[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 20 (Thursday, January 31, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S809-S810]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 35--SUPPORTING DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES AND STANDARDS IN 
                  BOLIVIA AND THROUGHOUT LATIN AMERICA

  Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. Durbin, and Mr. Cruz) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations:

                               S. Res. 35

       Whereas the nation of Bolivia proclaimed independence from 
     Spain on August 6, 1825, with Simon Bolivar as its president;
       Whereas Bolivia endured more than a century of fragile 
     governance and instability, with more than 150 changes of 
     leadership since it gained independence and at least six 
     military coups between 1952 and 1981 alone;
       Whereas, between October 6 and 7, 1970, and again on July 
     21, 1978, Bolivia experienced a succession of military coups 
     resulting in three different governments over each respective 
     period;
       Whereas a transition to civilian democracy occurred in 
     1982, after the ruling military junta handed over power to a 
     civilian government, which managed to maintain control 
     despite major economic upheavals and painful market reforms;
       Whereas elected President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and his 
     successor Carlos Mesa both resigned in the face of 
     destabilizing protests in 2003 and 2005, respectively;
       Whereas, in 2005, Evo Morales won his first term as 
     president, becoming Bolivia's first indigenous citizen 
     elected to the office;

[[Page S810]]

       Whereas Bolivia's historically marginalized indigenous 
     peoples represent approximately 41 percent of the country's 
     population, according to the 2012 Bolivian census;
       Whereas, in 2006, the people of Bolivia elected a 
     constituent assembly to write a new constitution recognizing 
     greater political and economic rights for the country's 
     indigenous population, while key opposition parties boycotted 
     the constituent assembly election;
       Whereas, in 2008, a recall referendum on President Morales 
     was rejected by 67 percent of voters in Bolivia;
       Whereas, in 2008, amidst growing protests in the country 
     and rising tensions between Bolivia and the United States, 
     President Morales expelled the United States ambassador to 
     Bolivia;
       Whereas, in 2009, Bolivians approved, by a vote of more 
     than 60 percent in a nationwide referendum, a new 
     constitution that included a limit of two five-year 
     presidential terms;
       Whereas, in 2009, President Morales won reelection to a 
     second term with more than 60 percent of the vote;
       Whereas, in 2013, President Morales' loyalists in Bolivia's 
     Legislative Assembly approved legislation allowing him to run 
     for a third term--a law that President Morales' political 
     allies in the Bolivian Constitutional Tribunal affirmed, 
     ruling that the two-term limit in the country's new 
     constitution did not apply because President Morales' first 
     term was under the old constitution;
       Whereas, in 2013, President Morales expelled the United 
     States Agency for International Development for trying to 
     ``conspire against Bolivia'';
       Whereas, in 2014, President Morales won his third term as 
     president, with 60 percent of the vote;
       Whereas, in 2016, the Government of Bolivia called a 
     national referendum to modify the constitution in order to 
     allow for an additional term for Morales;
       Whereas, that same year, more than half of voters in 
     Bolivia rejected the proposed lifting of presidential term 
     limits that would have allowed President Morales to run for a 
     fourth term and serve at least 20 years in office;
       Whereas, after the referendum, the Morales Administration 
     increased its troubling rhetoric against opposition media and 
     advanced a narrative suggesting a plot to prevent President 
     Morales from staying in power;
       Whereas, in 2017, President Morales' loyalists on the 
     Bolivian Constitutional Tribunal lifted constitutional term 
     limits arguing that they violated the candidates' human 
     rights, citing the American Convention of Human Rights, 
     adopted at San Jose November 22, 1969, the main human rights 
     treaty in the Americas, as the legal foundation for its 
     decision;
       Whereas the Convention states that political rights can 
     only be limited under very specific circumstances, a 
     provision which, when drafted in 1969, was intended to 
     prevent abusive governments from arbitrarily barring 
     opposition candidates and not to impede constitutional 
     reelection limits designed to reduce corruption and abuse of 
     power given Latin America's long history of violent and 
     prolonged dictatorship;
       Whereas the Bolivian Constitutional Tribunal's ruling 
     rendered Bolivia one of a very small number of countries in 
     the Western Hemisphere that does not place limits on 
     presidential reelection;
       Whereas the Secretary General of the Organization of 
     American States said the cited clause ``does not mean the 
     right to perpetual power . . . Besides, presidential re-
     election was rejected by popular will in a referendum in 
     2016.'';
       Whereas, in March 2018, a report commissioned by the 
     Organization of American States specifically related to this 
     issue stated that--
       (1) ``There is no specific and distinct human right to re-
     election.'';
       (2) ``Term limits. . .are a reasonable limit to the right 
     to be elected because they prevent an unlimited exercise of 
     power in the hands of the President.''; and
       (3) ``The limits on a president's re-election do not 
     therefore unduly restrict his/her human and political 
     rights.''; and
       Whereas the Morales era has seen many social and economic 
     gains, but also a weakening and undermining of key democratic 
     institutions in order to favor the ruling party: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) supports the important transitions to democracy and the 
     regular peaceful transfers of power through elections that 
     have taken place in the majority of Latin American and 
     Caribbean countries in recent decades;
       (2) recognizes the historic significance of Bolivia's 2005 
     election;
       (3) expresses concern for efforts to circumvent 
     presidential terms limits in the Bolivian constitution;
       (4) supports presidential term limits prevalent in Latin 
     America as reasonable checks against a history of coups, 
     corruption, and abuses of power;
       (5) expresses the belief that the 2016 referendum vote to 
     maintain presidential term limits reflected the legitimate 
     will of the majority of voters in Bolivia;
       (6) agrees with the Organization of American States 
     Secretary General's interpretation of the American Convention 
     of Human Rights as not applicable to presidential term 
     limits;
       (7) calls on the Government of Bolivia to respect, and 
     where necessary restore, the independence of key electoral 
     and governing bodies and administer the October 2019 election 
     in adherence with international democratic norms and its own 
     constitutional limits on presidential terms; and
       (8) calls on Latin American democracies to continue to 
     uphold democratic norms and standards among members states.

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