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<font size="1"><a href="https://therednation.org/from-election-win-in-bolivia-to-mingas-in-cauca-colombia-tawatinsuyu-rising/">https://therednation.org/from-election-win-in-bolivia-to-mingas-in-cauca-colombia-tawatinsuyu-rising/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">From Election Win in Bolivia to Mingas in Cauca, Colombia: Tawatinsuyu Rising – The Red Nation</h1>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">October 26, 2020<br></div>
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<p>Bolivians went to the polls last Sunday—nine months after the
US-backed military coup and three suspended elections. The weight of 527
years of history is burdensome, to put it lightly. At the heart of that
history, which informs present struggles, is control over important
resources: zinc, tin, cadmium, antimony, and silver deposits. In the
recent past, it was petroleum; today, it’s lithium: a critical raw
material for rechargeable batteries as well as solar and wind power.
Lithium is the key to the technology that will supposedly liberate the
world from fossil fuels. Bolivia’s vast lithium reserves are by far the
country’s most valuable natural resource. It is often called the
“engine of the Bolivian economy” for helping lower poverty rates and
ensure stability of the middle class. Most of lithium is found in the <em>Salar of Uyuni, </em>which also happens to be less than an hour away from my father’s hometown.</p>
<img src="http://therednation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/no-al-golpe.jpeg" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="446" height="297">
<p>At stake in the election this past Sunday was the difference between
potentially years of continued imperialist oppression or a chance at
living under an Indigenous form of socialism. The Bolivian people chose
the latter by an overwhelming majority. This decision has been 527 years
in the making. Even if world was watching more closely the last 9
months, the Bolivian people continue to prove to the rest of the world
that change does not begin with voting. Change started for them the
moment the US-backed coup ousted socialist president Evo Morales.
Bolivians used <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/world/americas/bolivia-roadblock-blockade.html">road blockades</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/11/901334859/we-cant-stand-it-anymore-bolivian-protesters-demand-quick-elections">street demonstrations</a>, even though some have faced <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50332167">torture and humiliation</a>.</p>
<p>The supposed “interim president” Áñez represents the ruling Catholic
elite. She fittingly arrived to be sworn in with an oversized Catholic
bible in hand. The message was not lost on anyone: Morales, an
Indigenous Aymara man, represents an image of Bolivia as an
Indigenous-majority nation. Since the coup, one of the key claims used
to justify Morales’ overthrow was proven to be lies made by the
Organization of American States (OAS). Despite the group’s bias towards
Washington, the OAS itself confirmed the reelection of Morales was in
fact not fraudulent. As Glenn Greenwald put it, “not a single one of the
foreign policy ‘experts’ or media outlets have acknowledged their
errors or even addressed these subsequent revelations.”</p>
<p>My father, a Quechua man who lives outside of Bolivia but goes back and forth several times a year, voted for <em>MÁS</em> (<em>Movimiento al Socialismo</em>) from Mendoza, Argentina. He spoke to me from the “Nave Cultural”, a <a href="https://www.pagina12.com.ar/300044-elecciones-en-bolivia-2020-en-que-casos-se-iria-a-ballotage">voting center</a> where he cast his ballot. There were a lot of other people there, all eager to do the same. “Yes, it is a <em>dictadura</em>. We call it a dictatorship because there was a military coup.” he tells me over the phone. <em>MÁS</em> had to win—“<em>Si o si”—</em>my father tells me, because of two reasons:</p>
<ol type="1"><li>The region depends on it. Argentina, Peru, Ecuador,
Chile, Uruguay and Brazil have recently been governed by left-leaning
political movements. The <em>pueblo</em> needs to be heard once again.</li><li>The
world needs to see a socialist presence in the world still. A win for
the right-wing party in Bolivia will benefit both Donald Trump and the
conservative imperialist right as well as threaten Argentina’s
government.</li></ol>
<p>President-elect Luis Arce has vowed to take on training younger
leaders from the MÁS party, declaring it now a “MÁS 2.0.” Arce has
always supported the left wing and socialism, and his vice president,
David Choquehuanca, is an Aymara man who has been a part of the
socialist movement in Bolivia for more than two decades. In the north of
the continent, an estimated 7,000 Indigenous people from Cauca,
Colombia have formed <a href="https://thebogotapost.com/colombia-sees-another-day-of-national-strike-action/47954/">national strikes</a>, or <em>mingas </em>(a Quechua word for a collective effort for common good.) These <em>mingas</em> show that Indigenous people of South America are mobilizing and demanding respect, justice and sovereignty. </p>
<p>The election of Arce alongside the <em>mingas </em>in Cauca, Colombia
show us that just voting is not an option. It will take consciousness,
mindfulness, careful planning, mass organizing and
Indigenous. Afro-Indigenous and Black leaders to the front. With all
eyes and ears watching, supporting, protecting, and learning from them.</p>
<p>Evo Morales, the former president of Bolivia, was unable to vote last
Sunday. It is our duty to be allies and stand with the Bolivian
people, and the Indigenous socialist movements of the South, and of all
directions.</p>
<p>Orlando Gutierrez, one of the leaders of the mineworkers’ union, the <em>Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia </em>(FSTMB) was asked during an <a href="https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article6755">interview</a>
if the workers’ movement march across the country a few weeks ago was
the “beginning of a plan of struggle?” To which Gutierrez replied, “It
was a warm-up. We cannot leave people sleepy.” Gutierrez says after
fourteen years with comrade Evo Morales, there had been problems,
difficulties, and even sporadic mobilizations, but with the coup they
were surprised. He says, the people are active, and in response to
Gutierrez, one of the leaders of the new younger generation, we remind
ourselves to remain active. To remain alert, conscious, and acknowledge
that though there are conflicts, internal disagreements at times, one
thing is certain: the people must not be sleepy. There is a bigger
mission for the Bolivian people, and that is to defend the wiphala, to
protect <em>Pachamama</em>, and accomplish what benefits their beloved
Bolivia. In this same way we as Indigenous peoples living in the North,
should keep both eyes open on the frontlines. There is much to lose, but
there is actually so much more to gain in the end.</p>
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