Tag: bolivia

Bolivia sentences priests for concealing decades of child sex abuse

A Bolivian court sentenced two elderly Spanish Jesuit priests to a year each in prison on Tuesday for concealing decades of child sex abuse committed by their colleague in the church.

The convictions of the priests, Marcos Recolons, 81, and Ramon Alaix, 83, mark Bolivia’s first successful criminal prosecution against high-ranking members of the Catholic Jesuit order implicated in concealing abuse cases.

Prosecutors argued that Recolons and Alaix led the Jesuit order in Bolivia while the abuse occurred. They were aware of the allegations against a priest, Alfonso Pedrajas, but failed to report them to police, allowing him to continue contact with children, according to the prosecution.

The case came to light in 2023 with the publication of a diary belonging to Pedrajas, who died in 2009. In it, he wrote about abusing at least 85 minors between 1972 and 2000, many of whom were indigenous students on scholarships at a prominent boarding school.

The diary entries sparked international outrage and intensified the debate over the Catholic Church’s accountability in child sex abuse scandals across Latin America.

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Controversial Bolivian Socialist President Arce Accused of Staging ‘Self Coup’ To Boost His Popularity

Five days ago, Latin America was shaken by what can only be described as one of the most incompetent attempts at a ‘coup d’état’ in history.

A few units of the Bolivian army, led by supposedlt rebelling Generals, converged upon the Presidential palace in La Paz and rammed their way in with an armored car, with the stated goal of deposing the controversial Socialist goon Luis Arce – only to receive no support from other army formations, and retreat in shame after just a few hours.

Upon his arrest, the leader of the coup, General Commander of the Army Juan José Zúñiga, declared that all the fuss was actually a fake plot led by Arce himself, in an attempt to boost his popularity with the Bolivian people.

Most observers took Zúñiga’s words as a cheap cope after his failed coup, but in a shocking turn of events, former President of Bolivia, the equally socialist Evo Morales – who was one of the voices that rose against the ‘coup’ – has now accused his political ally-turned-rival President Luis Arce of staging last week’s military stunt to earn political points among the electorate.

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There’s Much More To Bolivia’s Failed Coup Than Another CIA Regime Change Attempt

Casually dismissing everything as a CIA plot overlooks the preexisting problems that preceded this dramatic event and oversimplifies complex dynamics.

Many X users described Bolivia’s failed coup on Wednesday as another CIA regime change attempt, mostly due to its history of meddling in this landlocked and lithium-rich South American nation, but there’s much more to it than just that. Casually dismissing everything as a CIA plot overlooks the preexisting problems that preceded this dramatic event and oversimplifies complex dynamics. The present piece will concisely clarify what happened, why, the reason that it failed, and what might follow.

General Juan Jose Zuniga was dismissed earlier in the week after threatening to arrest former President Evo Morales if he tries running for a fourth term like the latter said that he wants to do in 2025 despite the Constitutional Court ruling late last year that it would be unconstitutional. Bolivia’s 2019 military coup was set into motion upon Morales winning a contentious fourth term after a 2016 referendum on extending term limits failed but was overruled by the Constitutional Tribunal in 2017.   

For those who are interested in learning more about what happened back then, “Here’s How the Hybrid War on Bolivia Succeeded in Carrying Out Regime Change”, which was pretty much due to a significant share of the population already being preconditioned to consider his victory illegitimate. In parallel with that, the US once again co-opted its traditional allies in the armed forces there to get them to intervene against him, which led to a brief de facto dictatorship that was democratically overturned a year later.

Incumbent President Luis Arce from Morales’ “Movement for Socialism” (MAS) won a commanding victory with 55% of the vote compared to his next closest challenger who only scored 28%. The prior military-installed government folded due to the political impossibility of holding onto power under those circumstances, after which some of its members were held accountable before the law for their role in the coup. This included Jeanine Anez, who assumed the presidency during that period and is still in jail.

Over the past year, Arce and Morales had a nasty falling out over the run-up to 2025’s elections, which saw Arce being expelled from Morales’ MAS. Readers can learn more about this intra-leftist dispute here and here, but it basically boils down to personality differences, not any significant policy ones. As the ruling party’s infighting worsened, so too did the economy as its financial crisis began to climax, resulting in growing protests across the country in the immediate run-up to the failed coup.

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