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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/13/bolivia-an-election-in-the-midst-of-an-ongoing-coup/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/13/bolivia-an-election-in-the-midst-of-an-ongoing-coup/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Bolivia: An Election in the Midst of an
Ongoing Coup<br>
</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/drespu/"
rel="nofollow">Vijay Prashad</a> - February 13, 2020</span></div>
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<p>On May 3, 2020, the Bolivian people will go to the
polls once <a
href="https://www.thetricontinental.org/bolivia/">more</a>.
They return there because President Evo Morales had been
overthrown in a coup in November 2019. Morales had just
won a presidential election in October for a term that
would have begun in January 2020. Based on a preliminary
<a href="https://tinyurl.com/swn5q2q">investigation</a>
by the Organization of American States (OAS) that
claimed that there was fraud in the election, Morales
was prematurely removed from office; the term for his
2014 presidential election victory did not end until
January. Yet, he was told by the military to leave
office. An interim president—Jeanine Áñez—appointed
herself. She said she was taking this office only on an
interim basis and would not run for election when
Bolivia held another election. She is a candidate for
the May 3 election. (For more information on what is
happening in Bolivia, see this <a
href="https://www.thetricontinental.org/bolivia/">overview</a>
from Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.)</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Morales has been in exile in Argentina. His
party—the Movement for Socialism (MAS)—has candidates
for the presidency and the vice presidency, but their
party cadres and followers are facing a difficult time
making their case to the people. Their radio stations
have been blocked, their leaders arrested or exiled (or
sitting in foreign embassies waiting for asylum), their
cadre beaten up and intimidated.</p>
<p>The United Nations secretary-general’s personal envoy
Jean Arnault released a <a
href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/note-correspondents/2020-02-03/statement-the-personal-envoy-of-the-secretary-general-of-the-united-nations-for-bolivia-jean-arnault">statement</a>
on February 3 that expressed caution about the
elections. The situation in Bolivia, Arnault said, is
“characterized by an exacerbated polarization and mixed
feelings of hope, but also of uncertainty, restlessness
and resentment after the serious political and social
crisis of last year.” This careful language of the UN
needs to be looked at closely. When Arnault says there
is “exacerbated polarization,” he means that the
situation is extremely tense. When he asks that the
interim government “outlaw hate speech and direct or
indirect incitement to violence or discrimination,” he
means that the government and its far-right followers
need to be very careful about what they say and how much
violence they use in this election.</p>
<p>On February 6, Morales spoke in Buenos Aires, where he
<a
href="https://www.grupolaprovincia.com/internacionales/evo-morales-convoca-a-un-acuerdo-nacional-para-garantizar-la-paz-en-las-elecciones-en-bolivia-443812">urged</a>
an end to the violence so that the election could bring
the fractured country together. He called for a national
agreement between all sides to end the dangerous
situation. In a pointed way, Morales called upon the
government to respect diversity, noting that people
wearing distinct clothes and wearing the signs of a
certain political party were facing intimidation and
violence. He meant the indigenous population of Bolivia,
and the supporters of MAS; it is widely accepted that
the violence has been coming from the far right’s
paramilitary shock troops, and the intimidation has been
coming from the government.</p>
<p>For instance, the Bolivian authorities have been
routinely charging MAS leaders with sedition, terrorism,
and incitement to violence. Morales faced these charges,
along with dozens of important MAS leaders, most
recently <a
href="https://www.notimerica.com/politica/noticia-bolivia-fiscalia-bolivia-imputa-diputado-mas-torrico-sedicion-terrorismo-incitacion-violencia-20200208030913.html">Gustavo
Torrico</a> who has been arrested. Matters are so bad
that the UN’s special rapporteur on the independence of
judges and lawyers, Diego García-Sayán, took to <a
href="https://twitter.com/UNIndepJudges/status/1225470442682503168">Twitter</a>
to express his concern at the “use of judicial and
fiscal institutions for the purpose of political
persecution. The number of illegal detentions grows.”
This has not stopped Áñez, who says she will move her
government to investigate at least 592 people who held
high office in Morales’ 14 years in government. This
means that the entirety of the MAS leadership will
likely face harassment between now and the May 3
election.</p>
<p><b>U.S. Interference</b></p>
<p>In 2013, Morales expelled the U.S. government agency
USAID; he accused USAID of working to undermine his
elected government. Before that, Morales, as is his
constitutional right, informed Salvador Romero—the head
of the election agency (TSE)—that when his term ended in
2008, he would not be retained. This is a normal
practice.</p>
<p>Romero went to the U.S. Embassy to complain. He <a
href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/07LAPAZ38_a.html">met</a>
with U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg to complain about
this and urged the U.S. to do something. It was clear
that Romero and Goldberg knew each other well. When
Romero left his post at the TSE, the U.S. establishment
took care of him. He went to work at the National
Democratic Institute in Honduras. The National
Democratic Institute, based in Washington, is loosely
affiliated with the U.S. Democratic Party, and is part
of the universe that includes the National Endowment for
Democracy. These are all U.S. government-funded agencies
that operate overseas to “oversee” what is known as
“democracy promotion,” including elections.</p>
<p>Romero essentially worked for the U.S. government in
Honduras during the first election after the
U.S.-instigated coup of 2009. During this election in
2013, violence against the supporters of Xiomara Castro,
the candidate of the left-wing Libre Party, was routine.
The day before the election, for instance, two leaders
of the National Center of Farmworkers (CNTC)—María
Amparo Pineda Duarte and Julio Ramón Maradiaga—were
killed as they returned home from a training for Libre
election workers. This was the atmosphere of this very
tight election, which returned to power the U.S.-backed
conservative candidate Juan Orlando Hernández of the
National Party. Romero, at that time, was quite pleased
with the results. He <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/world/americas/honduras-election.html">told</a>
the New York Times then that “despite ‘the general
perception of fraud,’” the election was just fine.</p>
<p>Right after the coup in November, Áñez brought Romero
back to La Paz as the head of the election court, the
TSE. He has his old job back. This would have made Bruce
Williamson, the U.S. charge d’affaires to Bolivia, very
happy. The U.S. has its man at the helm of the May 3
election in Bolivia.</p>
<p>And then Trump said he is sending USAID to Bolivia to
help prepare the ground for the election. On January 9,
the USAID team arrived to “give technical aid to the
electoral process in Bolivia.” <i>Technical aid</i>.
The phrase should give a reasonable person pause.</p>
<p>Ten days later, Trump’s legal adviser Mauricio
Claver-Carone arrived in La Paz and gave a series of
interviews in which he <a
href="https://www.paginasiete.bo/nacional/2020/1/19/es-inaceptable-que-evo-use-argentina-para-fomentar-inestabilidad-violencia-243909.html">accused</a>
Morales of terrorism and creating instability. This was
a direct attack at MAS and interference with Bolivia’s
electoral process.</p>
<p>If the U.S. intervenes in Bolivia, that is just
“democracy promotion.”</p>
<p>But even with the violence from the government and its
fascistic paramilitaries, even with Romero at the helm
of the TSE, even with USAID on the ground, and even with
the shenanigans of Claver-Carone, MAS is fighting to
win. The candidates for MAS are Luis Arce Catacora
(president) and David Choquehuanca Céspedes (vice
president). Catacora was the minister of economy and
public finance under Morales and the architect of the
administration’s economic success. Céspedes was the
foreign minister in that government. He managed
Bolivia’s policy of international sovereignty and is an
important person to Bolivia’s indigenous and peasant
movements. Early polls show that the MAS ticket is in
first place.</p>
<p><i>This article was produced by <a
href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/globetrotter/">Globetrotter</a>,
a project of the Independent Media Institute.</i></p>
</div>
<p> <em><strong>Vijay Prashad’s</strong> most recent book
is No Free Left: The Futures of Indian Communism (New
Delhi: LeftWord Books, 2015).</em> </p>
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