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Bolivia Coup (1 Viewer)

ren hoek said:
He didn't ignore the court- the court permitted him to run.  He didn't ignore the assembly- he agreed to hold another election.  The constitution isn't monolithic- if it were, the SC wouldn't be able to change it.  

Not sure what hypothetical you're getting at but it's pretty absurd to imply Morales was some sort of dictator.  
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It’s not absurd at all.  He was taking the methodical, step by step approach that many dictators have taken over decades.   Pretending that the courts were somehow an independent body in Bolivia at this point is wishful thinking.

 
Alex P Keaton said:
It’s not absurd at all.  He was taking the methodical, step by step approach that many dictators have taken over decades.   Pretending that the courts were somehow an independent body in Bolivia at this point is wishful thinking.
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If you see it that way, fair enough.  Dictators don't hold open elections, they don't hold referendums asking if it's ok to run again, and they certainly don't ask for permission from courts to run in elections. 

Even if they did, even if everything you said is right, if he didn't have the popular support to make it work, then there'd be no point seeking permission to hold elections.  If a given person wants to support a certain individual for election, I don't see how it's anyone else's place to say that they can't.  

I still think it's rubbish to quibble over diplomatic process as if it somehow excuses this.  He agreed to hold new elections, then was overthrown by the military, and usurped by an unelected zealot.  

 
Eva Golinger @evagolinger

The de facto regime in Bolivia just authorized $5 million in military equipment for the armed forces, after issuing a decree exempting them from any criminal responsibility for 'protecting public order'. Carte blanche to murder & repress protestors & more weapons to do it with.

 
Here's a Nov. 10 recap I posted in the Elections thread (also on page 1)

Alvaro Piaggio @Piaggio_g

In light of all the terrible misinformation going around on Twitter about what's going in Bolivia, here is a summary of what has gone down in the past few weeks 1/x

Morales sought a fourth term, defying his own constitution and a referendum. He ran anyway, approved by his stacked Supreme Court. Election day was plagued with irregularities and he magically won by just enough to avoid a runoff. 2/x

Civil society organized everywhere and the country had massive protests and civil disobedience for nearly 20 days. Evo called on his version of "colectivos" to defend his government. 3/x

During that time, more evidence of fraud came to light, 3 people died at the hands of pro-government goons and at least 60 were injured. OAS finally issued a preliminary report confirming there had basically been massive fraud. 4/x

The night before, police had decided to retreat to their headquarters in every major city and basically join the protestors in their demands. Morales then proceeded to say he would re-do the election with brand new electoral authorities, but no mention of his resignation 5/x

or even saying he would not run. More government groups kept attacking protesters, this time with firearms. Many Ministers and MOP began quitting. The military came out and said they would not repress the police "mutiny" nor repress protestors, 6/x

but gave orders to defend those who were being attacked by what was basically pro-government paramilitaries. Shortly thereafter the military asked Morales to step down, and he did. 7/x

Now the National Assembly needs to convene on Monday to accept all the resignations, set up a transition government and call elections in 90 days. 8/x

So to clarify three very important points: 1) The government committed fraud 2) Morales' supporters are responsible for the vast majority of the violence (even now, they are burning down and looting parts of La Paz) 3) This is not a military coup. 9/x

The military was not even a part of the opposition and simply joined the calls for the resignation of Morales after serious violence was taking place. So no, don't expect a "far-right military government" to take over now. 10/x

[im omitting tweets with links to OAS paper and several spanish language articles, please have a look if you like]

Evo certainly gave a lot of hope to people when he became president. But his authoritarian tendencies have been clear for a while. It also didn't help he was surrounded by ideologues who had no concern for democracy, especially his VP, Garcia Linera. 14/x

This is far from over though, as they even hinted they'd be back in their resignation press conference. Their goons certainly haven't even left La Paz, as you can see. [link omitted] 15/15

 
ren hoek said:
If you see it that way, fair enough.  Dictators don't hold open elections, they don't hold referendums asking if it's ok to run again, and they certainly don't ask for permission from courts to run in elections. 

Even if they did, even if everything you said is right, if he didn't have the popular support to make it work, then there'd be no point seeking permission to hold elections.  If a given person wants to support a certain individual for election, I don't see how it's anyone else's place to say that they can't.  

I still think it's rubbish to quibble over diplomatic process as if it somehow excuses this.  He agreed to hold new elections, then was overthrown by the military, and usurped by an unelected zealot.  
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This has happened in a multitude of countries the past few decades.  Zimbabwe, Venezuela to name two off the cuff.  This wasn’t a democracy - it was a sham democracy, in the process of converting to a dictatorship.

I have no idea what your third paragraph means.  At no point have I supported the “coup.”

 
Alex P Keaton said:
This has happened in a multitude of countries the past few decades.  Zimbabwe, Venezuela to name two off the cuff.  This wasn’t a democracy - it was a sham democracy, in the process of converting to a dictatorship.

I have no idea what your third paragraph means.  At no point have I supported the “coup.”
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Yeah, Venezuela isn't a dictatorship either.  You really cheapen the word when you misuse it like this.  Democracy in Bolivia is probably more representative and vibrant than ours has been for a long time now.  

Putting "coup" in quotation marks like people can't see with their own two eyes that an elected govt was just overthrown and replaced by a fascist paramilitary police state is pretty rich too.  For someone who doesn't "support the coup" you sure do seem to agree with a lot of the arguments coup supporters are making to justify the military overthrow of a sovereign govt.  

 
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Human Rights Foundation sees things differently, Ren.  I would have guessed you'd be more closely aligned to this.

Bolivia: Government Must Exercise Maximum Restraint in the Use of Force, and Call for Elections Immediately

NEW YORK – The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) calls on the government of Bolivia’s interim president Jeanine Añez to exercise maximum restraint in the use of force. The situation has grown increasingly dangerous as Morales’ supporters attempted to blow up the Senkata gas plant in the city of El Alto on Nov. 19, and have vowed to attempt to do it again. 

Carlo Vercosa, a union leader and medical doctor who heads the union of medical workers of La Paz, described the incident in El Alto as an “act of terrorism, plain and simple,” and said that an explosion of the Senkata gas plant would have killed up to 10,000 people. The result of the joint police-army operation resulted in eight deaths, and several dozen people arrested.

The Añez government must also exercise restraint as it faces an estimated 30,000 coca farmers – many of them armed and allegedly linked to global cocaine cartels – in El Chapare, Cochabamba, Morales’ stronghold. Coca farmers have been blocking food transportation into the city of Cochabamba. While chanting  “Finally Yes; Civil War” (“Ahora Sí; Guerra Civil,” in Spanish) the coca farmers threatened to march through Cochabamba but were prevented from doing so by government forces.

Bolivia’s interim government yesterday made public the recording of a telephone call between a voice that is allegedly Morales’ and coca leader Faustino Yucra in El Chapare. In the recording, Morales is heard providing explicit instructions to his followers to “tighten the blockade and prevent the access of food” to the millions of Bolivians who live in Cochabamba and La Paz. Yucra was arrested in 2010 at a cocaine crystallization plant discovered in El Torno, Santa Cruz. Released shortly thereafter, Yucra has been a fugitive since 2016, when an arrest warrant was issued against him on drug-trafficking charges.

Since both coca farmers and violent pro-Morales protesters in El Alto are preventing the transportation of food, food shortages have started to emerge in Cochabamba and La Paz.

“After being caught perpetrating electoral fraud, Morales is now engaged in a scorched earth attempt to cause violence and chaos. Morales and his supporters are sabotaging the Añez government’s attempts to name a new set of electoral authorities, and to call for free and fair elections as soon as possible, as encouraged by the international community and the Organization of American States (OAS),” said Thor Halvorssen, president of HRF. 

“Reports published hours ago from the National Assembly suggest that a new law with opposition and Morales-party lawmakers jointly calling for elections is in the works. HRF applauds these efforts to stop the politically-fueled violence and resolving Bolivia’s political future through a free and fair electoral process.”

The methods used by Morales’ followers stand in stark contrast with the peaceful protests that brought about his ouster after blatant irregularities in the Oct. 20 election became evident. For 21 days, there were nationwide protests. During that time, armed mobs supportive of Morales killed at least three peaceful protesters in Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. There were no fatalities in the pro-Morales camp.  Additionally, unidentified snipers in Oruro shot at least five anti-Morales miners as they marched from Potosí to La Paz to join the anti-Morales protests.

As of today, the death toll in Bolivia’s protests stands at 30. A report from Bolivia’s governmental Forensic Research Institute indicates that a high number of the bullets that caused such deaths were not fired by police or military weapons. Government officials, based on police forensic reports, have suggested that at least nine of the protesters killed suffered wounds inconsistent with the weapons in use by the police and military officers.

“The Añez transitional government is responsible for providing conclusive evidence that those protesters were not killed by the state police or armed forces. Otherwise, the deceased must be presumed dead at the hands of state authorities,” said Halvorssen. “To determine the cause of death for all who have lost their lives in the context of these protests, the government must provide the Bolivian Ombudsman, as well as local and international investigators and human rights groups, full access to all witnesses and evidence.”

The protests that led to Morales’ ouster progressively increased in intensity as electoral fraud was documented by independent auditors and the Organization of American States (OAS). Secretary General Luis Almagro of the OAS called the fraud a “self-coup” by Morales. Almagro, in addition to the leaders of the European Union, the United States, and others, formally recognized the transitional government of interim president and former opposition Senator Jeanine Añez. Añez was recognized as the constitutional successor to the Presidency after former President Morales, former Vice President García-Linera, and both the first and second Senators of the former ruling party, Movement Towards Socialism (MAS, in Spanish), resigned.

The day after Añez was sworn in as President, the Bolivian Constitutional Tribunal – the same body that controversially authorized Morales’s fourth unconstitutional term as president by ignoring the results of the Feb. 2016 referendum – issued a resolution declaring that the succession to interim president Añez was in compliance with the Bolivian constitution. The Constitutional Tribunal reasoned that Senator Añez was the next in line to succeed Morales as a result of his absence from the country after being granted political asylum in Mexico. While at the time no orders to prosecute Morales had been issued, Áñez has since said Morales could face prosecution for fraud if he returns to the country. 

Opposition congressman Rafael “Tata” Quispe – an indigenous Aymara critic of Morales and a victim of politically-motivated prosecutions by the former president’s government – has since filed a criminal complaint for sedition, armed uprising and terrorism against Morales.

HRF joins the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in calling on the Añez government to repeal executive order (“decreto supremo,” in Spanish) No. 4078. Requested by police who called on the military to join the operations in order to counter the pro-Morales violence, the executive order provides an exemption for “the military from criminal liability in the event that they are acting in self-defense, state of necessity, and [if they] use force proportionally.” 

“Even when self-defense, necessity and proportionality are common affirmative defenses to criminal liability under Bolivian and customary international law, the use of military force is highly discouraged in the neutralization of violent protests by civilians,” said Halvorssen. “HRF believes the executive order is unnecessary, and could have the effect of encouraging the excessive use of force by both military and police officers. Above all, Bolivia’s transition government must maintain strict compliance with international human rights standards.”

On Nov. 10, the day that Morales announced his resignation, violent mobs attacked civilians, looted businesses, and burnt homes in La Paz and Cochabamba. These armed groups also vandalized and burned down a police station in El Alto, beating a police officer to death. 

That same night, pro-Morales protesters attacked and set fire to various homes, among those the home of human rights defender Waldo Albarracin and that of the journalist who first exposed the electoral fraud, Casimira Lema. Violent attacks of that nature have continued until today. Last night, pro-Morales mobs burned down the home of El Alto’s mayor and Morales critic Soledad Chapetón, an indigenous Aymara woman who has been calling for peace since the conflict started. Before Morales’s resignation, violent opposition groups had also burned the home of the pro-Morales governor of Oruro Víctor Hugo Vásquez.

The interim government has ordered the arrest of Juan Ramón Quintana. Quintana was Morales’s minister of the presidency since January 2019 – formerly minister of government between 2012-2017 – until his disappearance from the public eye in the context of the anti-fraud protests in November, and is suspected of being behind some of the coordinated violent actions by armed pro-Morales groups. 

A military officer by career, Quintana was trained in the infamous U.S. Army School of the Americas and served under the Defense Ministry of Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer Suarez before working in the Morales government. Between 2017 and 2019, Quintana was Bolivian ambassador to Cuba. Quintana has been accused of gross human rights violations in Bolivia, including violent repression against people with disabilities protesting in 2016, and also allegedly orchestrated the political violence that led to the 2011 Porvenir massacre, in which 12 people died, and the Hotel Las Americas massacre, where the Morales government is believed to have executed three foreign citizens, who the government claimed were plotting to “assassinate Morales.” In an interview last month, while still in government, Quintana threatened that Bolivia would become a “big battle field, a modern Vietnam” should protests against Morales continue. 

HRF condemns the irresponsible hyperbole in the statements by Bolivia’s Minister of Government Arturo Murillo in which he referred to Quintana as an “animal who thirsts for the blood of Bolivians” when announcing the police operation to catch him. 

On Nov. 13, Bolivian police identified a member of the Colombia FARC guerrillas among pro-Morales groups who had clashes with civilians in Santa Cruz, causing the death of two opposition protesters. On Nov. 15, the police arrested nine Venezuelan citizens carrying Venezuelan police uniforms and ID cards. They were escaping with weapons through the border with Brazil, and have since been charged with “sedition” in Bolivia. 

HRF further condemns a statement by Bolivia’s new Minister of Communications who, in an interview with reporters, stated that the law would be fully enforced against “Argentine journalists” who were also committing “sedition.” While she later backtracked and expressed the government would guarantee freedom of the press for everyone, all interim government officials must exercise a standard of utmost care given the degree of violence in the current crisis. The Añez government must guarantee that journalists of all domestic and international media are allowed to carry out their work freely.  

“Acting government officials must respond to the threats posed by violent protesters with maximum restraint and avoid irreparable damage to the transition government’s international standing by speaking and acting in accordance with international law,” said Halvorssen.
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munga30 said:
“After being caught perpetrating electoral fraud, Morales is now engaged in a scorched earth attempt to cause violence and chaos. Morales and his supporters are sabotaging the Añez government’s attempts to name a new set of electoral authorities, and to call for free and fair elections as soon as possible, as encouraged by the international community and the Organization of American States (OAS),” said Thor Halvorssen, president of HRF. 
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It's just not true munga30. Here the HRF is accepting the OAS' outright fabrications, for which the OAS offered no evidence. The claims of 'electoral fraud' and 'manipulation' are false.  They literally just made it up and put it out there to build the pretext for the coup.  The dictatorship in Bolivia has threatened MAS politicians with violence and imprisonment.  It's a joke that HRF would ask them for "restraint" when they've already killed/repressed their political opponents. 

This video explains it pretty well: https://youtu.be/zeNNgCeCndc.  He even humors the view that Morales' attempt to run for another term was bad form.  But it is no justification for the military coup.  

 
Eva Golinger @evagolinger

In Bolivia, the Trump-supported de facto regime is arresting members of Evo Morales's party, ordering investigations & arrests of Evo's daughter & his advisors. No evidence has been presented of wrongdoing. It's pure persecution, repression & crushing dissent. #Dictatorship

 
Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled

One of the clrearest proofs of Fishhook Theory is how liberal-centrists united with Trumpists to support Bolivia’s fascist coup overthrowing the elected socialist Evo Morales.

 
I like to think I stay up to date on world news .... and I've not seen a single piece of news on this until I googled it (from reading this post)

 
ren hoek said:
It's just not true munga30. Here the HRF is accepting the OAS' outright fabrications, for which the OAS offered no evidence. The claims of 'electoral fraud' and 'manipulation' are false.  They literally just made it up and put it out there to build the pretext for the coup.  The dictatorship in Bolivia has threatened MAS politicians with violence and imprisonment.  It's a joke that HRF would ask them for "restraint" when they've already killed/repressed their political opponents. 

This video explains it pretty well: https://youtu.be/zeNNgCeCndc.  He even humors the view that Morales' attempt to run for another term was bad form.  But it is no justification for the military coup.  
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Do you think there was electoral fraud in Venezuela under Chavez or Maduro?

 
Alex P Keaton said:
Do you think there was electoral fraud in Venezuela under Chavez or Maduro?
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I honestly don't know.  To the extent there was any, I don't think it would have been enough to keep Maduro from winning in his own right.  He certainly had more popular support than Guaido.  

 
"Evo Morales – President of Bolivia from the MAS party (Movimiento al Socialismo, Movement Towards Socialism) – was forced to resign on November 10, in what many observers view as a coup. In the wake of Morales’ resignation, there has been mounting chaos and violence. What is happening in Bolivia is highly undemocratic and we are witnessing some of the worst human rights violations at the hands of the military and the police since the transition to civilian government in the early 1980s. We condemn the violence in the strongest terms, and call on the US and other foreign governments to immediately cease to recognize and provide any support to this regime. We urge the media to do more to document the mounting human rights abuses being committed by the Bolivian state.

On November 10, Morales’ vice president and the heads of both chambers of Congress also resigned in the face of threats of violence against top MAS officials unless they left office. The pressure campaign included the burning of MAS officials’ houses and kidnapping of relatives. This paved the way for the ascension to the presidency of Jeanine Áñez (a conservative Roman Catholic opposition leader from northeastern Bolivia, widely accused of holding racist views) on Tuesday November 12.

The circumstances surrounding the rapid-fire resignations makes Áñez’s assumption of power highly questionable. There are serious doubts about the constitutional legitimacy of her succession. Without the forced resignations by MAS officials, Áñez would not have had even a minimally plausible constitutional path to the presidency, as she was serving as Vice-President of the Senate, a position that is not in the line of presidential succession within the constitution. Additionally, Áñez, whose party received only 4% of the vote in the most recent October 20 election, declared herself President in a Senate session lacking quorum, with MAS senators who make up the legislature’s majority boycotting partly due to fears for their physical safety.

Áñez represents the radical-right sector of the Bolivian opposition, which has taken advantage of the power vacuum created by Morales’ ouster to consolidate control over the state. Áñez appears to have full support of Bolivia’s military and police. Over the course of the last week the military and police have engaged in significant and increasing repression against protests, which have been largely, though not entirely, peaceful. By the night of November 13, La Paz and Cochabamba city center streets were empty of anyone but the police, military, and self-appointed neighborhood militias. There has been ongoing looting, burning of buildings, and violence on the streets and protesters have been met with much repression. In a highly disturbing move, Áñez issued an executive order on November 15 exempting the military from criminal responsibilities related to the use of force. Áñez has said Morales will face prosecution if he returns to Bolivia. And she has also floated the idea of banning the MAS party – which is undoubtedly still Bolivia’s largest and most popular political force – from participation in future elections."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/24/bolivia-anez-regime-violence

 
"Equally disturbing has been a resurgence of public anti-Indigenous racism over the course of the last week. Shortly after Áñez was declared President, she thrust a massive Bible into the air and proclaimed “The Bible has returned to the palace!” Three days earlier on the day of Morales’ ouster, Luis Fernando Camacho, a far-right Santa Cruz businessman and ally of Áñez, went to the presidential palace and knelt before a Bible placed on top of the Bolivian flag. A pastor accompanying him announced to the press, “The Pachamama will never return to the palace.” Opposition activists burned the wiphala flag (an important symbol of Indigenous identity) on various occasions. These are extremist views that threaten to reverse decades of gains in ethnic and cultural inclusion in Bolivia.

Despite increasing violence and repression, diverse social forces have been demonstrating around the country to condemn the government of Áñez. It is important to note that they include not only MAS supporters but also a broad swath of popular sectors that repudiate the rightwing seizure of the state. Thousands of largely unarmed protesters, mostly coca-leaf growers, gathered peacefully in Sacaba, a town in the department of Cochabamba, on the morning of November 15. After unsuccessful negotiations to march to the town square, protesters tried to cross a bridge into the city of Cochabamba, heavily guarded by police and military troops. Soldiers and police fired tear gas canisters and live bullets into the crowd. During the two-hour confrontation, nine protesters were shot dead, and at least 122 were wounded. Most of the dead and injured in Sacaba suffered bullet wounds. Guadalberto Lara, the director of the town’s Mexico Hospital, told the Associated Press it is the worst violence he has seen in his 30-year career. Families of the victims held a candlelight vigil late Friday in Sacaba. A tearful woman put her hand on a casket and asked, “Is this what you call democracy? Killing us as if we counted for nothing?”

We denounce the repressive state violence unfolding in Bolivia. We also voice our concern that the international media have not been able to effectively cover the human rights violations in Bolivia as they too have been met by the violence of the military. On November 15, an Al Jazeera journalist covering protests in La Paz was gassed by the police in the streets and could no longer hold her microphone or camera. Although she later backed down, Áñez’s new minister of communications told the press that the government will not tolerate “seditious” media. This environment, in which freedom of the press is not only not guaranteed, but threatened by the government, has resulted in an alarming lack of coverage of the gross human rights violations being committed by the armed forces against civilian unarmed protesters.

We are outraged by the Áñez regime’s violations of Bolivians’ political, civil, and human rights, and by the deplorable use of deadly violence that has led to a mounting death toll of protesters and countless serious injuries. We call upon the international community to immediately and publicly condemn these acts of violence. We ask international human rights bodies and organizations to impartially investigate and document the acts of violence committed by government agents. We demand that the international community ensure that this de facto regime, which is at best highly dubious and viewed by many as lacking any legitimacy, protect the lives of peaceful protesters, respect the rights of all to freedom of assembly and speech, and strictly abide by international norms on the use of force in situations of civilian violence. We demand that the US and other foreign governments cease all support to this regime and withhold international recognition until free and fair elections – including all political parties – are held, repressive violence ceases, and the fundamental human rights of all Bolivians are respected." ////

Wonder if any mainstream US outlets have called Áñez- extreme religious zealot and ruler of the military dictatorship installed by a coup- a "strongman" like the NYT did to Morales today.  

 
I spent several months in Bolivia earlier this year.  I was also in Bangkok for several months during the political crisis of 2013.  These situations are extremely similar.  In both cases, the democratically elected leader was actively pro-poor in a poor country.  The middle and upper class people hated the leader because the socialist policies hurt their earning power.  In a democracy, a poor person's vote counts just as much as a rich person's vote.  But the middle and upper classes wield a disproportionate amount of power.  They wield enough power to shut down a government.  In both cases, the poor people were also a different ethnicity from the wealthy people and had been victimized historically.  In Bolivia, it was poor indigenous farmers voting in one of their own.  In Thailand, it was the poor Isan and other northern non-Thai farmers voting in not one of their own but voting in a Thai who represented their interests.  In both cases, the revolts had nothing to do with promoting democracy and everything to do with promoting capitalism or at least the economic interests of the well-to-do.  And in neither case was corruption a reason people were upset.  Both leaders were corrupt in their personal affairs but were fairly elected.  Corruption by government officials isn't looked down upon in either country, in fact, it is expected and accepted.  In both cases, the civil unrest isn't going to go away.  The poor majorities aren't going anywhere.

 
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SoBeDad said:
an audit of the election found serious irregularities."
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They're going to make that accusation whether it's true or not to justify the coup.  They know that it'd be difficult to get support from the international community without election fraud.

 
Don Hutson said:
They're going to make that accusation whether it's true or not to justify the coup.  They know that it'd be difficult to get support from the international community without election fraud.
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Evo should've found a successor, instead of trying to be president for life.

 
Don Hutson said:
True.  But it is his policies that have opposition so this coup might have occurred regardless.
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If he had found a successor there would have been no need to fiddle with the constitution (or the votes) so the opposition would have been weaker

 
msommer said:
If he had found a successor there would have been no need to fiddle with the constitution (or the votes) so the opposition would have been weaker
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Yup.  Fiddling with the constitution is a big deal.  It’s something that wanna-be-dictators do.

(note to ren:  this doesn’t mean I support the coup; it’s possible to dislike dictator behavior and oppose the coup)

 
The thing about leftist governments is they tend to nationalize their resources, rather than tee them up for corporate extraction.  So we get these boogeyman narratives which really double as a justification for transnational corps to back the overthrow of a popularly elected leader.  'Well, if he just hadn't fooled with the Constitution none of this would have happened.'  'Well, if he just hadn't tried to stay in power too long everything would be fine and the ruling coup regime wouldn't be threatening MAS officials with violence and imprisonment.'  'The party that killed/threatened/kidnapped its way into power needs to please exercise restraint!'  Here in the West we get these backwards depictions of reality.  

The truth is that Morales and the MAS are far more democratic, peaceful, and interested in the welfare of the poor than the fascist, racist regime that has just seized power in Bolivia.  This was only made possible by the lies of the OAS.  This Añez regime obviously has zero credibility wrt facilitating a fair and democratic process.  I don't see a peaceful path forward for the majority which supported MAS.  

 
SoBeDad said:
Bolivian leader agrees to withdraw military in deal to 'pacify' country

Good news. Hopefully, new elections soon, without Evo Morales, who shoulders much blame for the crisis by trying to hold onto power too long. 

It wasn't only the military that pushed out Evo:

"Huarachi's federation of unions once backed Morales but along with the military was key in pushing him to step down after an audit of the election found serious irregularities."
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Good development, hopefully Bolivia can get some real elections again soon.

 
ren hoek said:
https://imgur.com/LGvYENR

Bolivia's new interior minister vowed to jail Evo Morales for the rest of his life.  Normal democratic society.  
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Sad thing is that what is happening in Bolivia mirrors what Trump would like to do here but can't.  Trump's reckless behavior, e.g. Lock Her Up, has encouraged all that is happening in Bolivia.  The right-wingers in Bolivia knew that Trump and Jair Bolsonaro would approve of the coup.  Actually, they probably got pre-approval from both.  I also bet that Trump wants to get into Áñez's pants.  She is just his type.

 
Don Hutson said:
Sad thing is that what is happening in Bolivia mirrors what Trump would like to do here but can't.  Trump's reckless behavior, e.g. Lock Her Up, has encouraged all that is happening in Bolivia.  The right-wingers in Bolivia knew that Trump and Jair Bolsonaro would approve of the coup.  Actually, they probably got pre-approval from both.  I also bet that Trump wants to get into Áñez's pants.  She is just his type.
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They'll come after AMLO next.  

 
msommer said:
OAS Stated severe irregulaties or verbiage to that effect in favor of Morales
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Here's the letter from Congress, asking the OAS' EOM how it came to the conclusions it did without providing any evidence: https://schakowsky.house.gov/uploads/OAS Boliva_Final.pdf.

For example:

6) Is the EOM aware that this steady increase in Evo Morales' margin was the result of precincts that were, on average, more pro-Morales reporting their voting results later than precincts that were, on average, less pro-Morales?  Why is this apparently obvious conclusion--from the publicly available data -- never mentioned in the EOM press statements or reports?

8) In its first press release, the OEM did not present any evidence to support the story of "fraud" quoted above.  Did it have any evidence?  If so, why was it not presented, either in that release or in subsequent publications??  Did the EOM consider the potential effect on political violence or stability of putting forth what appears to be a hypothesis of fraud, without any evidence?

Might be interesting reading for you as well @munga30.  

It wasn't "fraud" or "manipulation".  It was a fair election, that Evo Morales won.  And then he was removed by a coup.  

 
Thomas Field @thomascfield

Bolivia's coup govt orders top diplomats fr Mexico & Spain to leave. As with expelled Cuban doctors & Venezuelan diplos, de facto govt accuses them of giving aid & asylum to resistance. Far right govt already reestablished rel w US & Israel, asking for help ag leftist "sedition."

 
Murph said:
So is anyone going to lose their job over this? Or is publishing editorials from US Senators the only fireable offense in journalism these days?
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Nope.  They just fail upwards.  Happens all the time.  

 
Don Hutson said:
I spent several months in Bolivia earlier this year.  I was also in Bangkok for several months during the political crisis of 2013.  These situations are extremely similar.  In both cases, the democratically elected leader was actively pro-poor in a poor country.  The middle and upper class people hated the leader because the socialist policies hurt their earning power.  In a democracy, a poor person's vote counts just as much as a rich person's vote.  But the middle and upper classes wield a disproportionate amount of power.  They wield enough power to shut down a government.  In both cases, the poor people were also a different ethnicity from the wealthy people and had been victimized historically.  In Bolivia, it was poor indigenous farmers voting in one of their own.  In Thailand, it was the poor Isan and other northern non-Thai farmers voting in not one of their own but voting in a Thai who represented their interests.  In both cases, the revolts had nothing to do with promoting democracy and everything to do with promoting capitalism or at least the economic interests of the well-to-do.  And in neither case was corruption a reason people were upset.  Both leaders were corrupt in their personal affairs but were fairly elected.  Corruption by government officials isn't looked down upon in either country, in fact, it is expected and accepted.  In both cases, the civil unrest isn't going to go away.  The poor majorities aren't going anywhere.
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Hmm, and by chance were you in the USA in the summer/fall of 2016? I'm starting to see a pattern here. j/k

 
msommer said:
If Añez calls for new elections within her 90 day window, that are verified intermationally and not manipulated; with no requirement for exceptions for term limits required or granted to any candidates, yes, yay for the constitution and yay for democracy
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Slapdash said:
Good development, hopefully Bolivia can get some real elections again soon.
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SoBeDad said:
Bolivian leader agrees to withdraw military in deal to 'pacify' country

Good news. Hopefully, new elections soon, without Evo Morales, who shoulders much blame for the crisis by trying to hold onto power too long. 
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Here's an update on those "new elections" everyone thought the fascist coup regime was going to run.  A great tragedy in Bolivia.  

(Cambridge, MA, July 27, 2020) –­­– Four days after the Interim Bolivian Government suspended elections again, Harvard Law School’s (HLS) International Human Rights Clinic and the University Network for Human Rights (UNHR) released a report on the gross human rights abuses carried out under Bolivia’s interim President, Jeanine Áñez. The report documents one of the deadliest and most repressive periods in the past several decades in Bolivia as well as the growing fear of indigenous peoples and government critics that their lives and safety are in danger. 

“We have identified very troubling patterns of human rights violations since the Interim Government took power. These abuses create a climate where the possibility of free and fair elections is seriously undermined,” said Thomas Becker, an international human rights attorney with UNHR and a 2018-2020 clinical instructor in HLS’s International Human Rights Clinic.

Áñez assumed power on November 12, 2019 with the mandate of calling new elections by January 2020. Under her administration, Bolivia has endured a surge of human rights violations. Shortly after Áñez took power, state forces carried out operations that killed at least 23 Bolivian civilians, all indigenous, and injured over 230. These casualties make November 2019 the second-deadliest month in terms of civilian deaths committed by state forces since Bolivia became a democracy nearly 40 years ago.

Since November, the interim government has continued to persecute people that it perceives to be outspoken opponents of the Áñez administration. The government has intimidated the press, shutting down critical news outlets and arresting “seditious” journalists. Áñez’s forces have arrested or detained hundreds of former politicians for vague crimes such as “sedition” and “terrorism.”

The HLS and UNHR report offers recommendations to the interim government to enforce its domestic and international obligations. First among these recommendations is that the interim government fulfill its commitment to hold free and fair presidential elections as quickly as possible.

“We are spiraling deeper into authoritarianism,” warned Felipa López Apaza, whose brother Juan was killed in Black November. “We need elections as soon as possible or they will keep coming after us.”
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Last edited by a moderator:
Big shoutout to everyone that falsely misrepresented Evo Morales as a “wanna-be dictator” for making this possible:

Kawsachun News

If Bolivia's coup regime carries out electoral fraud, then the social movements will mobilize to take back power in the streets, said miners leader Orlando Gutiérrez & campesino leader @AndronicoRod, today in Oruro.

Bolivia's ruling party is now filing criminal charges against union leaders @AndronicoRod & Orlando Gutiérrez for saying that they'll protest if there's electoral fraud.

 
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