Petition to UN on Afro-Bolivian Union Leader Elena Flores

Adepcoca coca growers' union president Elena Flores, speaks to media. August 2, 2019. |
Photo: Twitter/ @LaRazon_Bolivia

Published 12 July 2020

The brother of social leader Elena Flores, has submitted a petition to the UN regarding the leader's political imprisonment.

A recent petition to the United Nations has called for attention to the political imprisonment and human rights abuses against Afro-Bolivian union leader Elena Flores.

Flores is the President of the Departmental Association of Coca Producers (Adepcoca) union of coca growers in her home territory of Yungas, where she's been a labour organizer since her youth.

The leader has been held as a political prisoner since March 4th by the defacto regime of Jeanine Añez and is now being held at the Centro de Orientación Femenino de Obrajes in La Paz.

Her brother, Jaime Flores, has submitted the petition to the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, at the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner.

While incarcerated without cause, she has been subject to racist slurs both in the media and online. Flores' lawyer has argued that she has been denied due process while the case has been plagued by legal errors.

A leader not only to her community but to campesinos on a national level, Elena Flores was at the forefront of denouncing the militarization, repression and attacks on democracy following the coup against President Evo Morales.

More:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Petition-to-UN-on-Afro-Bolivian-Union-Leader-Elena-Flores-20200712-0003.html