| Bolivia – Archbishop Tito Solari: 25 years a bishop |
| Bolivia – Episcopal Ordination of Bishop Bascopé |
According to the document the seizure and the discovery of drug factories in various parts of the country are frequently in the news, and the situation and the serious problem of the drug trade has been acknowledged by the President, Evo Morales. This is not the first time the issue has been raised or reported in the media.
“As the Bolivian Church we are right behind Archbishop Tito, as a Bishop who identifies with his people and is aware of the evils they suffer; for his presence and contact with his people day after day in the course of decades of service, who raises the alarm because at stake is the physical and spiritual well-being of so many children and young people,” the statement says.
The statement also makes clear that Archbishop Solari in the declaration he made was not making an official complaint “nor was he criticising or even less attacking any individual but was reflecting the concerns of many pastoral workers, teachers, parents and young people on account of the serious threat of the drug trade in Chapare”.
The work undertaken by Archbishop Solari in Cochabamba in areas such as the prisons, street children and water-shortages the statement adds, “are all activities which give him the moral authority to speak out on such matters.”
The day after Archbishop Solari said that in the villages in Chapare children were offering tourists cocaine he was approached by the Government which through some Ministers and Deputy Ministers requested that he make a formal complaint with proof of what he had said.
Other approaches were made by members of the Natonal Assembly and of Departments of the Government Party, the Movement for Socialism (MAS), and five Mayors from the area of Chapare, for him to apologise for his attack on the good name of the children of the area.
Yesterday, managers and cultivators of coca in the Cochabamba region, government supporters, went to La Paz to protest and insist that the Archbishop withdrew his remarks, threatening to call for his dismissal should he refuse.
The Statement of the Bishops’ Conference declares: “The words of the Bishops and of the Pastors ought to be heard with humility and a desire to live according to the truth and naturally avoiding any violence, prejudice or any kind of self-interested manipulation of the facts.”
Published 25/11/2010
