World Affairs :
US-backed Coup in Bolivia
South America’s
most
impoverished country; Bolivia is on
the verge of a civil war in the wake
of US-backed coup. On November
10, president Evo Morales, Vice
president Albaro Garcia Linea and
other ministers fled to Mexico
seeking asylum. Gen.Wiliam
Kaliman, the Chief of the Army, took
over the government and asked
Morales to resign. Morales resigned
saying that they were doing so to
“avoid bloodshed” and “genuine
peace”.
Yet Bolivian peasants, workers
and indigenous people heroically
faced the military fascist repression.
Thousands had taken to the streets
of La Paz and in working class district
El Alto, where they burned down
police stations and confronted
armed forces. In other places
miners and peasants have blocked
highways and confronted army
troops firing live ammunition.
The military unleashed a reign
of terror using the opponents of
Morales who burned down homes
of those linked to government,
kidnapped family members of
officials and carried out violent
assaults against those belonging to
the Movement towards socialism
(MAS), the party of Morales.
Some 15 years ago, following
the resignation of President Carlos
Mesa amid mass protests, the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court,
Eduardo Rodrigues Veltze, took
over as interim president. He
conducted elections and handed
over the presidency in less than a
8
year in January 2006 when Evo
Morales won the vote. In 2009, after
a successful first term Morales won
another election by a resounding
margin.
The 2009 constitution introduced
a two-term limit for presidents.
Morales ran for a third term in 2014,
arguing that the term he served
prior to the introduction of the limit
did not count. He once again
scored an easy victory on the back
of his achievements as president.
But in February 2016, when a
referendum was held on whether
Morales should be allowed to run
for yet another term, the charismatic
and popular president’s fortunes
nose dived. In a country with a long
and painful history of dictatorships,
alarm bells went off. Despite
support for both the president and
the ruling party remaining high,
Morales’s proposal to abandon
term limits was voted down by a
51.3 percent majority.
However, Morales and MAS
refused to take the Bolivian public’s
message on board. A year and a half
later, in a feat of legal maneuvering,
the constitutional court ruled that
to not allow Morales to run again
would violate his human rights. As
a result, all term limits were promptly
annulled, and Morales was once
again declared the presidential
candidate for the MAS. The election
in October became controversial
with allegations and counter
allegations. This gave the opportunity
to the right wing to take over the
government with the backing of US
imperialism.
Evo Morales has claimed he
was forced from office by US-
backed coup at gaining access to
the vast resources of Lithium.
Bolivia is known to have world’s
largest Lithium resources and Evo
Morales had signed agreements
with Russia and China for its
extraction. This enraged US
imperialism. As Morales said
Washington had not ‘forgiven’ his
country for not choosing US for
Lithium extraction.
This is the continuity of US
imperialist policy in Latin America
considering Latin America as its
own backyard. Whoever may be in
power, the Republicans or
Democrats, US imperialism never
allowed any independent action by
these countries. Latest being. The
abortive 2002 coup against Hugo
Chavez in Venezuela, the 2009 US
backed overthrow of president
Manuel Zelaya in Honduras and
today’s ouster of Morales.
Morales and his party’s apparent
disregard for the constitution
undoubtedly played a role in creating
the circumstances for the illegal
confiscation of Bolivia’s presidency
by the right. But still he was revered
by his people for the policies
implemented by him and as the
indigenous person to become the
President of Bolivia.
The US imperialist interference
in the internal affair of Bolivia
should be condemned by the entire
people world and express their
solidarity with the people of Bolivia
in their struggle against US
imperialism.
Class Struggle