The interpellation of the Bolivian Parliament to the Minister of Government (Interior), Eduardo del Castillo, for the arrest of the former interim president Jeanine Áñez, led to an embarrassment this Tuesday until the blows between legislators from the ruling party and the opposition.

The issue that polarized the parliamentarians of the ruling Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), who have the majority, with those of the opposition Comunidad Ciudadana and Creemos was whether the political and social crisis that the country went through in 2019 was the product of electoral fraud or of a coup.

Del Castillo's report was preceded by the presence outside Parliament of the victims of the so-called Sacaba, Senkata and Pedregal massacres in which more than twenty civilians died in tensions with the Army when Áñez had assumed the interim Presidency of the country, after the resignation of Evo Morales from power.

That protest was symbolized by three cardboard coffins that were posted at the entrance to Parliament moments before Minister Del Castillo came to answer the five questions posed by a group of opposition legislators.

FIGHTING BETWEEN LEGISLATORS

The internal environment was filled with banners with which “justice” was requested for the victims or with questions about “where is the money from tear gas”, in reference to the recent corruption scandal that splashed the interim government of Áñez.

In front of the main lectern there was also a pile of papers with the inscriptions of “2019 minutes” and “2020 minutes” with which Del Castillo challenged the opponents to demonstrate that there was no electoral fraud in those two years.

When the minister took the floor, the cries began from the opposition bloc with responses from the MAS.

“Calm down please!” “I'm asking you for sanity!”, suddenly said the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Freddy Mamani, who interrupted the minister, to call the attention of other legislators.

In the front row, Creemos senator Henry Montero and MAS deputy Antonio Colque exchanged fist bumps until they both fell to the ground, despite their colleagues' attempts to separate them.

After that, the same scene was repeated between two legislators, one from the MAS and another from the opposition, who also clashed between pulling their hair and scratches, for which Mamani was forced to declare a ten-minute pause and then reinstate the session.

AN EXALTED MINISTER

“Accomplices of corruption, drug trafficking and deaths, silence! Keep your composure! The Bolivian people see you,” Del Castillo recriminated before the shouts of the opponents who interrupted his explanation.

“Accomplices, accomplices, accomplices, complicit murderers,” the minister even shouted in an even more exalted tone, simulating chants before his detractors until the interruption came due to the blows between parliamentarians.

After the recess, Del Castillo presented the arguments why, in his opinion, in 2019 there was a “coup d'état” and not electoral fraud.

“Here below are the 35,000 minutes of the 2019 administration (…) come (…) I have printed them for you (…) I have done your job,” the minister challenged the opponents who kept their demands loud.

Minutes earlier, during the recess, the head of the Creemos bench, Edwin Bazán, told the media that the minister was “incapable of presenting arguments” and accused him of acting cowardly during the session.

RATIFICATION OF THE MAJORITY

The interpellation act continued and the majority of MAS legislators had already announced that they would offer their support to Del Castillo for the actions that followed in the arrest of Áñez.

The former interim president has been in pretrial detention since mid-March for the case called a “coup d'état” in which she is accused of sedition, conspiracy and terrorism, following a complaint from former MAS parliamentarian Lidia Patty.

The ex-ministers of Justice Álvaro Coimbra and of Energies Rodrigo Guzmán are detained like her.

The complaint filed by Patty has also been addressed to former military and police commanders as well as the current governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, and his father José Luis Camacho Parada, although the courts have not taken action against the latter.

The Government maintains that this case seeks to do justice for the events of 2019 while the opposition considers that it is an act of persecution against them.