Bolivia and Mexico Align Positions on the OAS

A joint statement by the presidents of Mexico, Andrés M. López Obrador, and Bolivia, Luis Arce Catacora, expresses, concerning the Organization of American States (OAS), that they "will not tolerate interference in internal affairs."

The position of both presidents came on the occasion of the official visit that Arce has been making since yesterday to Mexico and in which the role played by the OAS—especially its Secretary-General, Luis Almagro, who has been accused of contributing to the political and social crisis which led to the coup against the then Bolivian president Evo Morales—emerged.

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Arce, elected last October, took asylum in Mexico from November 2019 to January 2020, after the installation of the de facto government in Bolivia, which, during his participation in a joint press conference with López Obrador on Wednesday, thanked him for having "sheltered" him and "having shown solidarity" with the "process of change in Bolivia."

In the joint communiqué, the two presidents demand Almagro "refrain from intervening in member states' internal affairs" and insist on the importance of "promoting the exclusively technical, objective and impartial character of the Electoral Observation Missions" of the OAS.

Likewise, they request that these commissions limit themselves to "act within their own institutional framework" and "not intervene in the internal affairs of member states."

The call comes after the audit made by a mission of the regional organization of the elections' results where Morales was reelected on October 20, 2019. At that time, on November 10, the OAS issued a preliminary report, without knowing the final results, urging to annul and repeat the elections in the midst of demonstrations organized by the opposition, which did not recognize the victory of the leader of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).

After the dissemination of this document, which fueled the climate of tensions generated by opposition leaders and threats against Morales' followers, the then-commander of the Armed Forces, Williams Kaliman, demanded the resignation of the president, who resigned to "avoid a bloodbath," as he acknowledged at the time.

Days after the president's forced resignation, Almagro affirmed in a meeting of the OAS Permanent Council that a coup d'état occurred in Bolivia "when Evo Morales committed electoral fraud."

A year and a half later, the Mexican government, which also rejected the coup d'état of 2019, asked the OAS General Secretariat to handle itself "in accordance with the powers established in the Inter-American legal instruments" and to refrain from making "unilateral pronouncements on behalf of the entire membership," adding: "Mexico calls on the OAS General Secretariat to avoid confrontation with a democratically elected government such as that of Bolivia."