How Bolivians Defeated Socialist Government’s Vaccine Mandates

https://www.theepochtimes.com/road-blocking-bolivians-defeat-government-vaccine-mandates_4225707.html

People attend an open meeting called by civic committees to protest against the election results, in La Paz on October 27, 2019. (JORGE BERNAL/AFP via Getty Images)

How Bolivians Defeated Socialist Government’s Vaccine Mandates

By Autumn Spredemann

January 20, 2022 Updated: January 21, 2022

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia—On Jan. 19 the administration of socialist President Luis Arce canceled the requirement of proof of vaccination against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus to enter any public establishment or place of commerce.

The announcement was made by health minister Jeyson Auza.

The Movement for Socialism (MAS) party officials announced the original “supreme decrees” 4640 and 4641 on Dec. 28, which triggered nationwide protests and legal backlash in the cities of Santa Cruz, La Paz, Cochabamba, El Alto, and Sucre.

“Indigenous people [in Bolivia] have always been distrustful of Western medical initiatives,” attorney Alejandro Gutierrez told The Epoch Times.

Gutierrez explained people who opposed the vaccine mandates were citing article 44 of the nation’s constitution, which protects against scientific or medical experimentation without consent, as grounds for the dismissal of the decrees.

On Jan. 17 protesters established road blockades leading from the city of El Alto into the capital La Paz.

The head of the rural magisterium in La Paz, Rudy Callisaya, said the blocks would stay in 20 provinces in La Paz department until the government agreed to dismiss the vaccine decrees.

The roads Callisaya pledged to impede with other protesters are a vital part of the supply chain allowing food and essential goods to arrive at La Paz.

The city draws the majority of its goods from the vast Bolivian countryside.

Solidarity protests held against the decrees in Cochabamba on Jan. 18 were met with an aggressive police response.

Opposition to the vaccine mandates erected road blockades at key points along Petrolera Avenue and other areas in the southern part of the city.

Police arrive in the afternoon and removed the blocks while firing tear gas at the unarmed dissenters.

Later that evening the demonstrators returned in larger numbers and rebuilt the road barriers.

On Jan. 19 after 48 hours of intense stand off with civilians opposed to the mandates, the government agreed to cancel the orders requiring proof of vaccination.

Auza said the government made the decision in order “to preserve the safety of the population against certain groups who don’t accept vaccination.”

He also said the purpose of the mandates had already “fulfilled its objective” with more than one million doses of vaccines distributed since the beginning of a significant case spike that began in December and peaked on Jan. 10.

The virus has killed 20,291 people in Bolivia since January 2020 and the nation has administered more than 11 million doses of preventive vaccines.

More than 43 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, which is low compared to neighboring countries like Chile and Peru. They boast immunization rates of 88 percent and 69 percent respectively.

National Director of Epidemiology at the Bolivian Ministry of Health, Freddy Armijo, announced the detection of the new Omicron variant in La Paz on Jan. 7.