Puebla Group Demands Luis Almagro's Resignation From OAS

The Puebla Group asked for the resignation of Luis Almagro from the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) after he participated in the events that led to the 2019 coup d'état became more evident with the results of this year's elections.

In a statement, the group explained that the results of the October 18, 2020 elections in Bolivia, with a difference of more than 20 percent for the candidate of the Movement to Socialism (MAS), Luis Arce, reveal data that there was no electoral fraud in the 2019 elections.

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"Several studies by international research centers have pointed out in recent months: there was no fraud in the October 2019 elections, and Evo Morales should have been in office as the legitimate president of Bolivia," the letter said.

However, as an observer, the OAS did not recognize those elections and was one of the main actors triggering a situation of political and social violence, which ended in a coup d'état and the subsequent resignation of President Evo Morales, the group said.

"Furthermore, the triumph of the MAS-IPSP is ratified in the first analysis of the results in the voting centers that were pointed out by the OAS as examples of fraud in the past elections, this time with an even higher percentage margin than last October," it pointed out.

"In view of this evidence, it is clear that the regional leadership of the Secretary-General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, must be seriously questioned," the group affirmed. 

"The role he played in the democratic destabilization of Bolivia and the exclusionary relations he maintains with other countries in the area disqualify him from continuing to exercise the role of democratic mediation and facilitation that he should play at the head of such an important post," the letter added. 

"His departure will help recover peace in the region and reactivate the regional integration that has been so necessary in these times of pandemic," the Puebla Group said.

Among the signatories to the group's petition are Dilma Rousseff, Ernesto Samper, Rafael Correa, José Luis Zapatero, Fernando Lugo, Aloizio Mercadante, Iván Cepeda and Celso Amorim, among others.