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<div class="container content-width3" style="--font-size:20px;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/human-rights-watch-right-wing-massacre-bolivia/262887/">https://www.mintpressnews.com/human-rights-watch-right-wing-massacre-bolivia/262887/</a><br>
<h1> <a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/human-rights-watch-right-wing-massacre-bolivia/262887/">
<u><font color="#330033">How Human Rights Watch Whitewashed a
Right-Wing Massacre in Bolivia</font></u> </a> </h1>
<h2>
<p><font size="-1">While some may be surprised by its response
to the Bolivia crisis, Human Rights Watch’s support for a
U.S.-backed right-wing coup is no aberration. </font></p>
</h2>
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<h3>By Alan MacLeod / <a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/human-rights-watch-right-wing-massacre-bolivia/262887/">MintPress
News - November 20, 2019<br>
</a></h3>
<p>Bolivia is in turmoil after President Evo Morales was
deposed in a<a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/bolivia-latest-successful-us-backed-coup-latin-america/262773/">
U.S.-supported coup d’état on November 10</a>.</p>
<p>The new coup government forced Morales into exile,
arrested left-wing politicians and journalists, and then
<a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/media-silent-bolivia-massacre-indigenous-protesters/262858/">pre-exonerated
security services</a> of all crimes committed during
the “re-establishment of order,” effectively giving
soldiers a license to kill all resistance to the
military junta’s rule.</p>
<p>Dozens have been killed. Indigenous protesters were
massacred in the city of Cochabamba and the small town
of Senkata.</p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Horrifying massacre today in
post-coup Bolivia: The military junta just killed at
least 8 protesters in the community of Senkata</p>
<p>The area is surrounded by military and police<a
href="https://t.co/j35bGwAN5c">pic.twitter.com/j35bGwAN5c</a></p>
<p>— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) <a
href="https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1196945935403814912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November
20, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In confusing and alarming situations such as these,
millions of people around the world look to
international human rights organizations for leadership
and guidance.</p>
<p>However, far from standing up for the oppressed, <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/tag/human-rights-watch/">Human
Rights Watch</a> (HRW) has effectively endorsed the
events. In its <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/11/12/bolivia-prioritize-rights-wake-morales-resignation"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">official
communiqué</a>, HRW refrained from using the word
coup, insisting Morales “resigned.”</p>
<p>HRW Americas director José Miguel Vivanco claimed
President Morales stepped down “after weeks of civil
unrest and violent clashes,” and did not even mention <a
href="https://www.salon.com/2019/11/19/who-is-behind-the-right-wing-bolivian-botnet/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">opposition
violence against his party</a> or the role of the
military in demanding, at gunpoint, that he resign.</p>
<p>Therefore, Morales mysteriously “traveled to Mexico,”
in the organization’s words, rather than fleeing there
to escape arrest. HRW tacitly endorsed the coup
government, advising it to “prioritize rights.”</p>
<p>Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth went
further, presenting the elected head of state fleeing
the country at gunpoint as a refreshing step forward for
democracy.</p>
<p>Roth <a
href="https://twitter.com/KenRoth/status/1196318814599884801"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote that</a>
Morales was “the casualty of a counter-revolution aimed
at defending democracy… against electoral fraud and his
own illegal candidacy,” claiming that Morales had
ordered the army to shoot protesters.</p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Bolivia's Evo Morales was "the
casualty of a counter-revolution aimed at defending
democracy..against electoral fraud & his own
illegal candidacy. The army w/drew its support because
it was not prepared to fire on people in order to
sustain him in power." <a
href="https://t.co/jeVnGta0Kk">https://t.co/jeVnGta0Kk</a></p>
<p>— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) <a
href="https://twitter.com/KenRoth/status/1196318814599884801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November
18, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Roth also described the coup approvingly as an “<a
href="https://twitter.com/KenRoth/status/1196133917247655939"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">uprising</a>”
and a “<a
href="https://twitter.com/KenRoth/status/1194415776205352961"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">transitional
moment</a>” for Bolivia, while presenting President
Morales as an out-of-touch “<a
href="https://twitter.com/KenRoth/status/1196133917247655939"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">strongman</a>.”</p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">The most important thing now in
this transitional moment for Bolivia is ensuring that
authorities reestablish the rule of law and protect
fundamental rights, including to protest peacefully
and to vote in transparent, competitive, and fair
elections. <a href="https://t.co/ayWcCKdedS">https://t.co/ayWcCKdedS</a>
<a href="https://t.co/WdxFmxEuhw">pic.twitter.com/WdxFmxEuhw</a></p>
<p>— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) <a
href="https://twitter.com/KenRoth/status/1194415776205352961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November
13, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>New self-declared President Jeanine Añez, whose party
received just 4 percent of the vote share in the October
elections, has already expelled hundreds of Cuban
doctors, broken off ties with Venezuela, and pulled
Bolivia out of multiple international and
intercontinental organizations and treaties.</p>
<p>Añez <a
href="https://twitter.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1194606470119202817"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">describes</a>
the indigenous majority of Bolivians as “satanic” and
insists they should not be allowed to live in cities,
instead, being sent to the desert or the sparsely
populated highlands.</p>
<p>Añez also <a
href="https://www.france24.com/en/20191113-jeanine-anez-stand-in-president-vowing-to-pacify-bolivia"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">declared</a>
that she is “committed to taking all measures necessary
to pacify” the population.</p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">"I dream of a Bolivia free of
satanic indigenous practices. The city is not for the
Indian: they should go to the highlands or the desert"
– new US-backed self-declared President of Bolivia
Jeanine Añez. <a href="https://t.co/fD7jpnYJHX">pic.twitter.com/fD7jpnYJHX</a></p>
<p>— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) <a
href="https://twitter.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1194606470119202817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November
13, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Human Rights Watch <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/11/19/bolivia-interim-government-adopts-abusive-measures"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">described</a>
the law giving Bolivian security forces complete
impunity to kill dissenters as a “problematic decree,”
as if Añez had used racially insensitive language,
rather than ordering a massacre.</p>
<p>In <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/11/19/bolivia-interim-government-adopts-abusive-measures"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">its
statement</a>, HRW noted that “nine people died and
122 were wounded” during the Cochabamba demonstration,
leaving its readers completely in the dark about who
died and who was responsible for the killing.</p>
<h3>A long history of ‘human rights’ double standards</h3>
<p>Human Rights Watch was originally established in 1978
as Helsinki Watch, an American organization dedicated to
exposing the crimes of socialist Eastern Bloc countries
and monitoring their compliance with the Helsinki
Accords.</p>
<p>Since its establishment, HRW has consistently been
criticized for acting as a de facto vehicle for U.S.
foreign policy, employing former U.S. government
officials in key positions, and <a
href="https://nacla.org/article/hypocrisy-human-rights-watch"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">displaying
bias</a> against leftist governments unfriendly to the
United States.</p>
<p>A 2008 report on human rights violations in Venezuela
authored by Jose Vivanco, for example, was <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4051"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">immediately
panned</a> by hundreds of academics and Latin American
scholars, who said the “grossly flawed” document “did
not meet even the most minimal standards of scholarship,
impartiality, accuracy, or credibility.”</p>
<p>Indeed, Vivanco openly stated his biases, revealing
that he wrote the report “because we wanted to
demonstrate to the world that Venezuela is not a model
for anyone.”</p>
<p>In contrast, Human Rights Watch was <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2017/12/11/human-rights-watch-honduras-venezuela-kenneth-roth/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">relatively
silent</a> on the Honduran coup d’état that deposed
leftist President Manuel Zelaya, and the repression that
came after, effectively carrying water for U.S.-backed
regime change.</p>
<p>As writer Keane Bhatt, who now works as Bernie Sanders’
communications director, <a
href="https://nacla.org/article/hypocrisy-human-rights-watch"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">argued in
2013</a>, “Human Rights Watch’s deep ties to U.S.
corporate and state sectors should disqualify the
institution from any public pretense of independence.”</p>
<p>Likewise, Amnesty International’s image as a defender
of human rights hides a dark past of being effectively a
front organization for Western governments.</p>
<p>As MintPress News <a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/amnesty-international-troubling-collaboration-with-uk-us-intelligence/253939/">
revealed earlier this year</a>, a co-founder of the
organization, Peter Benenson, was an avowed
anti-communist with deep ties to the British Foreign and
Colonial Offices, propping up the apartheid regime of
South Africa at the UK government’s request.</p>
<p>Another Amnesty International co-founder, Luis Kutner,
was an FBI asset who was linked to the U.S. government’s
assassination of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.
Kutner <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/21/archives/friends-of-fbi-in-a-fund-appeal-gets-excellent-response-to-wide.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">went on to
form</a> an organization called “Friends of the FBI”,
dedicated to countering and combating criticism of the
bureau.</p>
<p>While some may be surprised by Human Rights Watch’s
response to the Bolivia crisis, the organization’s
applause for the U.S.-backed right-wing coup against a
democratically elected socialist head of state is not an
aberration or a mistake.</p>
<p>HRW is performing its duty in reinforcing U.S. hegemony
by condemning any leftist challengers in America’s
“backyard.”</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was first published at <a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/human-rights-watch-right-wing-massacre-bolivia/262887/">Mintpress
News</a>.</em></p>
<div itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope=""
itemprop="author">
<p><br>
</p>
<div>
<p>Alan MacLeod is an academic and journalist. He is a
staff writer at Mintpress News and a contributor to
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (<a
href="https://fair.org/author/alan-macleod/">FAIR</a>).
He is the author of <a
href="https://www.amazon.com/Bad-News-Venezuela-misreporting-Communication/dp/1138489239/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1524768350&sr=8-6&keywords=alan+macleod"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Bad
News From Venezuela</em></a><em>: Twenty Years
of Fake News and Misreporting</em>.</p>
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