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In most countries, the only way you can punish politicians and civil
servants for not doing a proper job is by not voting for them in the
next elections, but in Bolivia, they have a thing called “social
justice”.
The people of San Buenaventura, a small town in northern Bolivia,
recently made good use of their constitutional right to social justice
by putting their mayor, Javier Delgado, in stocks for an hour, to let
him know that they are not satisfied with his service. Photos of the
disgraced mayor sitting on the ground with one leg trapped in the
medieval restraining device while surrounded by angry townspeople have
been doing the rounds on South-American social media and news sites
since late February.
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On February 25th, mayor Javier Delgado was supposed to inaugurate a
bridge built with state and municipal funds, but when he got to the
site, he was shocked to learn that the crowd waiting for him was not
there to attend the event, but teach him a lesson. Without even
bothering to explain what he was being punished for, they just grabbed
Delgado and put him in wooden stocks.
“They didn’t even give me the opportunity to find out why they were
submitting me to this punishment, but I did not put up resistance
knowing that there was a risk of things escalating even further,” the
mayor told La Razon. “Later, they gave me the opportunity to explain and
then they apologized to me, as they saw that they had been manipulated
and misinformed by these people.”
By “these people”, Delgado means his political adversaries and local
entrepreneurs who are trying to undermine the work he has done in over
two years of service to the community. He claims these people are in the
pocket of river transporters and logging companies, the interests of
which have been affected by some of his policies.
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However, Daniel Salvador, a native of San Buenaventura, told Radio Fides
that mayor Delgado had been punished for not fulfilling his commitments
to the local community, lying to them and not making them his priority
when they ask for an audience.
To make matters worse, this was actually the third time that mayor
Javier Delgado got a taste of social justice during his two-and-half
year term. The first time, he was put in stocks just a few months after
coming into office, while the second time, members of the community took
over his office and kept him away for two whole months. Fearing for his
life, he fled to a neighboring town, until a commission of indigenous
authorities put an end to the conflict.
“I am one of only a few people in the whole country who have been
subjected to these traditional punishments,” Delgado complained. I
wonder why that is, though…
Like many other indigenous communities in Bolivia, the people of San
Buenaventura govern themselves according to three basic principles “ama
qhuilla, ama llulla, ama suwa (do not be lazy, do not be a liar, do not
be a thief)” and resort to social justice whenever someone infringes any
of them. Social justice has been included in the country’s constitution
in 2009, although it is only acceptable in the case of minor crimes,
like trespassing private property or cattle theft. Serious crimes still
have to be referred to the courts. |