NOT FOR the first time — and certainly not for the last — can we witness about this time of year the ruling class handing out “honours” to those they deem worthy of their recognition. 

There is always an element of services rendered, and this year is no exception. Whether you are from one of the smallest economies in the world or one of the largest, all you need to do is their bidding and your reward will come.

That is what happened with Tony Blair’s knighthood, a warmonger responsible for hundreds of thousands of people killed in the Middle East under the false pretext of “weapons of mass destruction” and for having turned so many people into refugees. 

Now he is being hailed by Keir Starmer as one of Labour’s “great thinkers.” Meanwhile Julian Assange languishes in a maximum-security prison — his only sin, having told the whole world the truth.

In Bolivia, the infamous “human rights campaigner” Amparo Carvajal who came out in defence of the coup-plotters has recently been awarded Personality of the Year by the right-wing dominated Radio Fides, which is financed by the National Endowment for Democracy.

Prior to the November 2019 coup, Carvajal supported the “cabildos” (“municipal councils”) organised by the far right against the democratically elected government of Evo Morales, marching side by side with them.

When the massacres of Sacaba and Senkata happened in November 2019, as a human rights activist Carvajal never provided any support to the relatives of the 38 indigenous people assassinated, nor visited the more than 800 injured or the more than 1,500 tortured and imprisoned who were deprived of their basic human rights. 

Even some health professionals tortured the injured, pouring white spirit in their open wounds, subjecting them to racist remarks and humiliating the indigenous people.

Carvajal never denounced the military, police or paramilitaries for their part in these crimes, and never denounced the atrocities committed by some health professionals. 

Instead she fiercely defended Jeanine Anez, the golpista who usurped the presidency, and her fellow mass murderer henchmen, and she publicly praised the paramilitary RJC (Youth Cochala Resistance), saying that, for her, “they were an essential resistance,” thus promoting this criminal group.

Carvajal is a Spanish former nun and was for many years the president of the Permanent Human Rights Assembly of Bolivia — APDHB.  

Recently, in a national congress she was repudiated and dismissed from the permanent assembly for having supported the coup-plotters. 

It beggars belief that a Franco admirer was able to infiltrate the human rights movement for so many years in Bolivia.

Bolivian people seek justice for the trail of crimes left by the Anez regime and her henchmen. Impunity will never be an option and this year we expect justice to be done. We neither forget nor forgive.

Miriam Amancay Colque is an Aymara woman and spokesperson of the Bartolina Sisa Resistance (Twitter @BartolinaLives).