Bolivians are also demanding justice

BY LISANKA GONZÁLEZ SUAREZ – Granma International staff writer –

HER age, the hasty trip, family matters – none of them stopped Alejandrina Morales, a 70-year-old retired Bolivian teacher, from joining almost 700 people who were demanding justice.

"I left La Paz in the midst of a real social convulsion," she said, with a pained expression on her face. "Not just because of the hydrocarbons question, but also because of the accumulated social problems, the repression, the poverty and the unemployment, but it was important for us to be here to demand justice, because in Bolivia we also have the problem of the disappeared and assassinated."

And she added, "right now, you can see how the people are being repressed and we can’t even count on the media, because they belong to the transnationals and publish absolutely nothing about our demands. If a journalist writes something that they don’t agree with, by the next day he’s without a job."

"Let me tell you, in Bolivia, Evo Morales’ party, the MAS, is the second largest force in the country. When he came back from his last trip to Havana, the press interviewed him, and when they asked him why he didn’t have his operation in Bolivia, he said, ‘Because here they would kill me.’ Evo says what he thinks, not what other people think, and that is very important. For all these reasons, they are desperate to make him disappear."

Without beating about the bush, she adds, "it is the current policy of the empire, the empire does whatever it feels like, it is the lord and master of the world, it talks about terrorism, but protects terrorists like Posada Carriles, who is a big criminal."

This woman could just as well have stayed at home, surrounded by her six children, 17 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, but instead is an active member of the Bolivian Cuba solidarity movement.