Fernando Morales Arraya asserts that Adolfo Chávez Beyuma was traveling in an airplane while organization’s members (kids, young women and seniors) complete a long, treacherous march from Santa Cruz to Sucre. Despite the truth of this statement (as evidenced in television images), the rightwing delegate attacked, from behind, the President of the Confederation of the Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia —the largest organization of native peoples in the history of eastern Bolivia.

Morales Arraya is no stranger to violence in the Constituent Assembly. Just less than a month ago, during an assault by Podemos members against the “Vision of the Country” Assembly working group, Morales hit a police officer and pushed several people. His physical capacity is equaled only by his oratory skills: that day in Sucre he screamed at members of Evo Morales’ political party, calling them “dirty Indians” and “ignorant,” two classic racial insults in Bolivia.

On June 15th, after his party’s mob robbed the commission’s archives and destroyed one of its computers, Morales even called on the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) delegates to settle their differences in the street...

Morales Arraya’s violent attitude is notable, especially because he has insulted his Assembly colleagues on more than one occasion and because he has demonstrated a more radical position in the defense of Bolivia’s elite’s privileges than the rest of his party. It’s also important to emphasize that the CIDOB members have been waging a battle against this elite and for a re-founding of the country. CIDOB has also maintained a continuous fight against their racist neighbors in Santa Cruz and against their bosses and landowners regarding the elite’s proposal for political autonomy.

But even more notable is the Podemos delegate’s appearance itself. If you look closely at the photos of the aggressor and the assaulted published on Wednesday in the Santa Cruz daily newspaper El Deber, you will see that there isn’t a huge difference in skin color (seems as if our rightwing delegate had an indigenous branch to his family tree). And just so you know, Morales Arraya is the one on the right.

The Indigenous March

The CIDOB has carried out several marches in defense of their rights and social achievements throughout its history—such as last November’s march to La Paz demanding land reform and which was carried out in coordination with the Evo Morales government. This recent march to Sucre, however, is to defend the idea of indigenous autonomy in new constitution and is an open critique towards all parties involved in the Assembly, including the governing MAS. (See the statement we published a few days ago regarding CIDOB’s declarations)

This struggle for land and autonomy caused Adolfo Chávez’s hospitalization. (Luckily, however, the President for the last year shows no signs of severe injury). The CIDOB has now released a statement denouncing several assaults carried out by the (typically white) Santa Cruz elites), including the recent beating. The leader of the Pro Santa Cruz Civic Committee, plantation owner Branko Marinkovic was also denounced in the document.

In the text released, the CIDOB accuses Morales and other delegates of aggression against Chávez and explains why the indigenous leaders was traveling by plane:

…the POLITICAL COMMISION OF THE SIXTH MARCH decided to send the President to the city of Sucre in order to ensure that Assembly delegates are present when the march concludes in Sucre. Consequently, our President, ADOLFO CHÁVEZ BEYUMA, left from Viru Viru airport on a fight to Sucre with the hope of completing his marchers’ objective. But upon arriving in Sucre, three delegates from PODEMOS and A3-MNR, among them FERNANDO MORALES AND FREDDY SORUCO, were waiting for him. These men first tried to verbally provoke our President ADOLFO CHÁVEZ. When he responded with silence, FERNANDO MORALES punched our President in the face, after which all three men starting beating him…

The document also describes what the organization believes is a sustained policy of aggression and intimidation on the part of the Santa Cruz oligarchy given various recent similar incidents. The Bolivian commercial media, however, has played down the event, as evidenced by the scant mention of the assault in a larger article on the Assembly published yesterday in the La Paz daily paper La Prensa. Even worse, the Santa Cruz newspaper El Deber tries to minimize what happened and deliberately lies about the details.

Meanwhile, the Evo Morales government has condemned the acts, requesting that the Constituent Assembly investigate the matter). According to article 81 of the Assembly’s legal framework, Fernando Morales Arraya could be charged and prosecuted for the assault.

In an case, UB readers, we invite you to tell Fernando Morales Arraya what you think via his Assembly delegate webpage (in Spanish). We are still waiting to get a hold of his email address…stay tuned.