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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
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href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/12/bolivia-and-venezuela-two-countries-but-same-hybrid-war/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/12/bolivia-and-venezuela-two-countries-but-same-hybrid-war/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Bolivia and Venezuela: Two Countries,
But Same Hybrid War</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/nino-pagliccia/"
rel="nofollow">Nino Pagliccia</a> - November 12, 2019</span></div>
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<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://youtu.be/D-uxISFZbG8">Hybrid War
script</a> 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.</p>
<p>In the case of Bolivia the sequence of events followed
to the letter the approach to regime change by the
US-backed <a
href="http://oneworld.press/?module=articles&action=view&id=1160">Hybrid
War</a> 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.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://oneworld.press/?module=articles&action=view&id=1140">interference</a>
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.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://oneworld.press/?module=articles&action=view&id=1161">backtracking</a>
and accepting the OAS suggestion was not enough to
restore the social order.</p>
<p>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</p>
<p>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. <a
href="https://www.nodal.am/2019/11/quien-es-luis-fernando-camacho-el-hombre-que-intenta-desestabilizar-bolivia/">Luis
Fernando Camacho</a> 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”.</p>
<p>The final stroke happened on November 10 when Morales <a
href="https://www.resumen-english.org/2019/11/evo-morales-resigns-in-the-face-of-fascist-attacks/">announced</a>
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”.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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