Australian solidarity with the Bolivian people

August 20, 2020
Issue 
Solidarity protest with the people of Bolivia in Sydney on August 16. Photo: Coral Wynter

About 20 people gathered under COVID-safe conditions in Sydney’s Botanical Gardens on August 16 to express solidarity with the people of Bolivia in their struggle against dictatorial repression and for democratic rights.

The following statement from the Association for Human Rights in Bolivia was read out.

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The Association for Human Rights in Bolivia was formed in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in May of this year for the purpose of standing up for the human rights of the Bolivian people, and to denounce violations against those rights.

The fundamental human rights of the Bolivian people are enshrined in the constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, 2009, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations (UN), December 10, 1948, and other documents signed and ratified by the Bolivian state.

These rights have been consistently violated since the day Jeanine Añez was unconstitutionally installed as ‘leader’. This was achieved using violence, with no consultation of the Bolivian people and in complete denial of the constitutional and electoral norms of the country.

Under this interim government a well-organised plan of terror and human rights violations has been carried out by institutions such as the military, the police and various civil and administrative groups. These violent actions have been inflicted upon the Bolivian populace in order to silence their demands for the return of democracy and respect for their human rights.

Most reprehensible of all is the use of the pandemic to postpone the elections, now set for October 18, 2020. With this latest postponement, the people have taken to the streets and the roads and highways to demand their right to free and transparent elections.

Because of these events, our Association for Human Rights in Bolivia would like to take this opportunity to strongly denounce the actions of the interim government in their campaign to thwart the rights of the Bolivian people to elect their own government themselves.

We would also call on our sister human rights organizations, in Bolivia and in other parts of the world, to undertake activities of protest, denunciation and condemnation in order to support the Bolivian people.

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