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Bolivia sets date for census after violent protests

Photo: AIZAR RALDES / AFP

| By AFP |

Bolivia’s leftist President Luis Arce said Friday a bill had been approved to hold a national census in March 2024 after weeks of deadly protests over the count.

“We passed this Census Law so people’s blood will not be spilled. The census will take place on March 23, 2024,” the president said in a televised message.

For almost five weeks, the economic hub of Santa Cruz was rocked by unrest over fears a new census to update spending allocation and the number of seats the region would be entitled to in parliament, would not take place before 2025 elections.

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The protests, which began on October 22, were called off last Saturday after the bill was approved by the country’s Chamber of Deputies. It has now passed the Senate and been promulgated into law.

In addition to cementing the census date, the bill pledges government spending changes and legislative assembly seat allotment ahead of the country’s 2025 presidential election.

Bolivia’s last census was held in 2012, with a fresh count set to take place in November 2022 postponed by the government, who said they did not have time to organize it.

The protests left four people dead and more than 170 injured, and included clashes between opponents and supporters of the ruling party.

Transport was paralyzed, retail markets closed and riot police used tear gas to quell the unrest.

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International

Geert Wilders reaches a provisional agreement to form a government in the Netherlands

The leader of the Dutch extreme right, Geert Wilders, reached a “provisional” agreement on Wednesday to form a government with three other center-right parties, which he will now send to the Dutch Parliament for debate, although they have not yet agreed on behalf of the candidate for prime minister.

As announced by Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party (PVV), there is already a “provisional” agreement with the other three center-right parties: the liberal VVD, the Christian Democrat NSC and the BBB farmers’ party, although there are still disagreements about pensions and “the discussion about who will lead that government will be resumed at a later date” because they have not yet decided on this point.

Wilders won the general elections on November 22, but had to resign his aspiration to the position of prime minister to unblock the dialogue with the other parties.

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International

Diana Boluarte goes to a new interrogation of the Attorney General for the ‘Rolex case’

The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, arrived this Wednesday unexpectedly at the headquarters of the Public Ministry to be interrogated by the interim Attorney General, Juan Carlos Villena, as part of the preliminary investigation opened for the crimes of corruption and bribery by the so-called ‘Rolex case’.

Boluarte arrived at the tax headquarters, in the historic center of Lima, at 9:20 a.m. (14.20 GMT) sheltered by a large police security display and entered aboard an official van with dark moons.

As has happened on previous occasions, the ruler is not expected to offer subsequent statements about this interrogation.

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International

The filmmaker Rasoulof will go to the Cannes Film Festival after fleeing Iran, according to his lawyer

Iranian filmmaker Mohamad Rasoulof, who fled his country after being sentenced to eight years in prison, will go to the Cannes Film Festival to present his film ‘The seed of the sacred fig’, his lawyer Babak Paknia told EFE.
“He (Rasoulof) will participate in Cannes,” Paknia said on Wednesday.

Rasoulof will present his film ‘The seed of the sacred fig’ at the French festival, which is about a judge who deals with the protests unleashed by the death of the young Iranian Mahsa Amini in 2022 after being arrested for not wearing the Islamic veil well.

Some actors of the film, however, will not be able to attend since the Iranian authorities do not allow them to leave the country, according to Paknia, who also stated that they have opened a new judicial case against the director for the film.

“They have opened a new case for this new film,” said Paknia, who did not explain the charges.

Rasoulof announced two days ago that he had fled his country to Europe after being sentenced to eight years in prison, lashes and the confiscation of property for the crime of “collusion with the intention of committing crimes against the security of the country.”

The filmmaker, winner of the Golden Bear of the Berlinale with ‘The Life of Others’ in 2020, a film that deals with the death penalty in the country, has had numerous problems with the country’s authorities and has been sentenced to prison on three occasions.

He was last arrested in July 2022 for criticizing the repression of protests unleashed by the collapse of a building that caused dozens of deaths two years ago and eight months later he was released.

In recent weeks, Iranian courts have multiplied convictions against artists and academics who are critical of the Islamic Republic.

In one of the most noted cases, a revolutionary court sentenced rapper Tomaj Salehi to death for sedition, propaganda against the system and incitement to riots for supporting the protests unleashed by Amini’s death.

In those protests, young Iranians and women called for the end of the Islamic Republic and only disappeared after a repression that caused 500 deaths and the arrest of at least 22,000 people and in which eight demonstrators were executed, one of them in public.

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