Ah, I didn't go to the uyuni salt flats, we arrived in La Paz and went North. Always sort of regretted not visiting there when I had the chance.
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Whose word do we have for these electoral irregularities. it seems to be the organization of American States. hmm, I'm sure that's an august, scrupulously fair body at this point in time. Did anyone else notice it?Originally posted by E10 Rifle View PostComment
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Nobody likes a fucking Gobshite either. Yet here we are.Originally posted by Nesta View PostLast edited by The Awesome Berbaslug!!!; 12-11-2019, 23:32.Comment
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When Morales offered fresh elections, what do you think should have happened?Comment
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This is a pretty informative thread on the "electoral irregularities", for anyone who's interested.
[URL]https://twitter.com/kevinmcashman/status/1193703918624108544[/URL]
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More good stuff from New Socialist
Of the coup in Chile, Eric Hobsbawm wrote, “the left has generally underestimated the fear and hatred of the right, the ease with which well-dressed men and women acquire a taste for blood.” In Bolivia we see this manifesting not only as the revanchism of class hatred, but, most vehemently, as anti-Indigenous racism. Indigenous politicians and militants, especially women have been attacked. The Wiphala has been torn down and burnt. Entering the vacated Bolivian Palace of Government, coup leader Luis Camacho placed a Christian Bible on the Bolivian flag, declaring, “the Pachamama [Indigenous Mother Earth] will never return to the Palace. Bolivia belongs to Christ.” The colonial resonances in this gesture are as clear as they could be. What the reactionary forces desire more than anything else is to crush the processes of Indigenous dignity and political-cultural assertion, as well as the aforementioned (and related) ecological commitments, all of which are symbolised by Pachamama’s presence in the Palace. Amid astroturfing calls to “listen to Bolivians!” from recently-registered, coup-supporting social media accounts, it is important to remember this statement of racialised supremacy. Many Bolivians doubtless hold right-wing views: no set of humans is a monolith, and settler-colonial societies often give rise to extreme expressions of reaction and revanchism as well as revolutionary possibilities. But when those right-wing views manifest in statements such as “Pachamama will never return to the Palace” – a clear statement of genocidal intent, of Indigenous repression and disenfranchisement; a threat of ecological destruction in the name of profit – our obligation to simply “listen” to those people ceases. Both-sides-ism has no place here.Comment
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I saw this shared on Facebook. No idea who the writer is apart from the short bio at the page, but some things to think about.
https://towardfreedom.org/front-page...QNqVUXKKc4QgKQ
It tires me to have to repeat that the Movement to Socialism (MAS) is exporting to the world the idea that what is happening in Bolivia is a popular progressive bloc against an extreme and fundamentalist right. The government of Evo Morales was for many years responsible for dismantling of popular organizations by dividing them, corrupting them and imposing clientelist leadership, making pacts with the most conservative sectors of society including fundamentalist Christian sects to which he granted the fascist illegal candidacy of a Korean evangelical pastor, who was endorsed with the approval of the MAS.
At the same time Evo Morales was building himself up as the sole figurehead which has taken us as a country, and the MAS project itself, toward a dead end.
He has mistakenly converted himself into the sole figurehead, a symbol of the concentration of irreplaceable power. The figure bears the myth of the “Indigenous president” whose symbolic power is the color of his skin, which he carries with him, a government inhabited by a circle of corrupt of intellectuals and leaders who revere him because they need him as a mask, as Franz Fanon outlines in his book Black Skin, White Masks.
Evo is the figurehead and the mask, nothing more. All the populist content is merely rhetorical and that has led to the fact that today it is at the forefront of a political project that is exhausted and empty, and whose only possibility of continuity has been the destruction of all forms of dissent, criticism, debate, cultural or economic production . His model is neo-liberal consumerist, extractivist, ecocidal and clientelist.
It is for that reason that in the face of electoral fraud, repudiation emerged rapidly, concentrated in the generation of those under 25 years old, young and urban, that have been the protagonists of this resistance of almost 20 days.Comment
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They should have gone for second elections. That is what the EU were suggesting as the appropriate response. See the thing is whether or not these electoral irregularities are real, or whether they are a figment of the rotten imagination of the state department. I mean if they are real that is really bad, if they are not real then it's worse. Either way Morales is highly likely to be arrested, which leads us to our current impasse.Originally posted by E10 Rifle View Post
I am under no illusions what the electoral opposition are like, or what dark forces are stalking the continent, it does point to an asymmetry inherent in populist or revolutionary movements. For a left wing populist movement to succeed, it has to not only work, not on populist terms, but actually deliver real actual concrete lasting achievements, and make things better for a lot of people, but they also have to do everything right, and hope that external factors go in their favour. and regardless of the level of clientelism or corruption inherent in the pre-existing culture, they have to steer clear of it, which makes it very difficult to protect yourself from the army, and your enemies. Otherwise it will all go to shit sooner or later, and becomes a proletarian mirror image of the previous regimes, or the actual monsters come back. I think that this was most vividly demonstrated in Brazil recently. For a right wing populist regime, all they have to do is ensure that the right rich people get richer, and you just shoot your enemies. Feudalism is remarkably robust. That article that inca linked to strikes me as something that could have been written a number of times in any number of post colonial countries where popular revolutions started to curdle. (ours curdled before the war of independence was even over) The thing that I would be curious about is how when the opposition are so unashamedly racist towards two thirds of the population how do you get less than 50% of the vote. One thing is sure. Nothing good will come of this. They're going to need a lot more election observers for the next election, preferably from countries that still hold them, or else we'll have to swallow an election where half of the indigenous population apparently voted for the white supremacist party.Comment
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On the afternoon of November 10, 2019, Bolivian president Evo Morales announced that he would resign. The resignation came amid ongoing conflict that arose in the wake of the October 20 elections. Evo Morales had declared victory in the first round. The opposition—an amalgam of political forces and positions—argued, albeit with no clear evidence, that the vote was marred by fraud. Three weeks of intensifying clashes between pro- and anti-Evo groups ensued, with mutual accusations of culpability for the violence. An OAS team completed an audit of the vote and announced on November 10 that there were many irregularities. Nonetheless, no hard evidence has appeared to sustain the allegations of wholesale fraud.
On the morning of November 10, in the wake of the OAS declaration, Morales called for new elections. Later that day, with violence intensifying, the military high command made a statement “suggesting” that Evo should resign. Some left, Indigenous, and progressive sectors in Bolivia, disillusioned with the slow erosion of progressive aspirations under Evo, also made public statements calling on Evo to resign, or to consider doing so. On November 12, an opposition Senator was unconstitutionally declared president by a handful of legislators in the absence of a quorum. It is important to recognize the multiplicity of factors that led to the current upheaval, including the MAS’ own role and a history of political miscalculations. However, the unfolding pattern of rightist revanchism, the role of oligarchic forces and external actors, and the final arbitrating role played by the military, suggests that we are witnessing a coup.
As a group of left thinkers, educators, journalists, scholars, and activists we write this letter in solidarity with the Bolivian people. We call for continued support of progressive social movements and continued resistance against revanchist violence and state repression. We stand with the people of Bolivia who remain vigilant against the rise of neo-fascist political forces and the return of the colonialist, dependent, and racist political regimes of the past. We reject efforts by the media and the U.S. government to demonize the MAS. At the same time, we recognize the limitations of the MAS as a political party, and of the patriarchal and prebendal political system that it has been unable, or unwilling, to change.
The return of conservative right-wing forces, fused with anti-Indigenous evangelical Christian symbolism, threatens to run roughshod over the legitimate efforts of many Bolivian citizens to pluralize, democratize, and renovate the party system.At present, a particularly troubling development is the threat to the lives of those Bolivians who are resisting the coup. The return of conservative right-wing forces, fused with anti-Indigenous evangelical Christian symbolism, threatens to run roughshod over the legitimate efforts of many Bolivian citizens to pluralize, democratize, and renovate the party system. The widespread use of arson attacks—mutually attributed to both sides, though of unclear authorship—has created an unprecedented atmosphere of fear, terror, and chaos that clearly plays into the interests of the reactionary elite. The ransacking of Evo Morales’s house, the burning of Indigenous symbols like the wiphala, and the pervasive racist and dehumanizing language on social media all suggest tactics aimed at absolutely destroying Evo and the MAS as a viable political force.
In the face of these challenges, we stand with those movements in Bolivia that seek to rearticulate a progressive vision of the future. We stand against the restoration of neoliberalism and the hegemony of the IMF and the World Bank, especially as the struggle over Bolivia’s gas resources give way to a new struggle over the future of Bolivia’s lithium. We stand in support of anti-racist movements that are resisting the racism and fascism of the Right. We stand with women’s and LGBTQIA+ movements who have been fighting for sexual liberation, for a woman’s right to choose, against patriarchal forms of political rule, and for an end to impunity in the face of rising levels of gender and sexual violence. We stand with Indigenous movements that seek to restore a vision of true plurinationalism, self-determination, and territorial autonomy against the unfettered violence of extractive capital. We stand with workers who seek dignified employment and state support in the face of precarious labor conditions. We stand with farmers who are working toward a future not dominated by agroindustrial capital. We stand with those who are working for a more egalitarian and ecologically sustainable future.
We write this letter on behalf of NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America) and are calling on the international community to provide solidarity and support to the diversity of social movements that exist in Bolivia in this historic moment. We call upon the international community to respect the sovereignty of Bolivian social movements.
NACLA was founded in the wake of the 1966 United States invasion of the Dominican Republic. NACLA offers progressive reporting on Latin America to U.S.-based audiences and has a long history of resisting U.S. imperialism in Latin America.
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I was reading a Twitter thread or two about that Jhanisse V. Daza (the Twitter user whose tweet is quoted in the tweet embedded by Nef in the post immediately above, in case anyone can't see it). She appears to be a plant of some sort. And her great grandfather was once installed by a coup as president of Bolivia.
And the odd thing about this is that he's not even translated the most outrageous bit of the new puppet president's tweet. She doesn't just say she wants natives out of the cities, she outright calls native traditions 'Satanic indigenous rituals'. I've seen far more of her on my Twitter timeline in the last few days than I wish I had.Originally posted by E10 Rifle View Post
It's deeply troubling that this can still happen, and it's a reminder of how fragile democracy is in this region. As well as seeming links to big foreign businesses and lithium, there's also an undercurrent of neoNazism not far below the surface. I'm off to north-western Argentina on Sunday, and we were considering heading up to the border and popping across for a few hours, but I don't think that part of the holiday will be happening now.Comment
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Also, as RC says, this thread is a very good explainer, and it's not massively long.
Originally posted by Reginald Christ View PostComment
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There seems to be some question as to whether or not that tween is genuine. I'm sure, based on other things she's done and said that this is what she thinks, but she might not have actually said that.Originally posted by Sam View Post
Then again, there's a ton of misinformation and deliberate confusion on twitter about this issue.Comment
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Which tweet? The Daza one where she says she's just been watching a documentary about her great grandfather?
The Añez ones saying horrendously racist things about indigenous and non-Christian Bolivians are genuine all right. I've been watching them get retweeted onto my timeline quite a lot over the last couple of days.Comment
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The one where she says they'll be no more Indians in the capital. If you look at the replies to Lee Brown's original tweet on that. At least, some people are challenging it. They may be full of shit.Originally posted by Sam View Post
The Bolivian right sure seem to have a lot of people on twitter pushing the "#nocoup" business.
The left shouldn't get sucked into the false choice the right is pushing. Maybe it was time for Evo to go. It seems that many on the left agree with that. And maybe there was election fraud, though there does not seem to be hard proof of that. But even if both of those things were true, this is still a coup and what has happened in the last week is bad for democracy in South America.
I mean, Trump is a criminal, but I wouldn't be OK with him just being run out of the country under threat of violence and replaced by Nancy Pelosi because she said so. That wouldn't end well for anyone.
By the way, these people should not be calling themselves Christians. I can't see anything remotely Christ-like in their behavior.Comment
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Ah, I see what you mean about the tweet.
There are a lot of newly created, no-follower Twitter accounts tweeting the 'not a coup' hashtag. One US journalist yesterday noticed that it was a trending topic in his home state according to the Twitter algorithm. His home state being Virginia. Which led to lots of people saying 'there are lots of Bolivians living in DC'. Right, but going by census numbers every single one of them would have to tweet the hashtag eight or nine times a day to account for the number of tweets supposedly being sent from Virginia.
I think it's clear that Morales made things a bit too much about himself and a bit not enough about his programmes, making it harder / less personally palatable to him to bring through a replacement, but that doesn't justify what's happened. If the armed forces invite you to stand down to ensure public order, then it's a coup. Latin Americans are good at spotting them, because they've had plenty of practice.Comment
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Well, it’s happened and it doesn’t look like anything is going to fix it.
There will be new elections, supposedly. What will be the outcome of those?Comment
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I'd have been much more optimistic about those new elections when Morales was in power. She keeps referring to herself as the Constitutional President of Bolivia, which is an absolute joke (there wasn't even quorum at the vote which 'confirmed' her in the position).
I don't know Bolivia, but I mean, MAS is the most popular party. The opinion polls prior to the election were all predicting a result very close to what actually happened. If there's someone halfway competent who MAS can put up as a candidate, then ...Comment
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If there are free and fair elections called in the next month then I'll wait and see. If the elections "have to be delayed" then I strongly suspect the fascist takeover will be complete - they'll rig the media, deny people the vote, dissuade others and miraculously end up with a majority.Comment
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Even accepting the "irregularities", MAS appears to have won the most votes, but I fear ad hoc's predictions are right.
And all those in the rich world who loudly decry the rise of "right-wing populism" elsewhere are going to have to shit or get off the pot. This will be the second hard-right racist to take power in Latin America in a few years, and it's as worrying as anything going on in Italy, Hungary or Britain.
There's also no reason for this new government to be formally recognisedComment
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While I agree that under the current system the deck is always going to be stacked against truly left-wing politicians (and Gary Younge has an excellent article today on the reasons why), it has to be noted that Morales isn't a "populist" - an utterly rubbish term that's essentially meaningless if it's being applied equally to describe both Morales and Bolsonaro. Morales came to power legitimately over a decade ago and has lifted huge swathes of his people out of poverty. His successes have possibly gone to his head - it tends to happen - but he is far more sinned against than sinner in this situation.Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
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