Caritas and Tirifilo

By: Luis Gonzales Posada - 21/11/2024

The title of this article recalls the duel to the death between two Peruvian faites, Carita and Tirifilo, which took place in the popular neighborhood of Malambo, in Rimac, in May 1915.

Both characters, feared by the population, but also by other criminals and by the police, decided to settle their grudges in a duel with a chaveta, "a thin steel blade, sharp enough to shave," as our notable writer, Ciro Alegria, describes the weapon in the book "Duelo de Caballeros"

Tirifilo, the most skilled in handling the knife, managed to cause several cuts to Carita, but he killed him by plunging the stiletto into his heart.

Carita spent many years in prison for various crimes, where he told the story to Ciro Alegria himself, imprisoned with him during the tyranny of Commander Sánchez Cerro for belonging to the Aprista Party.

In the end both lost and other faites rose to prominence.

A story that, when translated into politics, reminds us of Arce and Evo, who destroy each other daily and who will surely annihilate each other for the happiness of the Bolivian people.

Evo Morales is an extremist politician, an ally of the dictatorships of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba; and, at the same time, a sexual predator, prosecuted for statutory rape before the courts of his country.

When he was in asylum in Argentina, protected by the Kirchnerite Alberto Fernández, today prosecuted for beating his wife and for acts of corruption, the prestigious “Apolo” foundation filed a criminal complaint against the coca grower leader “for human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation and child abuse”, adding that during his stay between 2019-2020 he lived with “minors transferred from Bolivia to do domestic work”.

The complaint is based, among other testimonies, on the words of the leader of the Intercultural Women's Commission of the Altiplano country, Angélica Ponce, who stated that Morales received "girls as gifts from those who wanted to obtain government favors," adding that these facts were "widely known in circles close to the former president."

The newspaper El Debate reports that Morales' head of security reported that the minors were collected "in folkloric dance programs and among female soccer players," taking them to the Presidential Palace, where they were made drunk and then sexually abused.

In this sordid context, let us remember that the journalist Alfonso Rodríguez published a book reproducing some of his offensive phrases, such as saying: “ardent women, Evo president”, “when I go to the villages, all the women get pregnant and on their bellies it says Evo Cumple” or “women hold on, Evo never gets tired”.

Now that the Bolivian prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into child sexual abuse, Morales is playing the victim, saying that it is a maneuver by President Arce, imperialism and the extreme right.

To pressure the judges, he organised a march of the so-called “red ponchos”, a mob that travelled 200 kilometres over 7 days, from Oruro to La Paz, demanding that the judicial process be annulled.

They blocked roads to prevent the entry of food, fuel and merchandise into the cities, a common practice of this seditious group, which thus achieved the resignation of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and the accession of Evo Morales to power.

This time, the insurgents have attacked military and police barracks, detaining numerous soldiers, an act described by the government as treason against the country and repudiated by the Armed Forces and the Police of the highlands.

Evo also wants to be allowed to run again, knowing that it is illegal, because two rulings by the Constitutional Court have established that no politician can serve as the highest magistracy more than twice, continuously or at intervals, and Morales has had three terms.

The first, from 2006 to 2010; then, from 2010 to 2015; then, from 2015 to 2020 and he sought a fourth term, from 2020 to 2025, organizing a gigantic electoral fraud denounced by the OAS and the European Union; a crooked maneuver that provoked violent protest demonstrations that led him to seek asylum in Mexico.

His frustration at not being able to run has led him to hate President Arce, his former Minister of the Economy, whom he praised for his management of the gas fields, but since they did not invest in maintenance or new explorations, the bonanza ended.

Income has dropped from US$6,624 to US$1,905 and the Central Bank's reserves have fallen from US$15,600 to US$1,800. This is undoubtedly a real disaster, aggravated by the fact that there is no fuel on the taps and there is a shortage of basic products and inputs for production.

Arce and Evo have degraded Bolivian politics, accusing each other of corruption and drug trafficking, as well as clashing over membership of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).

However, there are three themes that unite these sinister characters: their adherence to 21st Century Socialism, their unconditional support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and their being enemies of the United States.

They are, in short, two extremists who are now fighting each other with teeth and knives to continue destroying their country.

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».