The newly appointed Minister of Defense of Bolivia, Ernesto Justiniano, stated this Tuesday that the State's reaction to the blockades that have been affecting the country for more than a month will strictly adhere to the law and that the Armed Forces will act with "serenity," one day after President Rodrigo Paz enacted the law regulating the state of exception.
"Faced with those who seek to turn fear into a political method, the State will act with legality; faced with those who try to subjugate the country through violence, it will act with firmness, and faced with those who intend to break the democratic order, the Armed Forces will fulfill their constitutional mission with discipline, serenity, and patriotism," he declared during an event where he received a decoration for military merit.
Justiniano emphasized that "this will not be an improvised response, it will be an institutional, democratic, and State response," in a message directed at those who "went from blockade to violence, from stone to bullet and now intend to use methods of terror, rebellion movements, and seditious actions to impose by force what they cannot achieve through democratic means."
In this regard, he denied that the blockades and mobilizations, which began 40 days ago against President Paz's policies, could be considered an internal conflict, insisting on the Bolivian government's thesis that behind these actions "there are transnational components, dark financing, criminal interests, and structures linked to drug trafficking that seek to weaken the State, fracture democratic coexistence, and subjugate the population through fear."
"It must be said clearly: peaceful protest is a right, violence is a crime. No political, economic, or criminal interest can be above the lives of the Bolivian people, the Constitution, and democracy," the head of Defense maintained.
The minister, who took the reins of the portfolio just a week ago, also stressed that "prudence is not the absence of the State, containment is not weakness, and the will for dialogue does not mean renouncing the duty to protect Bolivia," thus responding to those who demand the immediate declaration of a state of exception as a way to end the blockades.
His words come after the promulgation, by the Head of State, of a new law approved in Parliament that expands the powers to declare states of exception and authorizes the deployment of the Armed Forces in the context of the protests that began in La Paz 40 days ago and later spread to other regions of the country, with clashes with the Police and the lifting of nearly a hundred blockades, most of them in La Paz and Cochabamba, the political stronghold of former president Evo Morales.
The regulation stipulates that the state of exception must be established by decree, detailing its territorial scope, duration, permitted extraordinary measures, and the institutions responsible for implementing them, setting a maximum of 90 days extendable only with the authorization of the Chamber.
To the indefinite strike promoted by the Bolivian Workers' Central (COB), the country's main union, road blockades led in part by peasant and rural organizations have been added. Initially, the protesters demanded improvements in their living and working conditions amidst a full and prolonged social and economic crisis, although as the days went by, they have come to demand Paz's resignation as a central requirement.