Can Bolivians Survive the Coup Regime?

Lawfare in Bolivia: Añez wants to Jail the Favored Candidate in the Coming Elections’, resumen-english.org, Ernesto Reyes, June 30, 2020

“Bolivia’s de facto president, Jeanine Añez, is losing more and more of her mask obscuring democracy that, with the complicity of the United States and the European Union, she had to put on to justify the violent overthrow of Evo Morales in November of last year.

Now, in a flagrant demonstration that in Bolivia there are no constitutional guarantees and that persecution is the rule of order, a coup is being prepared against the presidential candidate of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), Luis Arce Catacora.

In a confirmation of the validity of the lawfare method (judicial war) against popular leaders, the legal form of this anti-democratic political decision is the criminal complaint filed this Tuesday before the Public Prosecutor’s Office against Arce for the alleged economic damage he caused to the State by setting up the Gestora Publica for the administration of workers’ social contributions. […]

This Tuesday the action is more convoluted at a time when Morales’ former economy minister is leading the entire field of candidates for president in the upcoming elections scheduled for September 6.”

On July 7 Telesur reported  these polling numbers from the Latin America Strategic Center for Geopolitics:

Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) presidential candidate Luis Arce would get 41.9 percent of the votes in the upcoming elections in September.  This percentage of popular support would allow him to win the elections in the first round, far exceeding the Bolivian right-wing candidate, Carlos Mesa, who would barely get 26.8 percent of the vote.

The coup-born regime leader Jeanine Añez, who self-proclaimed herself as interim president and also wants to participate as a candidate, has half the vote intention as Mesa (or 13%).

“The CELAG study also reports that only 8.5 percent of those interviewed consider that the pandemic and its economic effects have not affected them.”

July 10, 2020, ‘Bolivia: Morales Denounces De Facto Gov’t Hospitals Misuse’, telesur english

“According to local news media, 20 out of 34 Bolivian hospitals ceased admissions due to COVID-19 overcrowding.”

You’ll likely remember other versions of Lawfare used against deposed Bolivian leader Evo Morales, including being barred from running as a MAS candidate for a Senate seat as he was in Argentina:

Bolivia’s Struggle to Restore Democracy after OAS Instigated Coup’, July 9, 2020, coha.org

“The manufactured electoral fraud was quickly debunked by experts in the field. Detailed analyses of the election results were conducted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)[2] and Walter R. Mebane, Jr., professor of Political Science and Statistics at the University of Michigan in early November 2019.

The OAS electoral mission, however, had already poisoned the well. The false narrative of electoral fraud gave ammunition to anti-Bolivarian forces in the OAS and the right wing opposition inside Bolivia to contest the outcome of the election and go on the offensive against Morales and his party, the Movement Towards Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS). During a three-week period, a right wing coalition led protests over the alleged electoral fraud, while pro-government counter protesters defended the constitutional government. The military and police cracked down on the pro-Morales protesters, while showing sympathy for right wing demonstrators. Then, on November 10, 2019, in its “Electoral integrity analysis,” the OAS doubled down on its dubious claims, impugning “the integrity of the results of the election on October 20, 2019.”

From fair.org July 8, 2020: ‘NYT Acknowledges Coup in Bolivia—While Shirking Blame for Its Supporting Role’, Camila Escalante

Also from reumen-english, July 14:

“The Bolivian dictatorship will begin to negotiate the intervention of private hospitals and cemeteries in view of the risk of the collapse of public health services and mortuaries due to the magnitude of the pandemic, the Minister of the Interior of the regime, Arturo Murillo. Announced  “We are going to start two processes today, one of expropriation or intervention of the Udabol hospital in Santa Cruz (east), which has a capacity of 400 beds and around 100 intensive care units, and in Cochabamba (center) Univalle, which has a capacity of more than 120 beds and around 20 in intensive care units, said Murillo in a press conference.” Both hospitals belong to private universities. […]

“With 11 million inhabitants, Bolivia has more than 48,000 people infected with 1,807 deaths due to the pandemic.

The Covid-19 hospitals receive patients from all walks of life, including those affiliated with private insurance, which according to the minister is leaving “the humblest, poorest people who cannot afford insurance” without care.

According to official estimates, Bolivia could have some 130,000 infected people by September, when elections are scheduled for the renewal of the president and vice president and the bicameral parliament.”

Jeanine Añez has mumbled about needing to postpone the elections for a month or two would be no big deal.

More ‘lawfare’ in Bolivia: ‘Bolivia: They try to Stop Evo and Ban the M.A.S. Before Imminent Electoral Victory’, July 1,2020, pressenza.com

“On Monday, June 6, the Bolivian prosecution charged and asked for the arrest of former President Evo Morales for “Terrorism and sedition.” The case based on a home audio attributed to the former president was reactivated in this way, who supposedly from Mexico where he was a refugee, instructed the coca grower leader Faustino Yutra to block roads and prevent food from entering different cities in the context of the conflicts. Unleashed in November 2019, the outcome of which was a coup  d’état.


“The investigation had begun on November 20, 2019 after the de facto government filed the charges against the former president for “terrorism, sedition and terrorist financing.”. On December 20, prosecutors requested the arrest of Morales, who was in Argentina with “refugee status,” for which the Argentine authorities refused to extradite him.

Interpol has South American regional headquarters in Buenos Aires, a red alert request is expected to be sent to create a diplomatic conflict with Argentina, whose president Alberto Fernández does not recognize Jeanine Áñez as constitutional and legitimate president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.”

You may remember this lament from Jacob Levich at Counterpunch: Ocasio-Cortez to Constituents on Bolivian Coup: Drop Dead’

“Rep. Ocasio-Cortez symbolically embraced the coup by posing for a photo with this group as they brandished the tricolor Bolivian flag, which during that period had become a signal of support for the golpistas (as opposed to the Wiphala flag, which symbolized popular resistance to the takeover). She told them that she supports their “democratic grassroots movement” and offered them “direct lines of communication.”

(Levich had said on Twitter that Counterpunch had later removed the photo, but that Telesur English had it.)

(toggle his links for the english versions)

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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OzoneTom's picture

Brazil's former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was barred from running in 2018, leading to the election of Jair Bolsonaro.

A move supported by the country's justice system and Brazil is paying the price for the sabotage of their democracy.

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wendy davis's picture

@OzoneTom

and dilma as well, iirc. now hadn't lula seemed at one point to believe he'd earn a reprieve, and the walls crashed down on him?

and of course massive lawfare re: 'the maduro regime' in VZ. and the epically coy 'progressive' signatories on ro khanna's letter to Pompeo... believe all of it to this day. gawd's blood.

thanks, OZ tom; it's soooo good to see you!

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wendy davis's picture

@OzoneTom

Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is released from prisonNovember 8, 2019, sfgate.com

(pending appeals)

Brazilian Court Upholds 17-Year Sentence Against Lula Da Silva’, may 7, 2020, telesur english

Brazil's Federal Court of the Fourth Region (TRF-4) Wednesday upheld the 17-year prison sentence handed down in November against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The TRF-4 judges also denied the defense's request that the virtual trial be suspended and postponed for a face-to-face session when COVID-19 no longer poses a threat.

"Keeping the sentence is unjust and arbitrary," Lula's defense lawyers, who did not have access to the virtual trial, denounced.​​​​​​​

"The fact that we were not allowed to be at the trial is a violation of the constitutional right to a broad defense," attorney Cristiano Zanin Martins stressed.

For Judge Joao Pedro Gebran Neto, however, the defense's new appeal "shows disagreement with what has already been decided."

Gebran, who was the instructor for the Car Wash Operation cases in court, asked to "maintain the sentence of the former Brazilian president for passive corruption and money laundering."

"I knew this decision would come. I just hope I'm alive to see them unmasked. I will keep on fighting," Lula tweeted after hearing the court's decision.'

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OzoneTom's picture

@wendy davis
I recalled that he had been released about a year after the election, but haven't been following the story that closely for a while. I had heard that he has said that he is not planning to run again in 2022.

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wendy davis's picture

@OzoneTom

and i really don't know what his status is now. is he in prison again? all i could find were long interviews online this a.m. but 'i'll keep on fighting' means something to him. he sure has aged a lot, hasn't he?

this was initially meant to be a diary on 'reversing the pink tide', including VZ, nicaragua, maybe cuba. but true to Trump's word, a Southcom warships...

and orinoco tribune also tweeted:

but it's a long interview, 45 mins, tinny, but the subject sys it all.

i do wish i could be more philosophical about all this, but sadly, it's all very visceral and almost debilitating to me. (i folded like a cheap pup tent last night.)

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Cassiodorus's picture

Has anyone asked her about this?

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

wendy davis's picture

@Cassiodorus

but i'm sure she'd have an almost-believable explanation. She Has a Peace Plan, remember?

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wendy davis's picture

@Cassiodorus

i remember now! she'd said that she was told they were presenting her with a beach towel for her next trip to Cuba.©

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magiamma's picture

@wendy davis
Hope it's a big un.

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wendy davis's picture

@magiamma

lol. thanks, magi.

two sets of twin fawns this year; one set is outside the door bleatin' up a storm.

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magiamma's picture

@wendy davis thatused come and hang out on the lawn up in Kanada. If I find the pic I’ll post it.

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wendy davis's picture

@magiamma

bolivian tri-color beach towels? /s as a side note: i wonder if AOC comix is still on twitter? she'd often complained to the twitter owner that some of her enemies needed to be deleted (censored). ; )

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wendy davis's picture

i'd tried to recall what religious smears the golpista coup government had laid on first indigenous president of bolivia of, and the guardian came close:

"That ally seems most likely to come in the form of Luis Fernando Camacho, an ultra-conservative Catholic activist who led the charge against Morales following October’s disputed election and stormed Bolivia’s presidential palace with a Bible under his arm to celebrate his fall.

“God has returned to the palace,” Camacho, who is also from Santa Cruz, wrote on Facebook. “To those who did not believe in this struggle I say God exists and is now going to govern Bolivia for all Bolivians!”

The prospect of a sharp turn to the religious right horrifies many indigenous Bolivians, whose traditions Morales sought to elevate (and, some say, exploit) – to the fury of hardliners such as Aruquipa.

Some see not only a threat to Bolivia’s indigenous customs and practices but also the country’s very status as a secular state, enshrined in Morales’s 2009 constitution. The swearing in of Bolivia’s rightwing interim president, Jeanine Áñez, with a giant Bible further fuelled such fears.

“They don’t respect our traditions. Just because we have ancestral and cultural traditions does not mean we are satanic,” said Arison Montes, a pro-Morales activist from El Alto, a largely indigenous city near La Paz.

“These people are coming here with their Bibles like in the colonial times … They are coming with their Bibles to lie,” the 27-year-old added. “And people are allowing their brains to be washed.”

Edmundo Pacheco, a Aymaran spiritual guide who was once close to Morales, accused “evangelical sects” of trying to destroy indigenous teachings and wisdom in Bolivia but vowed they would fail.

“They say we’re satanic, that we’re witches, that we destroy Jesus. Listen, I conduct rituals: rituals to nature, to the earth, to the spirits. I never even mention the name Jesus because it means absolutely nothing to me,” said Pacheco, 60."

Bolivia’s self-proclaimed interim president, Jeanine Áñez, a conservative Christian, speaks from the balcony of the Quemado Palace in La Paz with a Bible in hand

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