NO to the US Coup in Bolivia

This speech was given by Autumn Lake representing the Anti-War Committee at our Hands Off Bolivia protest.  The actions was an emergency response protest on November 14th as a part of an international call for protests.

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This is a coup!   Say it with me: THIS IS A COUP!

This is a coup, not by a righteous grassroots movement, but by US-backed right-wing racists. This is a coup designed to undermine the social and economic gains made by the first indigenous-led government in the western hemisphere since it had been colonized by European powers. Bolivia to this day is the only country left in the Americas where the majority of the population is indigenous. The movement that led to the election of President Evo Morales is rooted in ensuring that Bolivia’s social and economic practices prioritize the majority-indigenous masses of Bolivia over the interests of foreign capital, lifting broad masses of Bolivians out of poverty. Under Morales, indigenous languages and culture have been thoroughly incorporated into Bolivia’s plurinational model.

It is for this reason that it is important to recognize that the opposition that forced Morales to resign from the Bolivian presidency is violently right-wing, pro-US imperialism, and anti-indigenous. Opposition Senator Jeanine Áñez, who declared herself president of Bolivia despite not meeting the constitutional requirements for assuming the position, has expressed a great deal of anti-indigenous sentiment. In a now-deleted tweet, Áñez expressed her contempt for Bolivia’s indigenous peoples by stating, “I dream of a Bolivia free of satanic indigenous rites. The city is not for the Indians!” Police, the military, and various opposition groups have been engaged in anti-indigenous violence, dragging indigenous Morales supporters into the street, burning symbols of the indigenous population, and attacking elected politicians. 

As was the case in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Honduras, US resources and training were instrumental in opposing the democratically-elected progressive government of Bolivia. General Williams Kaliman, the current head of Bolivia’s military and one of the masterminds of the coup, had previously received training at the infamous School of the Americas, as did many others involved . Leaked audio confirmed that reactionary conservative Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were involved in planning the coup with the Bolivian right-wing opposition forces.

Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and other reactionary US politicians claim that this coup was necessary for the “restoration” of democracy in Bolivia. They claim that Morales is a dictator that is committed to holding onto power by railing against term limits. Aside from the fact that Morales’ popularity is nearly ubiquitous among the Bolivian masses, Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal determined Morales could stand for reelection in January 2019. Even still, other western leaders, such as Germany’s Angela Merkel, have been in power for even longer than Evo Morales. Regardless, the Bolivian masses have the right to determine the political and economic fate of their own country, and the United States has no right to undermine the sovereignty of the Bolivian people.

We all know that calls for “democracy” by the United States are a farce. These calls are the public justification of the true motivations behind this coup. The popular government of Bolivia deviated from the economic and political will of the United States, something by which the US cannot abide. The Morales government used the country’s natural resources to fund social welfare programs instead of lining the pockets of the already wealthy, redistributing wealth to society’s poorest sectors and uplifting the most marginalized. To quote Evo Morales himself, “My sin was being indigenous, leftist, and anti-imperialist.”

While the US attacked Venezuela and Iraq for using their oil resources this way, Bolivia is unique in that it doesn’t have large amounts of oil, but instead has the largest concentration of lithium of any country on the planet. Lithium is a major component of alternative energy technology, being one of the most important raw materials for the manufacturing of electric vehicles. The imperialist plunder of nations for energy resources has taken shape in Bolivia as the imperialist plunder for alternative energy resources.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, then it’s likely that you followed the development of US aggression in Venezuela as well. The United States uses the same playbook for regime change throughout Latin America. For now, the US has succeeded in Bolivia where they could not in Venezuela. But Venezuela has demonstrated to the world that resistance to right-wing extremism and US empire is possible. The masses in Bolivia know this, and as we speak, the masses are mounting a militant resistance to the new US-backed government. Bolivians are marching through the streets, giving the police and the military hell, and fighting to take their country back.

We in the Anti-War Committee stand with the Bolivian masses in condemning the right-wing coup, in condemning the attack on indigenous sovereignty, and especially in condemning US imperialist interference in Latin America!

Hey hey! Ho ho!  This racist coup has got to go!