Journalist
19 November 2021
A lie has no legs, but…
When the lie becomes a resource of State management, there are moments, in which the lie is constantly reproduced, that it seems to be true.
The issue is relevant when observing the behavior of the MAS leadership in the face of pressure to abrogate Law 1386. If even the leader of the MAS and escaped former President advised to abrogate it after the social mobilization that led to its enactment, the Government authorities and the MAS leadership may have realized that they were once again presented with the opportunity to recover democratic values and open spaces for dialogue that, on the one hand, allow them to adequately face the acute crisis that the country is experiencing and, on the other hand, to regain legitimacy.
Unfortunately, once again they misunderstood the message of society, as is shown in the statement of reasons for abrogating the regulation that contains a pack of lies that even affects them in order to avoid the recognition of mistakes; rather, like roguish adolescents, they decided to approve in the Legislative Assembly other regulations that were also resisted by the people, after having mobilized their radical and violent followers, and uttering in a threatening tone that “be careful that the Inca resurrect.”
In other words, the Government authorities and the MAS fail to calibrate the mood of the citizens, but rather blindly believe the lies that they themselves believe.
This attitude is not exhibited only by the Bolivian militants of the 21st-Century socialism. The Argentine case, if possible, is more pathetic. As was foreseeable, the ruling party lost patently in the mid-term legislative elections and despite this, its President, the ineffable Alberto Fernández, summoned his followers to “celebrate victory” and one of its main candidates, who came second in the Kirchnerista main electoral stronghold, very loose of body, declared that there are those who win by losing (they) and others lose by winning (the opposition).
Not to mention Maduro, Díaz-Canel, Ortega, who are sure, feeling anointed, that reality is what they believe it to be and in that way, they lead their peoples to situations of intolerable misery and violence.
Regardless of the damage that attitudes of this nature do to society as a whole, where distrust grows in everyone and everything, ideals are also lost in the construction of modern, inclusive, deliberative societies, and power is conceptualized as simple enjoyment of those who assume it, who also take advantage of this mistrust to prevent society from organizing itself according to their interests.
In one way or another, that authoritarian black hand is also felt in the spaces of society. In the case of the mobilization against Law 1386, once it was abrogated, the Civic Committee for Santa Cruz lifted the indefinite strike, against the position of radicalized groups that wanted to maintain it, which could lead to situations of violence. Surely under these circumstances the president of the civic institution, Rómulo Calvo, recalling former Governor Rubén Costas that, when the MAS managed to put Santa Cruz under siege in 2009, assumed a responsible attitude that avoided a violent confrontation.
Once again, it is learned that above any demand that is pursued to build a better society is that of guaranteeing people’s lives, a lesson that must always be remembered in the difficult handling of social mobilizations.
In addition, history shows us that despite the lies, which sometimes have long legs, it is through the use of the resources of democracy and the commitment to solidarity that it will be possible to recover values of peaceful coexistence to face inclusive development. This is how we are shown by the attitude of the native peoples of the lowlands, the 2016 referendum, the rejection to the fraud of 2019, [and] the elections of 2020 and 2021.
Source: https://eldeber.com.bo/opinion/la-mentira-tiene-patas-cortas-pero_255569
