Arrested
(Photo : pxhere)

A Bolivian student was taken by authorities on Tuesday for spreading her negative opinions regarding the interim government of the country. She had been spreading her ideas through the creation of memes. The memes accounts are now put down by the student.

The name of the student who created the meme account is María Alejandra Salinas. She is studying at La Universidad Mayor de San Andrés. Her arrest was being criticized by many. Many of her university leaders are expressing their support for Salinas. Some of them are calling her arrest as a violation of her freedom of speech in the country.

Salinas is a graduate student in the university with a focus on feminist studies. She named the meme account that she created on the social media platform Facebook, Suchel. She made the account after the resignation of the country's former president Evo Morales this past November. 

Evo Morales had left his office after being suspected of cheating in the elections and manipulating its results. After hearing the news that the police forces of the country are being ordered to arrest him, he left his office and flew to Mexico. He and his supporters believe that he is a victim of the story. 

After Evo Morales had left his position as the leader of Bolivia, Jeanine Añez Chavez had assumed the position as the interim leader of the country.

According to Salinas' statement, the account she created aims to counter the current state media. The meme account that she created mainly includes content with humor on the political issues in the country and was also aiming at the current leadership in the country.

As her meme account's following grew to more than 10,000, she started receiving an increasing number of threats to her life. Some were even threatening to rape her.

On December 28, 2019, she released a public announcement saying that she will be deactivating the meme account that she created on Facebook. She feared that the continuance of the operation of her Facebook meme account will cost her or her family's life.

According to a tweet, with the power of the interim government of Bolivia to control traditional media in the country, its citizens are turning to different social media platforms such as Facebook for "real" news. One social media post had expressed his disappointment because Salinas had to shut down her Facebook meme account because of the threats she was receiving.

She is being accused by the government of inspiring violence in the country. Salinas denies such accusations.

The Bolivian student shared that the accusations about her promotion of hate and the indoctrination of the people of Bolivia are not true. She claims that the Facebook meme page that she created did not reach ten percent of the total population of Bolivia. She claims that she has no power to influence the people of the country. 

In less than 2 months, the current interim government of Bolivia, in the leadership of Añez, has already received numerous accusations of violating human rights laws.