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C O N F I D E N T I A L LA PAZ 000029 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/02 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM PHUM PINR BL
SUBJECT: BOLIVIA: NEW LAWS INSTITUTIONALIZE MORALES' CHANGE PROJECT 
 
REF: 09 LA PAZ 1520 
 
DERIVED FROM: DSCG 05-1 B, D 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: The GOB is preparing several pieces of legislation 
to implement the country's new constitution.  Judiciary-related 
laws will "re-found" the country's electoral, supreme, and 
constitutional courts, and will also define how the now co-equal 
indigenous and "ordinary" justice systems will work together.  An 
autonomies law will outline a framework for power-sharing among the 
central, state, regional, local, and indigenous levels of 
government.  The GOB is also preparing a law to codify the role of 
social groups as government "overseers."  With Morales' ruling 
Movement Toward Socialism party (MAS) now in firm control of both 
houses in the Plurinational Assembly (Congress), the GOB is also 
reviving three pieces of previously-blocked legislation, including 
a universal health care law, an educational reform law, and an 
anti-corruption law.   As written, the pending legislation appears 
to reward the MAS political base while enabling Morales to keep 
firm control of the levers of power.  End summary. 
 
 
 
Five Constitutionally Required Laws 
 
 
 
¶2. (U) Bolivia's new constitution contains a July 22 deadline to 
pass five implementing laws, although the Morales administration 
has indicated they hope to pass all five more quickly.  These 
include: 1) the Plurinational Electoral Organ Law to codify the 
roles and responsibilities of the successor to the National 
Electoral Court; 2) the Judicial Organ Law to codify the roles and 
responsibilities of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, the successor 
to the Supreme Court; 3) the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal 
Law, to codify the roles and responsibilities of the successor to 
the Constitutional Tribunal; 4) the Electoral Regimen Law to define 
the fundamental rules for all elections and replace the current 
Electoral Transition Law; and 5) the Framework Law for Autonomies 
and Decentralization to clarify the roles and responsibilities of 
country's five autonomy levels - central, departmental (state), 
regional, municipal, and indigenous. 
 
 
 
¶3. (SBU) The first four laws are not expected to create judicial 
bodies markedly different from those that exist now.  The main 
difference, as outlined in the constitution, is that the 
Plurinational Assembly will elect six of the seven members of the 
Supreme Electoral Tribunal (the president selects the seventh) and 
will nominate all candidates for election to the Supreme Tribunal 
of Justice and the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal (who will 
then be popularly elected).  With two-thirds control of the 
Plurinational Assembly, President Morales and the MAS will be able 
to essentially hand pick the entire cast of the new judiciary. 
 
 
 
Framework Law for Autonomies and Decentralization 
 
 
 
¶4. (C) Of the five laws, the Framework Law for Autonomies and 
Decentralization is considered the most contentious -- and the most 
far-reaching.  The law will specify to what extent each of the 
government's five autonomy levels will control natural resource 
use, regulate investments and businesses operations, and collect 
taxes.  Experts report that, in its draft form, the law does not 
sufficiently clarify which levels of government will be assigned 
which functions.  Instead, the law grants the departmental, 
municipal, and indigenous levels of government roughly co-equal and 
often overlapping status.  Our contacts say the law is likely to 
lead to conflicting or duplicative regulations (including taxes) 
among the three levels of government.  They say the new 
Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal will most likely have to 
 
clarify the limits of each level of autonomy through judicial 
decisions.  Until then, the sometimes vague and/or overlapping 
authority granted in the law will likely discourage local and 
foreign investment. 
 
 
 
¶5. (C) The drafters of the Framework Law for Autonomies and 
Decentralization will be limited by articles in the new 
constitution that grant indigenous areas explicit regulatory and 
taxation powers.  Article 304 directs that within indigenous 
autonomous areas (IAAs), indigenous groups shall have the right to 
manage and administer renewable natural resources and to levy 
taxes, assessments, and "special contributions" -- a role that 
might normally fall to the departments.  If such authority is 
instead devolved to the much smaller indigenous level of autonomy, 
the possibility exists that each indigenous area could make its own 
regulations, creating a regulatory thicket in which natural 
resource-oriented businesses would have to maneuver. 
 
 
 
Creating Two Justice Systems: The Jurisdictional Demarcation Law 
 
 
 
¶6. (U) In addition to the five constitutionally-required laws, the 
pending Law of Jurisdictional Demarcation is expected to be 
announced soon and to have a significant impact.  The law is 
designed to clarify which lands will become IAAs and -- more 
importantly -- define the relationship between the "ordinary" 
justice system and the variety of indigenous justice systems to be 
employed in the IAAs. 
 
 
 
¶7. (C) After reviewing a recent draft of the jurisdiction bill, 
constitutional lawyer Carlos Alarcon told us that the law creates 
two competing (and often overlapping) systems of justice that will 
often be in conflict.  Alarcon said that, perhaps in a desire to 
evade a hierarchal relationship between the two systems, the law as 
written leaves unclear which system will govern a given situation. 
The indigenous justice systems are to apply in all IAAs and to all 
indigenous persons, regardless of their location.  Under this 
definition, he said, he would expect to see instances in which 
persons charged with crimes under the ordinary justice system would 
seek to avoid punishment by identifying themselves as members of an 
indigenous group with a more lenient (or non-existent) punishment 
for the same crime.  Since in Bolivia indigenous status is largely 
self-defined, people could easily "game" the two systems. 
 
 
 
¶8. (C) Alternatively, said Alarcon, a non-indigenous person who 
commits a minor crime in an indigenous area could find local custom 
calls for a more severe penalty than the ordinary justice system 
(e.g. hitting an animal deemed sacred to the local population with 
one's car).  Alarcon noted that since most indigenous justice 
systems are not codified, a person could easily be unaware of 
committing a criminal act. 
 
 
 
¶9. (C) In a third situation, Alarcon noted that since each 
indigenous area will apply its own customs and norms, there could 
be legal confusion if an indigenous person belonging to one area is 
charged with a crime in another area.  He said the law as written 
does not contemplate this possibility, and that it was likely the 
Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal would have to rule on such 
issues.  Alarcon also questioned whether investigators from the 
ordinary justice system would be allowed to enter into IAAs, or if 
investigators from one IAA could enter another.  He concluded by 
saying that balkanizing Bolivia's legal system ran the risk of 
 
creating a chaotic, unworkable system. 
 
 
 
Law of Social Control 
 
 
 
¶10. (SBU) The GOB is said to be readying a Law of Social Control to 
define the role of the social movements in "overseeing" government 
actions.  President Morales and Vice President Garcia Linera have 
repeatedly promised in recent public appearances, including their 
inauguration speeches, that the social movements would be "their 
chiefs."  The constitution, in Articles 241 and 242, states that 
social movements will participate in designing public policy, 
support the legislature in passing legislation, manage public and 
private businesses that administer public resources, guarantee 
transparency at all levels of government, and report on the 
government's effectiveness.  Neither we nor our contacts have yet 
seen drafts of this law. 
 
 
 
Other Pending Legislation - Education Reform, Health Care, and 
Anti-Corruption 
 
 
 
¶11. (SBU) With the MAS now firmly in control of both houses in the 
Plurinational Assembly, the Morales administration also has revived 
three previously-blocked bills.  All are deeply opposed by the 
opposition, but the Morales administration has signaled they will 
move quickly to pass them.  The first, the Avelino SiC1ani Education 
Law, is designed to re-orient school curricula by de-emphasizing 
"colonial" versions of history and strengthening bilingual 
education (i.e. Spanish and indigenous languages such as Aymara, 
Quechua, Guarani, etc.).  The second bill would establish a 
national, centralized health care service to be funded through 
hydrocarbon-related tax income.  Last, the Marcelo Quiroga Santa 
Cruz Anti-Corruption Law would give prosecutors investigating 
suspected acts of corruption the authority to access private bank 
account information.  Such legislation is long overdue, but 
opposition groups fear this authority will be misused and will lead 
to "witch hunts" by the central government. 
 
 
 
Comment 
 
 
 
¶12. (C) In his inauguration speech, Vice President Garcia Linera 
promised new laws to decentralize power "but with the State in 
every centimeter to ensure power is distributed democratically." 
This pledge captures the challenge facing the GOB in rewarding 
social and indigenous groups while maintaining firm control 
throughout the country.  The Morales' government's ability to use 
judicial reform to gain political control of the judiciary is 
troubling, but of equal concern is the potential chaos the pending 
reforms could bring.  We are working with UNHCR and interested 
countries to review the potential impact of these laws on human 
rights and broader rule-of-law issues, as well as the overall 
restructuring of the judicial branch. 
Creamer