A Grotesque Display: Bolivia’s Historical Memory and the Reception of King Felipe VI

Original article: Buenos días su majestad

By Sara Valentina Enriquez Moldez

When Marx opened The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte with the ironic observation that all significant events and historical figures occur twice — first as tragedy, then as farce — he referred to the coup by Louis Bonaparte following the failed Second Republic. This perspective helps us grasp the grotesque reality we are witnessing in Bolivia, leaving us in disbelief.

What Bolivia experienced on March 12 was nothing less than a complete reenactment of that farce. Beyond paying homage to a symbol of centuries of plunder, genocide, and dispossession, the government of Rodrigo Paz forced those once regarded as symbols of liberation against colonialism to take on the role of subservients.

While over 1,400 police officers safeguarded the center of La Paz to welcome Felipe VI, closing streets, avenues, and public squares to everyday citizens, one cannot help but wonder: Where does the sacred right to free movement go, which the right-wing and its media so fervently champion when the popular class mobilizes?

When workers and farmers block roads to defend their rights and gains, as happened during the resistance against Decree 5503 just months ago, they are demonized, criminalized, and repressed. Meanwhile, the legislature, dominated by the most ignorant and corrupt right-wing factions along with agricultural representatives, pushes for an anti-blockade law to punish those who fight for their rights.

However, when the King of Spain arrives at the seat of government, the matter of free movement suddenly seems unimportant. It reduces to a mere protocol, backyard diplomacy, and colonial attitudes.

If the police presence is already humiliating (his arrival itself is humiliating), what transpired with the 1st Infantry Regiment «Colorados de Bolivia» is a crude and ignorant dagger to the heart of our historical memory. Seeing them chant a submissive «Good morning, Your Majesty» was a grotesque spectacle.

One might ask President Rodrigo Paz and those young conscripts if they know where the blood they wear comes from. They should be reminded that the Colorados de Bolivia did not emerge from a royal procession: they arose amidst the fervor of the independence guerrilla wars, which kept the spirit of insurrection against the royalist army alive.

In the Republic of Ayopaya, led by José Miguel Lanza, indigenous, mestizo, and rebellious creole patriots resisted for years, transforming a band of fighters into a true people’s army. These dignified men and women, forged by the conviction of liberation, conspired tirelessly against the royalists and their power. Marshal Antonio José de Sucre paid particular attention to them for their bravery and initially named them the «Aguerridos» battalion.

These men, the «Colorados,» achieved glory fighting against the Spanish crown. Today, Paz’s government has reduced them to mere subjects. It is a spitting in the face of history.

This act is certainly not isolated or mere circumstantial diplomacy. It is the manifestation of a political project that Rodrigo Paz has made clear during his tours in the United States, even before winning the elections, or during his recent visit to Miami in the context of the so-called «Shield of the Americas,» where he met with Trump, Milei, Kast, Noboa, Asfura, Peña, among others, to receive orders from the North.

I wonder: What kind of prevailing common sense allows this to occur without widespread national outrage? Perhaps one influenced by Heads of State who boast about being nationalists for other dominating nations, like Javier Milei, who explicitly called himself the most Zionist president in the world.

Or maybe it’s the type of common sense that arises after failed revolutions, frustrated and abandoned, resulting in a divided populace lacking the will to build a historical project.

What we are experiencing is delusional, and it is even more delusional that we allow it. May history, which judges without mercy, not forget.

Sara Valentina Enriquez Moldez