Bolivia: The Añez Regime is Reluctant To Publish Senate's Laws

Bolivia's coup-born regime led by President Jeanine Añez Tuesday returned the three laws on leases, hyperimmune plasma donation, and free care in private clinics enacted by Senate President Eva Copa on August 27.

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The Presidency's Government Coordination Vice Minister Israel Alanoca assured that the rules promoted by the Senate, which is dominated by the Movement for Socialism (MAS), are not valid and will not be published in the Official Gazette.

"We have returned these laws as Copa does not have the legality, competence or jurisdiction to promulgate them and because the Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP) received a complaint to check again the content of the Senate’s decision," Alanoca said.

The TCP rejected the Interim government’s complaint arguing that President Añez's administration cannot request a constitutional consultation on the laws after they have been approved by the Senate.

In the case of the three laws in dispute, Copa has the legal power to enact any law after the 10-days deadline that the Constitution grants to the Executive branch to present actions aimed at preventing the implementation of a specific law, as the Senate's Constitutional Committee President Ciro Zabala explained.  

"The Executive continues to breach its constitutional duty to publish laws in favor of Bolivians... and invents procedures that are not found in any law," Copa pointed out.

MAS Senator Sergio Choque announced he will initiate a legal process against the Official Gazette as it refused to publish the Senate's decision, obstructed the enforcement of these three laws, and failed to comply with its duties.

The contested laws regulate plasma donation for COVID-19 patients, oblige the private health system to support sick people, relax the payment of leases until the end of the health emergency.