“They are there to screw up, to tarnish and to politicize, look at the declarations that have been made all the time, people like the rector (Vicente Cuellar), like Mr. (José Luis) Santisteban who is accredited” , said the President’s spokesman, Jorge Richter.
The spokesman added in statements to public broadcaster Bolivia TV that these people use these spaces to speak politically.
During a public intervention a week ago, Santa Cruz Gov. Luis Fernando Camacho reached out to “Dr. Cuéllar” and warned him that anyone who backs down in relation to the 2023 census and the strike will be “a civil death in Santa Cruz has” and is considered a “seller” to the government.
According to Richter, the delegation of the Santa Cruz Inter-Agency Committee is trying to “create delays in the work of the commission” in order to prevent “a consensus on a final date” and thereby define the conduct of the national survey.
In his opinion, the aim of these measures is to “further aggravate the conflict in the days that follow” in order to achieve the main objective of “undermining the constitutional order”, as happened in November 2019 when they announced the resignation of former President Evo Morales forced.
He contradicted the behavior of Cuéllar and the lawyer Santiesteban of “telling half-truths” to the press on the first working day of the Technical Table, in which they accused an alleged lack of information and transparency on the part of the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Richter clarified that all information has been provided as progress has been made in analyzing the activities of the census plan, which as of Saturday has reached 350 out of 700 proposals, including the INE proposal.
Against this background, the spokesman warned that behind the supposed demand for the “census process” was an interest in undermining the constitutional order because these powers “feel degraded by the validity of the Plurinational State” and want to restore the old republic.
However, the spokesman warned: “Anyone who tries to subvert the constitutional order must know that unlawful behavior always has consequences.”
He confirmed that the government would not allow a repeat of the November 2019 coup as there are rules that will be enforced.
rgh/jpm