Latest from Olga Flores

We have just had the following report from Olga (4 June):

Please do as she asks and send email support to the addresses in the previous blog entry.  The Bolivian government is apparently blocking some of these but not all of them.

JCC

Dear friends with good hearts:

Thanks for your solidarity and all the time that you have dedicated to help me. All of your efforts contributed to generate a spirit of justice.

After 29 days of hunger strike, the Bolivian government is insensible to our demands for truth and justice. We understand Truth as our right to know what happened with all the missing people and the duty of the state to investigate where they are and turn back to us their mortal bodies. And we ask for JUSTICE as the right to live in a society with no murders,and torturadores, those who practice torture with impunity. 

We are asking the President Evo Morales the most basic thing: to fulfill his first duty, to apply the law, specifically the Inter-American Convention Forced Disappearance of Persons Act, that became national law in 1996 and the Law No. 2640 which requires them to compensate the victims of the political violence during the military regimes.

At the present I am in a hard dilemma, to continue the strike till the end, which means until death or to change the measure. From the beginning we were aware of this risk and we mentioned to President Morales that it is a paradox—that we must use this measure against our health to defend life. 

At this point we have to reflect upon the moral implications of this decision. Bolivia does not need more martyrs, but at the same time, everything will continue the same if we do not make this sacrifice. As a Unitarian my principle of reverence for life, is basic, but it has the same weight as my commitment to justice. When we were in dictatorship, I did not hesitate to put my life at risk, there was not any other option. At the moment it seems that the government just listens to the voices of violence and to those who can exert pressure. We have a slogan "without justice there is no change."

So my dear ones, you can see how much I appreciate your support. Let us hope that the government will change their masculine mind of confrontation and see life through the eyes of our indigenous vision of complementarity. Thank you for your help to us to build a country with peace and justice. 

Each day I feel weaker and weaker in my body, but stronger and stronger in my soul. 

Many thanks again to all my sisters and brothers of the path. 

Olga