Business as Usual: Evo Morales and the Coup Condition
Binoy Kampmark
There is inherent bestiality in the politics of the Americas that signals coup, assassination and disruption. No state is ever allowed to go through what is weakly called a transition, except over corpses, tortures and morgues.
When a social experiment is conducted, rulers must ensure their wills are well inked ahead of time.
Opponents, often funded and sponsored by external powers with an umbilical chord to Washington, lie in wait, hoping for an unequal status quo.
Evo Morales is no winged angel and much can be said about him getting drunk with power over the course of 14 years. He lost a February 2016 referendum on the subject of indefinite presidential re-elections by a slight majority. It took the October 20 election result, dismissed by his opponents as fraudulent, to galvanise the movement against him.
The Organization of American States (OAS) decided to weigh in on the subject, claiming in its audit that the result could not be deemed accurate.
During his time in office, he did a certain bit of enlightening that cannot go past the economists and demographers. Even Time magazine had to concede that, as the country’s first indigenous head-of-state, “he oversaw an economic boom, a massive reduction in poverty and strides in social equality, earning him high approval ratings and three consecutive election wins.”
But the social changers are always bound for the chop, their heads placed upon some platform for removal by those with deep pockets, corporate sponsorship and the tutored thugs from the School of the Americas.
The Morales exit would be described as a coup in most languages.
Generals appearing on television demanding the removal of a civilian head of state would suggest as much. On Sunday, the calls were becoming particularly loud.
In a short time, Morales was on a plane to Cochabamba, adding his name to the chocked bibliography of coups that South America is renown for. (The last was the military ousting in 2009 of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya.)
But he who manufactures the press releases and opinion columns manufactures reality.
As Alan Macleod in Jacobin points out, various US outlets had little interest, nor stomach, for the term. Morales had “resigned” according to the ABC. The New York Times drew attention to an “infuriated population” incensed by his efforts at “undermining democracy” while also noting the term resignation.
Both Morales and his vice president, Álvaro García Linera “admitted no wrongdoing and instead insisted that they were victims of a coup.”
Any legitimacy on the part of Morales’s position in office was dismissed by the acceptance on the part of such networks as CNN that there were “accusations of election fraud”. CBS News accepted it as a point of record.
This particular tendency repeats instances of coverage in other elections – take the re-election of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro in 2018 as a case in point.
Former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez expressed little doubt about the credibility of that result as did dozens of foreign electoral observers. “It is an advanced automatic voting system.”
But why bother about international observers when removing an irritating leftist leader is so much more fun?
Other states also showed various shades of enthusiasm for the removal. Brazil’s government, despite taking heart at the forced departure of the Bolivian leader, played the no coup card. Given that Brazil was to host the governments of Russia, India, China and South Africa, it paid to be a bit cautious.
The foreign minister Ernesto Araújo wanted to get his opinions out of the way prior to the arrival of any Evo enthusiasts, suggesting that Morales had engaged in “massive electoral fraud”. It followed that, “There was no coup in Bolivia.”
Corporate America, soundly and boisterously perched at the Wall Street Journal, suggested a “democratic breakout in Bolivia”, a truly risible proposition given that corporations are distinctly anti-democratic by nature.
But there was concern: “Eva Morales resigns but he’ll use the Cuba-Chávez playbook to return.” The key to ensure the country’s “immediate future” depended, in no small part, “on its ability to hold new elections and reinstate a legitimate government.”
US policy wonks and officials were merry. “These events,” went a statement from the White House,
send strong signals to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail.”
Even, it would seem, at the end of a gun barrel sported by the officer class. As ever, the concept of “the people” lacks meaning in such pronouncements, given the innumerable attempts on the part of Washington to destroy that very will throughout Latin America.
A dark note is struck in the linking of both people and the military, with the uniformed gatekeepers praised for their calm in protecting that fetish long revered in US circles.
The United States applauds the Bolivian people for demanding freedom and the Bolivian military for abiding by its oath to protect not just a single person, but Bolivia’s constitution.”
All efforts at social reform, improving literacy and uplifting programs become the stuff of a deluded maniac who, for 14 years, ignored the “will of the people” and usurped legal strictures.
The Bolivian order was always going to be vulnerable. But as with other states strangled by the policies of austerity imposed by the International Monetary Fund, the savage dogma of privatisation, the mania with the balanced budget at the expense of poverty eradication, and a distinct lack of interest in social improvement, Bolivia found, for a time, efforts to improve its lot.
Across the Americas, a trend of reversal is in evidence, and the departure of Morales is its testament.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected]
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Cut&Paste from Caitlin Johstone:
“International affairs are much easier to understand once you stop thinking in terms of …a slow-motion third world war between … an unofficial globe-spanning empire … and all the nations which have refused to be absorbed into this empire. … Nations which refuse are punished with … invasions, sanctions, trade wars, and coups, … the ultimate goal being total unipolar global domination. …
Nothing takes precedence over this agenda of unipolar hegemony. As long as a nation remains loyal to the empire, it can fund terrorists …, and create the worst humanitarian crisis in the world without fear of …. the US-centralized empire. As a leaked State Department memo explained in 2017, … human rights violations are nothing more than a … narrative-control weapon with which to attack unabsorbed nations….”
Bolivia’s New Puppet Regime Wastes No Time Aligning With US Foreign Policy
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/11/16/bolivias-new-puppet-regime-wastes-no-time-aligning-with-us-foreign-policy/
I find it interesting that coups in South America bear a striking similarity to what happened in Thailand in 2006 and 2014- Accusations of corruption, nepotism, etc. against the Shinawatra clan- I wonder how much input came from the Yanks to enable the 2 coups?
Thaksin was no saint, and not ‘leftist’ either!, except he did things for his base,(like Trump!), who are the poor farmers, and workers, he tried to reform the rote-learning education system, rein in the military(!) by reducing their budget, and won 2 successive elections, the first time ever in Thailand.
The military, elite business and the royals wanted the plebs put back in their place.
Sound samiliar?
BTW, yes he did a few deals to benefit his clan, but look at the corruption of the military, every coup-time- increase their budget for hardware, so they get their cuts, deals for projects where their mates get the contracts, and military chiefs end up with enormous bank balances and assets.
Sound familiar?
Sharpen up lads, Regime enforcement coming to a street near you, sooner than you think; No more Promised Land to run to, as per yesteryear, so this time round they will be out to kill or chain you. A false Ideology, but with real bullets to back ’em up.
This colour revolution/coup is the latest on what seems like a production line of regime changes that the United States has engineered. And the format doesn’t change. Undermine the country’s economy, or ‘make the economy scream’ in the words of Nixon as part of the destablilsation of Chile in the early 1970s. Build up a popular opposition playing on possible shortcomings of the sovereign state. This being the job of experienced hands like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which incidentally not an NGO since it is directly funded by the US government, more accurately it should be called a GO and Human Rights Watch (HRW), not forgetting Mr Soros of course. Then come the street riots and disturbances, see Venezuala and closer to Home Ukraine; now to get things really moving send in the army, special units, and local militias and thugs, and make sure the police are deactivated, as some might be loyal to the government.
All of these disturbances will be orchestrated by outside agencies named above, but also in the local and foreign – particularly the foreign – media. This is a framed as being ”a popular uprising against a tyrannical dictatorship” the ”poor oppressed people yearn to be free” and the usual cliched tripe. The media itself will be instructed what to say by the CIA, MI6, Mossad, in the papers of record, viz., The New York Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Washington Post (aka Pravda on the Potomac) all of which are bought and paid, in both ideological and monetary terms.
And bingo! it usually works. But as a matter of fact the internal nature of those countries targeted should be immaterial. From a realist perspective the internal political arrangements of sovereign states should be of no concern to outside powers who are not at war with these states nor being threatened by them. This being against International Law. But hey, who gives a f*** about International Law, certainly not the US. The Anglo-zionist empire doesn’t seem to have any problems or qualms about befriending such lovely regimes as Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt and Colombia. But this is part of the double-talk of late imperialism.
So what started was a type in internal ethnic cleansing of native Americans on the plains of the mid-west when the population was reduced to minimal figures. When Columbus landed in the western hemisphere there were probably 80-100 million inhabitants. Some time later this figure had been reduced by approx 95%. In now what is the territory of the United States there were maybe 10 or so million Native Americans but by the 1900 census the figure had been reduced to 200,000.
Then of course, and now, the policy was exported and imposed on those wretched peoples who had the temerity to be ruled by their own government in their own countries. The British and French empires were bad enough, but this takes imperialism to a whole new global level.
As for the United Nations – it’s a joke, yes?
I don’t think we need be too pessimistic.
Washington’s satraps tend not to last very long.
Moreno, Bolsonaro and others of their ilk are coming under a lot of pressure already.
Gweedo is a complete laughing stock.
It is unlikely that the latest NED product in Bolivia will do much better.
A rabid religious nut job in the mould of Pence and Pompeo, overtly racist, and probably mentally deranged.
You’d think the Neocohens could come up with a few people who are even marginally competent as their colonial governors.
Gweedo, Moreno, Chalabi, Karzai, Curveball.
Even working all together, this bunch couldn’t pass 11 Plus.
Morales at UN:
https://youtu.be/uhzfsU8lN8M?t=5
https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/dettnews-bolivia_due_rapporti_indipendenti_provano_che_non_ci_sono_stati_brogli_morales_ha_vinto_regolarmente_e_losa_ha_agito_per_il_golpe/5694_31717/
https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/dettnews-in_bolivia_il_governo_golpista_minaccia_e_reprime_i_giornalisti_indipendenti/82_31721/
Post Scriptum: Welcome to our western dystopia
Docius In Fundem: You still think we defeated fascism post WW2.
Grazie, falcemartello, per farmi consapevole dell’Antidiplomatico.
@ nondimenticare
Non ce di che.
La Patria ho la morte.
I fail to see how I can agree or disagree with this link because I do not understand the language???
Suffice to say we did not defeat fascism post WW2. All those of any value were quickly evacuated, and assimilated into American society and their (previously despised) policies implemented there????.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip
@ Maggie
Use ur simple app on google to translate.
It is worth ur while the web site is extremely counter current old school blue collar site run by old school Gramscian and Vico lefties
Over my head I’m afraid. :-0
.
Has there ever been a winged angel president in any of the other western nations?
Has there ever been a winged angel president in any nation on Earth?
It it a prerequisite to be a winged angel?
Not only that, but what about the ‘term limits’ nonsense? Seriously? Why should there be any term limits on what is good for the people/citizens/nation? What for? It should always be up to the population to decide what works for them – or who works for them, or who draws their blood like a leech. And if the president feels in shape enough to do the thing, age should not matter so much either. But he is not old, anyways. If the simple majority in Bolivia is HAPPY with the man, he could get as old as Fidel Castro.
To ease and speed things up, a blockchain voting system can be used in which a voter/petitioner uses a user interface like at the drive-through of a fast food ‘restaurant’. There are large buttons with faces in them. These are standard Casino slot machine size for ease of use. You hit the button with the face of the person you want to be president.
Or the buttons have the party symbols in them. Or the numbers of laws that need to be passed by the population.
But this is not about term limits or irregularities like in the U.S. This is a lithium issue, or mining in general. Descendants of the conquistadores, or ‘contract colonizers’ wreaked havoc in South and Central America. They forced the indegenious population to become ‘christians’, since the church wanted control over the indegenious population.
The truth will remain, that christian fascist groups ousted a non-christian, indigenous government in Bolivia. South and Central America will always be indigenous land. Nothing can change that. Not even the genocide on South and Central American indigenous people that the church had blessed. After all, these were creatures and not like the ‘real children of god’.
The day on which all the churches are removed from South and Central America and sent back to Spain, that day will be the beginning of how the indigenous people want their land, brothers and sisters to be treated.
It’s a deflection ploy, like “I’m sorry, but…”; an attempt to prevent the called party from summarily hanging up; a common rhetorical strategy, that’s all.
What an established organised religion “wants” is generally conveyed to it–in this case the church–in morse code, by the wiggling of its onligarchy’s tongue up its arse. Left, dot; right, dash; up, underline; down, bold face with an exclamation mark/marks: … ..- -.-. -.- ..- .–. … …. .. – -.. — .– -.
Disappointing that Kampark feels obliged to “meet the MSM halfway.” As he does here:
“Evo Morales is no winged angel and much can be said about him getting drunk with power over the course of 14 years. He lost a February 2016 referendum on the subject of indefinite presidential re-
elections by a slight majority. It took the October 20 election result, dismissed by his opponents as fraudulent, to galvanise the movement against him.
“The Organization of American States (OAS) decided to weigh in on the subject, claiming in its audit that the result could not be deemed accurate.”
The truth, nowhere contradicted is that Morales had just won a perfectly fair election by 10% percentage points. None of those who claimed that the result was flawed is other than a part of the coup enabling system in Latin America. The State Department and the Canadian Ministry of Global(!sic) Affairs both moaned but they had nothing in the way of evidence to suggest that, in a country so notoriously divided ethnically that Morales called it a ‘plurinational state’, the candidate supported by the two third indigenous majority won. He was bound to do so because his government had proved to be extremely popular. It had achieved this popularity by nationalising mineral resources and employing the proceeds to feed children, provide pensions for the elderly, finance literacy programmes and make massive cuts to the poverty rates. That is being “drunk with power” means in this context. He was so drunk on power that he believed that a few more years might have returned the people of this epicentre of the Inca empire, the land of the Potosi mines in which millions of Evo’s ancestors were worked to death to finance the capitalism of western europe- one of the most notorious crime scenes in the world, on a par with Auschwitz for brutality- a concentration camp for the ‘inferior race’ of which Morales and his supporters were members which lasted for more than a century- returned the people to the sort of modest prosperity that ended with Pizarro . And that was in the 1532.
What took place in Bolivia, however is of more than local importance: the Empire has decided that socialist experiments will only be tolerated so long as they can be twisted, by sanctions, subversion and outside pressure into failure. Where they succeed in rooting themselves in the communities of the masses that they serve they must be smashed. In Bolivia they were smashed by a combination of fascist death squads-still being organised and despatched into the slums and villages where the poor live, to kill anyone looking like a leader, elected representatives, teachers and Trade Unionists- and the US trained military. Which takes its orders from Washington.
But none of this is quite as obscene as the whitewashing of the terrorists, the christian bigots and the CIA which is currently being carried out by the MI6Guardian, formerly published in Manchester, and the rest of the media.
This is a black and white matter: Morales was displaced by a violent coup, organised abroad and financed by Bolivian billionaires eager to regain their power before the Movement Towards Socialism reached its objective.
Jeremy Corbyn denounced the coup, for what it is, immediately. And well he might: what was done to Evo will be done to any leader who tries to bring, through reform, persuasion or any other means, an end to the capitalist system, increasingly polarised between a tiny elite of capitalists and a mass of propertyless mendicants hawking their labour power. The message from Washington, seconded by Downing Street is quite clear: elections don’t count any more if they lead to the victories of those opposed to a system whose historic mission-to turn the planet into a desert- is still not completed.
You’ve summed it up perfectly, Bevin.
We now have the corporate media brainwashing supposedly educated ‘western’ people into believing that another removal of a fairly elected, social-democratic leader is a victory for ‘democracy’.
The Empire decided that in 1917.
Isn’t the demise of the Empire greatly exaggerated?
As long as the Empire insists on continuing its downward slide, yes, it is exaggerating its own demise.
“coups that South America is renown for. (The last was the military ousting in 2009 of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya.)”
Honduras isn’t in South America. And what about Brazil?
I’m just a bit jaded and cynical these days so when I hear “Democracy and the Will of the People” coming from our leadership I’m reminded just how pliable our (US) democracy is. Its a constant fight to keep it functioning against a tide of gerrymandering and voter suppression in (mostly) GoP dominated states. (Not to mention arcane electoral rules that allow an Administration to be placed in power without winning a majority of the electorate.)
As a general rule of thumb I tend to think that ‘democracy’ just means ‘people we (the US) find acceptable who can be relied upon’ and ‘will of the people’ can easily be understood if you don’t make assumptions about who ‘the people’ actually are.
Nice to see the phrase Will of the People popping up somewhere else. Here in the UK, the Government, its Political Parties and the Electorate have been turning themselves inside out, with regards to our leaving the EU, or Brexit for the past three and a half years, and we’re not done yet !
Great write up. Well, who would have predicted this?
I guess they saw the weakness and took advantage.
We should all be confident though. A setback, yes. But who knows what will happen. We are on the right side of history so have the advantage.
And in tbe end, good usually prevails over evil.
Excellent summary which leaves me feeling less depressed. However, there must be a possibility that that Bolivia will now follow in the wake of El Salvador.