> > https://theintercept.com/2020/10/19/bolivia-returns-evo-morales-party-to-power-one-year-after-a-u-s-applauded-coup/ > Bolivians Return Evo Morales’s Party to Power One Year After a > U.S.-Applauded Coup > > *Right-wing forces cheered by the U.S. tried to destroy one of Latin > America’s most vibrant democracies. Voters just restored it.* > *Glenn Greenwald <https://theintercept.com/staff/glenn-greenwald/>* > October 19 2020, 11:37 a.m. > > *In November 2019,* Bolivia’s three-term President Evo Morales was forced > under threat of police and military violence to flee to Mexico, just weeks > after he was declared the winner of the October presidential election that > would have sent him to his fourth term. Installed in his place was an > unelected right-wing coup regime, led by self-declared “interim President” > Jeanine Áñez, who promptly presided over a military massacre > <https://apnews.com/article/530280a8d9674f58ad19af8d3f00edee> that killed > dozens of Morales’s Indigenous supporters and then granted immunity to all > the soldiers involved. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the time cheered > the coup <https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1193600452849475584> by > citing subsequently debunked claims > <https://theintercept.com/2020/06/08/the-nyt-admits-key-falsehoods-that-drove-last-years-coup-in-bolivia-falsehoods-peddled-by-the-u-s-its-media-and-the-nyt/> > of > election fraud by the Organization of American States, or OAS, and urging > “a truly democratic process representative of the people’s will.” > > But after the Áñez regime twice postponed > <https://www.france24.com/en/20200723-bolivian-elections-postponed-again-due-to-covid-19-this-time-until-october> > scheduled elections this year, Bolivians went to the polls on Sunday. They > delivered a resounding victory to presidential candidate Luis Arce, > Morales’s former finance minister and the candidate from his Movement > Toward Socialism, or MAS, Party. Although official results are still being > counted, exit polls from reputable firms show Arce with a blowout victory — > over 50 percent against a centrist former president and a far-right coup > leader — and Áñez herself conceded that MAS has won > <https://twitter.com/JeanineAnez/status/1318048552191483904>: “We do not > yet have an official count, but from the data we have, Mr. Arce and [MAS > Vice Presidential candidate] Mr. Choquehuanca have won the election. I > congratulate the winners and ask them to govern with Bolivia and democracy > in mind.” > [image: Luis Arce, center, Bolivian presidential candidate for the > Movement Towards Socialism Party, MAS, and running mate David Choquehuanca, > second right, celebrate during a press conference where they claim victory > after general elections in La Paz, Bolivia, Monday, Oct. 19, 2020. (AP > Photo/Juan Karita)] > <https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2020/10/AP_20293168297613.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90> > > Luis Arce, center, Bolivian presidential candidate for the Movement Toward > Socialism Party, or MAS, and running mate David Choquehuanca, second right, > celebrate during a press conference where they claim victory after general > elections in La Paz, Bolivia, on Oct. 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Juan Karita) > > AP > > It is difficult to remember the last time a U.S.-approved military coup in > Latin America failed so spectacularly. Even with the U.S.-dominated > OAS’s instantly dubious claims of electoral fraud, nobody disputed that > Morales received more votes in last October’s election than all other > candidates (the only question raised by the OAS was whether his margin of > victory was sufficient to win on the first round and avoid a run-off). > > Despite Morales’s election win, the Bolivian police and then military made > clear to Morales that neither he, his family, nor his closest allies would > be safe unless he immediately left the country, as Morales detailed in an > interview <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hEwE64-kUQ&;> I conducted with > him just weeks after he was driven into exile in Mexico City. In that > interview, Morales blamed > <https://theintercept.com/2019/12/16/evo-morales-interview-glenn-greenwald/> > not only the U.S. for giving the green light to right-wing coup leaders but > also attributed the coup to Western anger over his decision to sell some of > the country’s valuable lithium supply to China rather than to the West. > Related Watch: Glenn Greenwald’s Exclusive Interview With Bolivia’s Evo > Morales, Who Was Deposed in a Coup > > <https://theintercept.com/2019/12/16/evo-morales-interview-glenn-greenwald/> > > After 12 years in office, Morales was not free of controversy or critics. > As the first elected Indigenous leader of Bolivia, even some of his core > supporters grew wary of what they regarded as his growing reliance > on quasi-autocratic tactics in order to govern. Several of his most > prominent supporters — both in Bolivia and in South America — were critical > of his decision to secure judicial permission > <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/5/bolivia-court-allows-president-morales-to-run-for-fourth-term> > to seek a fourth term despite a constitutional term-limits provision of two > terms. Even Morales’s long-time close Brazilian ally, former President Lula > da Silva — who correctly predicted in a 2019 interview > <https://theintercept.com/2019/05/22/lula-brazil-ex-president-prison-interview/> > with me that “you can be certain that if Evo Morales runs for president, > he’ll win in Bolivia” — nonetheless called > <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/22/exclusive-bolsonaro-is-turning-back-the-clock-on-brazil-says-lula-da-silva> > Morales’s pursuit of a fourth term a “mistake.” > > But none of those criticisms changed a central, unavoidable fact: More > Bolivians voted for Morales to be their president in 2019 than any other > candidate. And in a democracy, that is supposed to be decisive; for those > purporting to believe in democracy, that should be the end of the matter. > That is why Lula, in his Guardian interview shortly after the coup where > he criticized Morales’s bid for a fourth term, nonetheless emphasized the > far more important point: “what they did with him was a crime. It was a > coup – this is terrible for Latin America.” > > And whatever critiques one can legitimately voice about Morales — it is > hard to imagine any leader ruling for more than a decade without alienating > some supporters and making mistakes — there is no question that Morales’s > presidency, by almost every metric, was a success. After decades of > instability in the country, he ushered in a stable and thriving democracy, > presided > over economic growth > <https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/world/americas/turnabout-in-bolivia-as-economy-rises-from-instability.html> > that even western financial institutions praised, and worked to ensure a > far more equitable distribution of those resources than ever before, > particularly to the country’s long-oppressed Indigenous minority and its > rural farmers <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgxK9w5DSvQ>. That success > is what was destroyed, on purpose, when the Bolivian presidency was decided > in 2019 not democratically but by force. > > The West’s reaction to the 2019 Bolivian coup featured all of its classic > propaganda tropes. Western officials, media outlets, and think tank writers > invoked > the standard Orwellian inversion > <https://twitter.com/Yascha_Mounk/status/1193152753079668737> of heralding > a coup > <https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/evo-morales-finally-went-too-far-bolivia/601741/> > of any democratically elected leader they do not like as a “victory for > democracy.” In this warped formula > <https://twitter.com/ClaraJeffery/status/1193682649535135745>, it is not > the U.S.-supported coup plotters but the overthrown democratically elected > leader who is the “threat to democracy.” > > Depicting U.S.-supported coups as democratic and democratically elected > leaders disliked by the U.S. as “dictators” has been a staple of U.S. > foreign policy propaganda for decades > <https://theintercept.com/2014/10/17/democracy-really-means-u-s-jargon-subservience-u-s/>. > That is the rubric under which the Obama administration and its Secretary > of State John Kerry somehow celebrated > <https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/world/middleeast/egypt-warns-morsi-supporters-to-end-protests.html> > one > of the world’s worst despots, Egyptian Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, as > “restoring democracy” following the brutal military coup he carried out. > > But thanks to Sunday’s stunning rebuke in Bolivia, the standard tactics > failed. Ever since Morales’s election victory almost exactly one year ago > today, Bolivians never stopped marching, protesting, risking their liberty > and their lives — even in the middle of a pandemic — to demand their rights > of democracy and self-governance. Leading up to the election, the coup > regime and right-wing factions in the military were menacingly vowing — in > response to polls universally showing MAS likely to win — that they would > do anything to prevent the return to power of Morales’s party. > > At least as of now, though, it looks as though the margin of victory > delivered to MAS by the Bolivian people was so stunning, so decisive, that > there are few options left for the retrograde forces — in Bolivia, > Washington, and Brussels — which tried to destroy the country’s democracy. > Anyone who believes in the fundamentals of democracy, regardless of > ideology, should be cheering the Bolivians who sacrificed so much to > restore their right of self-rule and hoping that the stability and > prosperity they enjoyed under Morales expands even further under his first > democratically elected successor. > ---
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