An edition of 'Página Siete' at a newsstand in La Paz, Bolivia, during the October 2019 elections.Jorge Bernal (AFP)
Página Siete, the main newspaper of opposition to the governments of the Movement to Socialism (MAS) of Bolivia, announced on Thursday that the newspaper of this June 29 would be its last edition, after 13 years of work as an "ally of democracy". "We have decided to suspend the publication of Página Siete as of today," the newspaper's chief executive, businessman Raul Garafulic, wrote in a letter published on the newspaper's website. "From now on, the procedure established by the Commercial Code and the applicable legal regulations for these cases will be strictly followed," he says. The cause of this decision, according to the letter, is "a combination of adverse circumstances." "I think we could call it a perfect storm," Garafulic wrote of the sum of political pressures and severe economic hardship.
Página Siete was created in 2010 by a group of businessmen from La Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia, after the main morning newspaper of this city, La Razón, was bought by a businessman suspected of having sympathies for the Government of Evo Morales. Led by former President Carlos Mesa, who was Página Siete chief columnist for years before returning to active politics in 2018, most of La Razón's columnists moved to the new newspaper, initiating a journalistic polarization that has continued until now.
When he was one year old, Página Siete reported that police repression of an indigenous protest against Morales had caused the death of a baby. The headline was wrong and the newspaper apologized. From that moment on, the government presented him as the main member of an alleged "cartel of lies" organized to discredit the efforts of the leftist government.
Since then, Página Siete and the national authorities have been in constant conflict. The newspaper became the reference of the affluent middle classes of La Paz, strongly opposed to the MAS. He played an important role in spreading the arguments against Morales' fourth re-election and in creating the mood that framed his ouster in 2019. For a few months, he strongly defended the internal government of Jeanine Añez, but stopped supporting her towards the middle of his term in the presidency. This newspaper's relations with President Luis Arce were also difficult, although he suspended Morales' practice of publicly attacking the press.
"The ruling party systematically blocked the advertising for the newspaper, despite the fact that it is financed with the resources of all Bolivians," Garafulic laments in his letter. In addition, he denounces that the ruling party pressured private companies not to advertise in their newspaper. Along with this, he recognizes that the pandemic changed news reading habits, "generating a sharp drop in the sale of printed newspapers", and that the economic crisis that the country is experiencing has reduced the potential income of the media.
Garafulic faces lawsuits for non-payment, which meant freezing his accounts and seizing his assets. As he confesses, the personal loans he hired to try to sustain the operation of the newspaper were not enough to achieve it. The workers of the newspaper have explained in a letter that they were notified about the closure this Thursday at 8.30 in the morning. "Until that time, those of us who signed this farewell document, maintained the hope that a capitalization had been arranged that had us in suspense for months. It didn't arrive and neither did our salaries, in some cases for seven months."
#P7Informa
The last note to our readers pic.twitter.com/mqwXEqJ7RL
— Page Seven (@pagina_siete) June 29, 2023
Many journalists and opposition politicians have expressed regret at the closure of the newspaper, while no ruling party figure, until the publication of this article, has commented on what happened. "I very much regret that the pressure of the MAS governments and the adverse conditions forced the closure of Página Siete. It loses democracy, independent journalism and citizenship," tweeted former President Mesa. "One of the bitterest days for journalism and democracy," wrote Raúl Peñaranda, the newspaper's director when it was founded in 2010.
In Página Siete they wrote, almost always with an opposition position, some of the main firms in the country. Where they will move in the future is uncertain.
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