LA PAZ. – With tiger stripes beneath sheep’s wool, the U.S. government seeks to disguise its anti-Cuban agent Rosa María Payá, denounced Bolivian television channel Abya Yala in this capital.

With a photo of her together with former de facto president Jeanine Áñez (2019–2020), the South American broadcaster linked Payá to serious human rights violations committed in Bolivia during that regime, following the civil-military coup that forced the resignation of former President Evo Morales on November 10th, 2019.

In its social media posts, Abya Yala recalled that the U.S. government nominated this promoter of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade against her homeland to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The channel emphasized Payá’s approval of the massacres committed in Bolivia after the November 2019 coup conspiracy.

“An ally of the Áñez government, responsible for massacres, executions, and torture in Bolivia, Rosa María Payá Acevedo was nominated by the Trump Administration to the IACHR, the same body that verified the serious human rights violations in the country during the 2019 de facto regime,” Abya Yala stated.

The Facebook post added that various Bolivian social and human rights organizations expressed concern over the selection of the ultra-right-wing U.S. nationalized figure as a member of the IACHR.

It reiterated that Payá supported the coup d’état that forced President Evo Morales to resign on November 10th, 2019, and elevated Áñez, under whose de facto government the Senkata, Sacaba, and El Pedregal massacres occurred.

A report by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) of the IACHR, which investigated these crimes, found that 38 people died in the massacres, hundreds were wounded, and thousands were imprisoned, tortured, sexually abused, kidnapped, and mistreated during the de facto government.

In addition to the IACHR, reports also exist from the United Nations (UN), Amnesty International, and the Institute for Therapy and Research on the Aftermath of Torture and State Violence (ITEI).

KILLER DECREE

Áñez, just 48 hours after illegally assuming the presidency on November 12th, 2019, signed Supreme Decree 4078 (known as the Death Decree), which exempted military and police forces from criminal responsibility for the violence used in suppressing those demanding the restoration of constitutional order.

As a result, the aforementioned massacres occurred, along with dozens of deaths and thousands of human rights violations.

RECORD OF AN AGENT

A U.S. citizen born in Cuba, Payá is an anti-Cuban agent who heads the so-called Foundation for Pan-American Democracy and also “Cuba Decide”—non-governmental organizations funded by U.S. agencies, according to public Latin American sources.

In Washington, a Bolivian citizen filed a challenge to Payá’s IACHR candidacy, endorsed by Latin American and Caribbean human rights organizations and individuals.

The newly appointed IACHR member, proposed by the U.S. government, visited Bolivia in January 2020, shortly after the massacres of Indigenous Bolivians, to express her support for Áñez’s government and lobby for a break in relations with Cuba.

Nominated by Senator Marco Rubio, Payá was described on the website of Bolivian political weekly La Época as an excellent opportunity for Washington to "(...) further pressure the Cuban government and isolate it internationally."

Since arriving in the United States in 2013, Payá has received support from ultra-conservative Cuban-American politicians known for their hardline stance against Cuba, the publication notes.

Among them stands out then-Senator Marco Rubio, who in January 2015 brought her as his official guest to the State of the Union address presented by President Barack Obama, the paper reports.

Since then, it adds, she has been promoted on the international stage as the representative of the entire Cuban diaspora—not only with political support but also with access to funding from U.S. federal entities, such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and others.

These organizations provide her with over two million dollars annually in non-refundable government grants.

After presenting these facts, La Época concludes that the Cuba Decide promoter is unfit for the IACHR position due to a number of deficiencies.

First among them is her dependence on the U.S. administration, which suggests she will serve Washington’s geopolitical interests and agenda.

It warns that she is not a lawyer and lacks a notable record in the defense of human rights or democracy. She is also not an expert in Latin American policy, and her career has focused primarily on promoting—unsuccessfully—regime change in Cuba and attacking the governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.

As a Trump supporter, Payá backs his maximum pressure strategy and unilateral coercive measures against various countries in the region, as well as mass deportations of migrants to Latin American and Caribbean nations.

According to La Época, like Rubio, Payá promotes the U.S. economic, commercial, and financial blockade against Cuba, maintained for over six decades and condemned by the overwhelming majority of UN member states.

At the same time, she echoes Rubio’s rhetoric of hatred toward Cuban medical brigades deployed in multiple countries to serve vulnerable populations or those affected by natural disasters, the weekly concludes.

All these facts reveal the tiger stripes that mar the “human rights defender” sheep’s clothing with which Washington seeks to mask its anti-Cuban agent.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez