an alleged coupagainst Morals.

CEB Legal Advisor, Susana Thumbtold local media on Monday that the Church “has spoken its truth” and that it is “the same that it will continue to uphold at all times.”

For the government, the events of 2019 were a “coup” against Morales, while for the opposition they were due to electoral fraud to favor Morales and gain access to a fourth consecutive term.

The relationship between the Catholic Church and the government was already strained under Morales’ government and became even more distant under President Luis Arce’s administration.

(With information from EFE)

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