The Bolivian Congress has given the green light to the repeal of the State of Exception Law, eliminating part of the current limits and opening the door for the Bolivian president, Rodrigo Paz, to declare a state of exception that empowers him to mobilize the Armed Forces and restrict freedoms with the aim of containing the massive protests that have shaken the South American country for weeks.
The initiative was approved with the support of two-thirds of the legislators present after more than five hours of parliamentary discussion, which led the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberto Castro Salazar, to declare the norm approved. "Remit to the Executive for constitutional purposes," he stated.
Among those who defended the measure was deputy Carlos Alarcón, from the Unidad alliance, who justified the repeal of Law 1341 by arguing that "a legitimate government has been elected and the rupture of the constitutional and democratic order is underway" as a result of the mobilizations of different social sectors.
"These personal appetites want to throw overboard the recovery of democracy, with the violation of the fundamental rights of all Bolivians by (former president) Evo Morales and his entire gang," Alarcón stated in declarations disseminated in a press release by the Chamber of Deputies itself.
In the same vein, deputy Alejandro Reyes, also from the Unidad alliance, argued that this repeal aims to offer a way out of the complex situation Bolivia is experiencing and thus stop "being subjected by a small group that evades justice and truth."
This move by Congress comes a few days after the Senate also backed the elimination of the aforementioned law, approved in 2020, which curtailed the president's powers to declare states of exception. That norm was promoted after the crisis derived from the massive protests of the previous months, which led to Evo Morales' departure from power.
The legislation was processed after Jeanine Áñez came to government with the intention of limiting the Executive's ability to repress demonstrations, transferring to parliamentarians the power to authorize states of exception and subjecting them to possible modifications in order to curb potential abuses.
Paz warned last weekend that the wave of protests and road blockades that have been affecting various regions for weeks represent a serious challenge to the democratic and economic transformation process that his Administration intends to carry out, in a scenario marked by social tension and economic difficulties.
The mobilizations, which have now been ongoing for four weeks, have complicated the supply of food, fuel, and medical supplies to La Paz and the neighboring city of El Alto. The Government is trying to mitigate the impact by opening channels of dialogue with the mobilized sectors, while security forces continue to intervene to clear some sections, resorting at times to the use of tear gas.
The Executive has denied that the recent changes in its composition motivated by citizen discontent respond to an internal crisis and has insisted that it is a specific restructuring decided by the president himself. The protests continue to dominate the political and social scene in Bolivia, where indigenous, peasant, and union groups have even surrounded La Paz to demand Paz's resignation, in a context that has already resulted in four deaths and more than a hundred arrests.