Military Coup in Bolivia Removes Anti-Imperialist, Evo Morales, from Power

Despite winning the recent election, Bolivian President Evo Morales has been forced to step down, in a military coup, despite him agreeing to demands from the opposition for a new election. He now faces arrest, as the right-wing coup plotters take over the country.

(Link to my last post about Bolivia - I recommend reading all the links included).

The world has lost a great leader - the first indigenous leader of a country that has, like the rest of Latin America, been colonized and plundered by westerners for centuries. Most recently, it is the US that has committed all kinds of atrocities throughout the continent - installing fascist dictators, arming death squads, and so on; all to force the privatisation of resources, and advance the interests of western corporations and elites.

Under Evo's leadership, however, Bolivia liberated itself from the grip of the US and, to a significant extent, from the grip of the capitalist elite within the country. He was thus able to carry out a socialistic agenda, leading to a huge reduction in poverty and inequality, and to the empowerment of indigenous people, who had previously been persecuted by the white minority who previously ruled. (He has also been able to speak out about climate change, and boldly call out US imperialism, on the world stage).

Of course there are fair criticisms of Evo, as there are of any leader, but the criticisms that have most widely been leveled at him in the run up to this coup, from protestors, from right-wing Latin American regimes, from western powers, and from western media, are highly contestable.

Firstly, they argue that he won the election on October 20th fraudulently. Despite western media uniformly reporting this to be the case, there appears to be no evidence for this allegation. The Organization of American States, which made the unfounded allegation, is 60% US-funded, and openly boasts about being a vehicle to advance US interests. Most notably, the organization has made no statement about extreme authoritarianism from the right-wing, US-backed governments of Honduras and Chile. Nor did they do anything when the leftist former president of Brazil, Lula, was wrongly imprisoned, enabling the rise of neo-fascist, Bolsonaro.

Secondly, they point to the 2016 referendum on presidential term limits, which Evo called, hoping to overturn a law that was preventing him running for another term. Evo lost the referendum, by 2%, ruling him out of running in this year's election. However, he and his supporters argued that his loss was as a result of right-wing propaganda and US funding. And last year, the democratically-elected supreme court in Bolivia ruled that Evo could indeed run for the presidency.

Is the Supreme Court biased towards Evo's ruling party? Inevitably, this is what his opponents say, but there seems to be no evidence for this - as mentioned, the judges in the court have been democratically elected. And in any case, given that the US has indeed long been meddling in Bolivia, including during that referendum campaign, it hardly seems unreasonable to assume that he would otherwise have won, given the narrow margin by which he lost. (And, we should note that many democratic countries do not have term limits).

As for other criticisms, it should be taken into consideration that there was no Cuba-style revolution in Bolivia - Evo's government took some of the power away from the capitalist class, but did not overthrow them and totally abolish the private sector. They remained, always supported by the US, and constantly working against Evo and his socialistic policies. He has had an extremely difficult task in having to deal with that, whilst transforming the economy into an economy that works for all citizens, (which he has to a very large extent, succeeded in doing).

As mentioned, the US has been meddling in Bolivian affairs, in support of the capitalist class, since Evo came to power in 2006, and it seems as though the current opposition leader (and now likely future President) - Carlos Mesa - is their man. He is a member of a Washington-based think tank, that is run by a former employee of the National Endowment for Democracy (an off shoot of the CIA). The think tank is funded by an array of western corporations, foundations, and agencies - all eager for privatization and profit. (As we move towards decarbonization in the west, are these corporations hoping to exploit Bolivia's lithium? The world's largest untapped lithium reserve is located at the Uyuni Salt Flat, in Bolivia's Andes mountains).

The think tank is also funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the State Department subsidiary that was exposed in WikiLeak's cables directing millions of dollars to opposition groups in Bolivia, including those "opposed to Evo Morale's vision for indigenous communities".

Mesa was previously Vice President, in 2003, when 71 indigenous protestors were killed as they tried to resist US exploitation of their resources. Evo, who took part in these protests, came to power a few years later thanks to a mass social movement, and began his agenda to liberate the country, first by nationalising some of the country's resources. As ever, the business elites within Bolivia (mainly based in Santa Cruz), and the western capitalist powers, who had been exploiting the resources, were angered by this - and by the general leftist/pro-sovereignty agenda of Evo's government - and thus have been trying to topple him ever since. This WikiLeaks cable reveals that Mesa has been in regular contact with American officials, in their efforts to destabilize Evo's government.

Whether or not it is justified to accuse Evo of any authoritarianism, in terms of what happened with the 2016 referendum - it doesn't seem so to me - we must remember what is at stake here. This is a successfully developing country that has, under Evo's leadership, been significantly liberated from neo-colonial exploitation and persecution. It is not surprising that Evo and his supporters have been incredibly fearful of his reign coming to an end. And if you do deem him to have been authoritarian, please note that he still has the support (according to the October election results) of 47% of the voting public. This is a significantly larger mandate than most western leaders have. And most importantly, we must remember that there is no greater authoritarianism than western hegemonic aggression. To resist it, as Bolivia has been doing, whilst remaining democratic, is not easy - as this coup demonstrates! And then of course there is the argument as to what exactly constitutes 'democracy'. Should a system that allows for the election of a foreign-backed, right-wing government, that exploits and persecutes poor and indigenous people, really be viewed as democratic? (Also, unlike the west, Bolivia is not developing by colonizing and plundering the world!).

Bolivia has long been a divided country, with a significant proportion of the population - generally the upper classes - unhappy with Evo's Movement For Socialism, and it is now, seemingly, more divided than ever. We must hope that whatever happens now, the huge gains made under Evo's leadership, in terms of social justice-oriented economic growth, in terms of regaining sovereignty, and in terms of indigenous rights, are not lost. Signs do not look remotely hopeful, especially given what happened under Mesa's vice presidency, and given his affiliation with a think tank that is funded by the likes of Exxon Mobil. Under a US-backed neoliberal regime, the rights of indigenous people will always come second to these capitalist interests, as they did before Evo came to power, and as they do in countries across Latin America (and the world) that are still run by such oligarchical regimes.

It seems likely that a Carlos Mesa-led coup regime will turn to IMF loans (enslavement), and to privatisation, meaning that the country will once again become an exploited puppet state of the west.

All good people of the world must resist this destructive, imperialist system. Thankfully, we now have a chance, in the heart of the empire, to elect two socialist leaders - Bernie Sanders in the US and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK. Via twitter, both have expressed solidarity with Evo and Bolivia, (and also with Lula in Brazil, who was released last week). It is essential that we get socialist leaders like these into government, if we are to have any hope of ending capitalist imperialism.

(I thoroughly recommend watching these two documentaries to get an idea of how the west advances its interests around the world, often extremely unnoticeably).

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Updates:

• Evo has escaped Bolivia to Mexico, after the leftist government of Lopez Obrador offered him asylum.

• It seems that the coup has lurched significantly to the right, with support for the neoliberal, Carlos Mesa, waning, as the unambiguously extremist and fascistic, Luis Fernando Camacho, takes advantage of the situation. This article about Camacho is a must read.

• These are extremely dangerous times - there are many reports of violence (resulting in casualties) against Evo's supporters, including indigenous groups, who have been resisting the coup. 

• Jeanine Anez has taken over as interim leader of Bolivia. Here are some old tweets of hers, condemning Chavismo in Venezuela (which lifted millions out of poverty in that country), and praising the neo-fascist Venezuela politician, Henrique Capriles - who, along with others, like Leopoldo Lopez, supported the 2002 coup in Venezuela to topple Hugo Chavez and abolish the democratically-created constitution. There is no doubt that what is happening in Bolivia is a far-right coup, just like that (short-lived) 2002 coup in Venezuela. 

• In another tweet by Anez, she called the Aymara - Bolivia's largest indiginous group - 'satanic'. 

• Are people being paid by coup leaders to support the coup?

• Commanders of Bolivia’s military and police helped plot the coup and guaranteed its success. This investigation reveals that they were educated for insurrection through notorious US military and FBI training programs.

• Vicious aggression against Senator Adriana Salvatierra, president of Bolivia's Senate, first in line of succession to Evo Morales. She's the legitimate interim president, not the coup leaders. So they are beating her and using force to prevent her from entering the Parliament.

• Good twitter thread about how leftist criticism of Morales is unfair

• Western media continues to once again prove itself as a total propaganda machine for the western-domination of the world and its resources

• Anez has recognized Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela. The US has been trying, unsuccessfully, to install the neoliberal Guaido as president of Venezuela all year.

• Interview with Orlando Gutierrez, Chief Executive of the Federation of Miners of Bolivia.

• Unsurprisingly, Anez has not one single indigenous person. It is a 'cabinet' dominated by the business elite of Santa Cruz. 

• The OAS was promoting Anez as a leader three years ago.

• The coup regime is now rounding up and detaining Cuban doctors.

• The coup regime is now implying that it will block Evo Morale's party, Movement for Socialism, from participating in elections.

• Six months ago, a group of Bolivian politicians wrote to Donald Trump, asking him to interfere in the elections.

• Bolivians are rising up against the coup regime, and are being massacred.

• The new Bolivian coup government has pre-exonerated all security and military forces from any crimes in the "re-establishment of internal order".