Catholic leaders challenge Bolivia's President.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
Although the stormy relations between President Evo Morales' government and the Bolivian Catholic Church had moved into a sort of grace period for the past three years thanks to a great degree to Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's ascent to the Vatican throne, Bolivian bishops made an abrupt turn April 1 with the release of a document in which, without proof, they denounced government complicity with drug trafficking (NotiSur, Feb. 18, 2011, and Sept. 12, 2014).
The 48-page pastoral letter from the Conferencia Episcopal Boliviana (Bolivian Episcopal Conference, CEB), titled "Today I put Life and Death Before You," said, "The drug trade, in its strategy of expansion and impunity, penetrates even state structures and law enforcement, both past and present, buying consciences." It went on to define Bolivia as a producer of raw material and as manufacturer, country of transit, and consumer of cocaine. It called on judicial magistrates to "do their job according to the rules" and encouraged the armed forces and police to "resist all the temptations of corruption, which makes the war on drugs sterile and useless."
A week later, the 101st National Assembly of Bishops was held in the city of Cochabamba, in the geographic center of the country. On April 8, the daily Pagina Siete, one of the many media outlets tied to the Catholic Church and particularly to the Society of Jesus, reported testimony from the CEB president, Monsignor Ricardo Centellas, in which he argued that Bolivia suffers from a vacuum of "authentic, truthful, and honest leaders" and called for the formation of new leadership that "respects the power and the voice of the people" and administers "the state's wealth with honor." In neither document, nor at any time, did the Catholic hierarchy name the president or any high government official, but it was obvious it was referring directly to President Morales and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia Linera.
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The government's response was immediate and came from different actors. On April 1, after Carlos Romero, the minister of government, challenged the bishops to "provide at least one name," Morales issued an ultimatum, demanding that the bishops "provide the names of the authorities linked to drug trafficking within the next 24 hours" and calling them "truly irresponsible persons." According to the version the opposition daily Los Tiempos gave on April 4, Morales asked the CEB, "Who are [the...
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