[News] Bolivia and Venezuela: Two Countries, But Same Hybrid War

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/12/bolivia-and-venezuela-two-countries-but-same-hybrid-war/ 



  Bolivia and Venezuela: Two Countries, But Same Hybrid War

by Nino Pagliccia <https://www.counterpunch.org/author/nino-pagliccia/> 
- November 12, 2019
------------------------------------------------------------------------

A coup took place in Bolivia on November 10. The fact that the president 
of the country, Evo Morales, resigned does not contradict the fact that 
a coup has taken place. Morales was forced by the military to resign. 
The perpetrators of the Hybrid War were envisioning this same scenario 
for Venezuela but failed while they succeed in Bolivia. What made the 
difference?

Bolivia and Venezuela are similar in their independent approach to 
following a socialist path to break away from the hegemonic interference 
and economic exploitation from the US and its allies. Both countries 
have been successful in reducing poverty and achieving economic growth 
by the social use of their resources. And both countries have been 
subjected to a US promoted Hybrid War for regime change from a socialist 
government to a more neoliberal pro-US government.

The Hybrid War script <https://youtu.be/D-uxISFZbG8> involves at its 
minimum the following basic elements: accusing the government of some 
false wrongdoing, “mobilising destructive mobs” if other less violent 
means have not succeeded, creating “moderate groups” that penetrate as a 
wedge into the established institutions of the society in order to 
create divisions, and finally the coup de grâce: convincing the armed 
forces to betray their allegiance to the country’s constitution and 
turning them against the government and the people. All these basic 
elements may be often operating simultaneously. At any time 
complementary actions can be introduced to force the success of the 
Hybrid War script. For instance, sanctions can be imposed to create 
shortages and economic restrictions that will further create hardship 
among the population; or parallel entities can be created in order to 
undermine the legitimate ones.

In the case of Bolivia the sequence of events followed to the letter the 
approach to regime change by the US-backed Hybrid War 
<http://oneworld.press/?module=articles&action=view&id=1160> script. The 
basic elements of the Hybrid War were accomplished in Bolivia in the 
short span of time after Evo Morales was elected for his fourth term as 
the country’s president last October 20 until his resignation on 
November 10.

When it became clear that Morales was winning the election, the losing 
opposition candidate, Carlos Mesa, claimed that electoral fraud had been 
committed and that he would not recognise the elections results. The 
misguided intervention of the OAS publishing “preliminary observations” 
before a final ballot count was done, and suggesting a second round of 
elections was an endorsing factor to the opposition’s claim. Neither was 
helpful the uncalled for interference 
<http://oneworld.press/?module=articles&action=view&id=1140> from the 
government of Canada calling the presidency of Morales “illegitimate”. 
Taking into account the pro-US position of both the OAS and Ottawa, 
their involvement may have been part (or not) of the Hybrid War 
approach. The end result accomplished the delegitimisation of the 
Morales government.

Riots and street violence immediately broke out with protests that the 
government had not been elected by legitimate means and therefore 
another election was called for. Morales made several attempts to defuse 
the crisis by calling to dialogue and inviting the OAS to audit the 
election ballots. The latter may have been a political mistake 
considering the organisation previous blunder. In fact, the OAS 
concluded the audit suggesting to have another election. Morales 
backtracking 
<http://oneworld.press/?module=articles&action=view&id=1161> and 
accepting the OAS suggestion was not enough to restore the social order.

At this point it is important to note that the Hybrid War must achieve 
the total annihilation of the people and progressive parties involved 
one way or another to the very end, and that is until regime change is 
achieved

In the meantime another opposition figure came to the forefront with his 
mission to create enough political division, but the division may also 
be along the race line in the Bolivian society. After all Evo Morales 
has been the first indigenous president in Bolivia. This is a very 
significant factor in a region where the indigenous population has been 
decimated and oppressed for the last 500 years. Luis Fernando Camacho 
<https://www.nodal.am/2019/11/quien-es-luis-fernando-camacho-el-hombre-que-intenta-desestabilizar-bolivia/> 
is a white wealthy lawyer from Santa Cruz who has accused Morales of 
being a “tyrant” and a “dictator”, not unlike Juan Guaidó in Venezuela, 
with whom he has associated himself publicly. He has been involved with 
an organisation that has been criticised for being “paramilitary” and 
“racist”.

The final stroke happened on November 10 when Morales announced 
<https://www.resumen-english.org/2019/11/evo-morales-resigns-in-the-face-of-fascist-attacks/> 
his resignation after 14 years as president of Bolivia apparently in 
response to a communiqué of the commander in chief of the Armed Forces, 
William Kaiman who declared: “We suggest to the president that he resign 
his mandate allowing the pacification and maintenance of the stability 
of Bolivia”.

This was the final act of this short play of a military coup in Bolivia 
masterminded by a US designed Hybrid War. At least for the time being.

In the case of Venezuela a coup attempted to remove democratically 
elected president Hugo Chavez in 2002 after he became president in 1999. 
That was the first strike that the US-backed Hybrid War gave to “undo” 
the Bolivarian Revolution but failed. Chavez remained a reelected 
president until his death in 2013. He was followed by president Nicolas 
Maduro.

Similar events to Bolivia’s had occurred after Maduro was re-elected in 
May 2018. Soon a vocal and violent Venezuelan opposition, supported by a 
group of Western countries and some rightwing Latin American governments 
declared Maduro’s presidency illegitimate.

What we have described in the case of Bolivia did not quite work as 
smoothly in Venezuela. The Hybrid War script has been basically the same 
including the creation of violent groups with a “moderate” façade, but 
the circumstances in Venezuela have been different and harder to succeed 
in regime change. Despite the numerous sanctions and US financial 
blockade, and despite the foreign recognition of a self-appointed 
“interim president” attempting to create a parallel entity, Nicolas 
Maduro remains the legitimate president democratically elected and 
recognised by the United Nations and about 120 nations.

Venezuela has developed a strong civic-military union supported my 
thousands of voluntary militias that has been the bastion against which 
the Hybrid War has failed despite the numerous attempts to break that union.

The National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela (Fuerza Armada 
Nacional Bolivariana – FANB) have a strict abidance to the Venezuelan 
constitution and have not betrayed the Bolivarian Revolution in the 20 
years of its existence making it impossible for the last act of the 
Hybrid War to take place.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20191112/43e0cd5d/attachment.htm>