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The arrest of Marco Pumari raises the continuing dilemmas of accountability for the 2019 crisis: criminalization vs impunity, evenhandedness vs politicization. (thread) @CarwilBJ/1470451346809761801Permalink On twitter.com
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Bolivia has highly combative forms of protest (Bjork-James 2013, 2020 😀), many of which skirt the line of legality. Yet disruptive protest itself is a form of political participation that shouldn't be too lightly shut down.Permalink On twitter.com
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If a Bolivian government rigorously applies the law, it would paralyze social movements on all sides with prosecutions and trial. And if it applies the law selectively, it creates a huge incumbency advantage for polarized areas of dispute.Permalink On twitter.com
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Still, just because some things are ways of participating in politics doesn't mean that the society shouldn't set limits on which acts are illegitimate. @CarwilBJ/1210611410645987329Permalink On twitter.com
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Regarding Pumari's charges, it seems to me that there should be no penalty for denouncing fraud (rightly or wrongly) or organizing protests against the electoral count, but charges related to burning down electoral facilities in the middle of a vote count seem reasonable.Permalink On twitter.com
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(I'm bracketing questions such a whether criminal trials are the right way to address harm, and whether national elections are the right way to organize a society for today. All the parties to this dispute have chosen to work through such institutions anyway.)Permalink On twitter.com
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There was a *lot* of arson during the 2019 crisis. Currently building a one-off spreadsheet of major acts, and even that is daunting.Permalink On twitter.com
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So prosecuting arson raises questions of universality and evenhandedness.Permalink On twitter.com
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A handful of politically aligned actors seriously burned electoral facilities, others burned media outlets, political party headquarters, homes of government officials, and homes of people in the line of presidential succession and their families.Permalink On twitter.com
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All of the above may deserve special protection, though one can imagine drawing some line since the culprits are so numerous.Permalink On twitter.com
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Just as important as consistency is political balance. If one accepts that prosecuting Pumari is reasonable, are their egregious acts on the pro-MAS side that are being overlooked? Yes.On twitter.com
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No attempt to bring accountability to 2019 can overlook the deadliest events of the crisis, nor other events where loss of life was only barely avoided.Permalink On twitter.com
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So far, the government has made arrests and/or prosecutions around: the Áñez succession / coup Senkata and Sacaba massacres the police mutiny electoral office arsonsPermalink On twitter.com
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However, investigations and prosecutions are slow around private, pro-MAS violence in Vila Vila, Montero, and La Paz. Carrying forward investigations there could do much to restore confidence in putting accountability in the hands of the government.Permalink On twitter.com
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One could imagine nonpartisan or international accountability procesess for 2019, but there is no momentum behind such efforts, instead we have Bolivian prosecutors vulnerable to political influence.Permalink On twitter.com
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I'm still of the opinion that prioritizing massacres, deadly violence, and egregious life-endangering arson, committed by both sides, is crucial to the Arce government's credibility on this issue. -fin- @CarwilBJ/1376224927611809792Permalink On twitter.com