Title: A resolution supporting democratic principles and standards in Bolivia and throughout Latin America.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution expresses support for democratic transition and peaceful elections in Bolivia and throughout Latin America, and calls on the Government of Bolivia to maintain international democratic norms and presidential term limits in the October 2019 election.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 35 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 35

     Supporting democratic principles and standards in Bolivia and 
                       throughout Latin America.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 31, 2019

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
     Supporting democratic principles and standards in Bolivia and 
                       throughout Latin America.

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;
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 term 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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