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<h1 class="reader-title">In Bolivia, the American Empire Stuck
Back</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Danny Haiphong - November
11, 2019<br>
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<p>Evo Morales’ fourth term was over before it began.
After winning the latest presidential election by over
600,000 votes, a flurry of violence on the part of the
U.S.-backed opposition in Bolivia pressured Evo to step
down. His home was vandalized and several party members
of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) threatened with
violence. The coup in Bolivia, which was solidified by
recommendation from the military, is the latest of <a
href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/america-s-role-in-latin-american-regime-change/1404970">dozens
of military coups spearheaded by the United States</a>
over the century and a half. U.S. imperialism has viewed
Latin America as its backyard since 1823 when it
declared the “right to protect” the region in Monroe
Doctrine. It was at this time that the American Empire
replaced the Spanish Empire as the foreign power
responsible for keeping Latin America in a state of
oppression, dependency, and poverty.</p>
<p>After over a century of U.S. imperial aggression, Evo
Morales arose as one of the most revolutionary leaders
of the movement for socialism in the 21<sup>st</sup>
century in Latin America—a movement that significant
gained traction after the election of former Venezuelan
president Hugo Chavez in 1998. MAS has been in power
since 2006. The MAS has acted as a vehicle for workers
and peasants to assert their dignity and
self-determination. Trade unions, indigenous, and
women’s organizations have all played a major role in
the <a
href="https://polisci.utk.edu/womenpolitics/docs/Buice_GenderConf.pdf">implementation
of social policy</a> under Evo’s leadership. <a
href="https://ahtribune.com/world/americas/621-bolivia-21f.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Economic growth in
Bolivia</a> has increased by an average of <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/07/how-a-populist-president-helped-bolivias-poor-but-built-himself-a-palace">five
percent per year</a>, with many of the gains
distributed to the indigenous populations formally
dispossessed by centuries of colonial and neocolonial
rule. Extreme poverty has been cut in half over the same
period.</p>
<p>U.S. imperialism immediately sought to dispose of Evo
Morales and his indigenous-led movement even before it
came to power. A FOIA request found that the <a
href="https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x15211">U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID) had
earmarked 97 million dollars</a> in “regional
autonomy” and oppositional political parties in Bolivia
in 2002. These funds helped develop a U.S.-aligned
political infrastructure in Bolivia responsible for the
coup. The USAID has acted as the political arm of <a
href="https://ahtribune.com/economy/1803-bolivia-morales-world-bank-imf.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">the IMF</a>, World
Bank, CIA, and the Bolivian elites who do their bidding.
One of the “protest leaders” of the right-wing
opposition, Luis Fernando Camacho, is the son of the
founder of Sergas, <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/opinion/Its-Now-or-Never-Bolivian-Elite-Destroying-the-Country-20191107-0023.html">a
gas corporation which owes over two million USD</a> to
the Bolivian state for tax evasion and fraud. Under U.S.
leadership, petty capitalists such as the Camacho family
have used <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/29/western-regime-change-operatives-launch-campaign-to-blame-bolivias-evo-morales-for-the-amazon-fires/">NGOs
funded by USAID</a> to overthrow Evo and his <a
href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/lessons-from-bolivia-renationalising-hydrocarbon-indust/">nationalization
decree</a> that placed petroleum, electricity,
telecommunications, and mining sectors under the
direction of the state.</p>
<p>The coup being waged by the right-wing opposition has
been labeled a “protest movement” by the U.S. corporate
media. Coup plotters such as oligarch and former
Bolivian President Carlos Mesa have alleged that their
protests have come in response to election fraud.
According to the <a
href="http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/bolivia-elections-2019-11.pdf?v=2">Center
for Economic and Policy Research,</a> no evidence of
irregularities or fraudulent activities were found in
the election results. The baseless claim was used by the
imperialist corporate media to provide cover for the
violent military coup. MAS politicians have been <a
href="https://twitter.com/camilateleSUR/status/1193867644149080064">forced
to flee their homes</a>, government buildings have
been burned, and the Bolivian economy has been ground to
a halt. The oligarchy in Bolivia is out for blood and it
has the police and military on its side.</p>
<p>This is not the first time that the American Empire has
waged a violent coup in Bolivia. The CIA provided
military and technical support to right-wing military
dictator René Barrientos. Barrientos took power by way <a
href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/us-intervention-in-bolivi_b_127528">of
military coup in 1964</a>. His brutal suppression of
the peasant uprising to his rule led to the
assassination of Che Guevara. In 1971, the U.S. backed
right-wing general Hugo Bánzer Suárez with the help of
the U.S. Air Force. Hundreds of leftists and political
activists <a
href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/de-facto-president-cum-dictator-1.1057750">would
be murdered by his regime.</a></p>
<p>The coup of Evo Morales comes as the left in Latin
America was making a resurgence amid countless attempts
by the American empire to destroy their social
democratic project. In late October, Argentina elected <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Argentina-President-Elect-Fernandez-Macri-Meet-20191028-0001.html">Alberto
Fernandez and Kristina de Kirchner</a> as president
and vice president, effectively ending the right-wing
and neoliberal rule of Mauricio Macri. Tens of thousands
took to the streets in Ecuador and forced Lenin Moreno
to back away from an IMF deal which would have imposed <a
href="https://www.pressenza.com/2019/10/ecuador-the-fight-against-moreno-and-the-imf-is-far-from-over/">harsh
austerity measures</a> on workers, students, and
peasants. Lula De Silva was <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/09/freed-brazilian-ex-president-lula-speaks-to-jubilant-supporters">released
from prison</a> to begin November. Lula’s freedom
represented a concrete victory for a Brazilian left
currently facing enormous challenges under the rule of
former officer of the fascist military dictatorship,
Jair Bolsonaro.</p>
<p>The American Empire has struck back against the left in
Latin America with a devastating blow in Bolivia. There
are many lessons to learn from the U.S.-backed coup. For
one, too few in the belly of the U.S. empire are
prepared to come to the defense of the peoples’ struggle
in Latin America or anywhere. The corporate media has
placed a national blinder on the host of coups staged by
the American empire in the last ten years alone, whether
we are talking about the Clinton-Obama coup <a
href="https://moderaterebels.com/coup-honduras-migrant-crisis/">in
Honduras in 2009</a> or the ouster of Brazilian
President <a
href="https://www.brasilwire.com/the-2016-coup-opened-the-door-to-disaster/">Dilma
Rousseff in 2016. </a> Awash in white supremacist
ideology and confined to the most unrestrained form of
capitalism on the planet, workers and poor people in the
U.S. have few avenues from which to express concrete
solidarity with the Bolivian masses. </p>
<p>Another lesson of the U.S.-backed coup in Bolivia is
that the so-called “end of history” proclaimed by the
American empire after the fall of the Soviet Union was a
complete and utter lie. The American empire is
“capitalist to the bones” and its rulers believed the
world would remain under its thumb indefinitely. Evo
Morales and the rest of the socialist left in Latin
America, while unable to completely expropriate the
property and power of the oligarchs, were able to lead a
mass movement toward the dignity and self-determination
of the oppressed. This path required that the seeds of
socialism were sewn into the fabric of governance
throughout the continent. Whether it was called
“Chavismo,” “21<sup>st</sup> century socialism,” or the
“pink tide,” the movement has empowered workers and
peasants to unify across borders to alleviate poverty,
underdevelopment, and imperial dependency.</p>
<p>Evo Morales was at the forefront of Latin America’s
burgeoning internationalism. He was a huge supporter of
<a href="https://albainfo.org/what-is-the-alba/">Bolivarian
Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). </a> Furthermore,
Evo challenged the American empire on the military front
by advocating for <a
href="https://orinocotribune.com/evo-morales-proposes-an-anti-imperialist-southcom">the
development of a continental military</a> united in
defending the sovereignty of Latin America. The
so-called “end of history” was nothing more than a
declaration of victory for the American empire that only
clouded its true interests abroad. Socialism has
remained the American empire’s public enemy number one
even after the end of the so-called Cold War. The
American Empire does not respect democracy or elections,
just the profits of the few. Evo’s Bolivia is paying the
price for placing the needs of poor Bolivians ahead of
the riches of the elite.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most important lesson from the coup in
Bolivia is that the struggle for socialism and
self-determination is far from over. The oligarchs
seeking to wrestle control of Bolivia and the entire
continent back from the workers and peasants will stop
at nothing to lynch Evo Morales. A warrant is out for
his arrest even though he has committed no crime. The
oligarchs want to bring the working class back into a
state of total misery. While the ouster of Evo Morales
is indeed a significant defeat, the socialist movement
in Latin America will no doubt fight back. The people of
Bolivia will fight back. Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and
other allied nations will do everything they can to
support the MAS through a difficult transition. It is
important that the left living in the belly of the
American empire find a way to do the same.</p>
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