"Macho, outside of the list"

In the peace protest against the male chauvinism. / GASTON BRITO (REUTERS)


The Bolivians are showing in this election campaign that the machismo no longer have a place in the politics of the country. This week, several protests by the citizenship achieved the second renunciation of a candidate to the Legislative Assembly by allegedly assaulting their couple. At the cry of "macho, outside of the list", women's groups depart from days ago to the streets in La Paz to demand to the political leaders that are presented to the presidential and legislative elections of October 12 that raised concrete proposals to protect the Bolivian. Bolivia (10.5 million inhabitants) is the country of Latin America with the largest number of cases of physical violence against women and the second with more sexual violence, according to the United Nations. Only in Cochabamba, in the first half of 2014, there were 21 deaths of women at the hands of their partner or ex. Throughout the country have killed 60 women in this period.

 Before the magnitude of the problem, the Ombudsman, Rolando Villena, and the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights - consisting of civic associations - have requested the Government of Evo Morales that declares a state of high alert, deploying more police controls and do awareness campaigns against male violence. "We demand that the Ministry of Justice, to the governorates and the Office of the mayor the immediate declaration of maximum alert by the violence against women as a mechanism of emergency to deal with the causes of the pandemic, which is affecting more than half of the Bolivian population," says Villena. The protests, in different parts of the country, calling for the implementation of policies to prevent the macho violence and to promote equality of men and women, to the time that repudiate the sexist language from politicians. The candidate for senator of Cochabamba for the ruling party Movement Toward Socialism (MAS, chaired by Evo Morales), Ciro Zabala, has triggered a wave of criticism after say, two weeks ago, that the provocative dress and the consumption of alcohol by women favor that crimes are committed against them. Demonstrations have already achieved that Adolfo Mendoza, senator of the most nominated by Cochabamba, to resign from his position - at the end of last July - after exiting to the light of the allegations against his wife by the abuse. Curiously, Mendoza was one of the initiators of the law that punishes the violence against women, adopted in 2013. Last Tuesday it was the turn of Jaime Navarro, candidate for deputy of Democrat Unit (UD, center) for Peace.

The dissemination of a audio where the couple of the politician tells the own Samuel Doria Medina (candidate for the presidency by Unit Democrat, center) that Navarro has been beaten in two occasions, sparked outrage. After proclaiming his innocence, the candidate announced his resignation, he explained, to protect his family and to the own Doria what he termed as a "dirty war" of their opponents to prevent their electoral triumph. The former president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rebekah Delgado, ensures that the candidates for the presidency and Doria Medina and Evo Morales should also abandon its nominations: "Are the principal authorities that promote the mockery toward women and deployed a machismo attitude that contributes to the violence against them," he says. Morales has proffered abundant Chanzas in public on women.