Military coup in Bolivia

I’m older than either one of you! I think...

I'm 58.

You're gonna have to pack on more pounds than that to be president.
Start with hamberders, and then maybe some taco salads.
Wash it down with covfefe.

May you live a long life. I have seen what the end looks like, and you can do all you want, age and death come for us all. You will not escape. Your body will betray you too. I just do not fritter away so much time trying to live out into the rotting away years. You can have all of them you want.

Speak for yourself, pathetic mortal.

take care of your body death becomes her. I am cool with the dying. I love when stupid animals struggle in futility against nature.

Things are going swimmingly so far.

Bolivia Senate Leader Jeanine Añez Declares Herself President

Source (Spanish): https://www.telesurtv.net/news/jeanine-anez-senadora-presidenta-bolivia-20191112-0047.html
Source (English Translation): https://translate.google.com/transl...enadora-presidenta-bolivia-20191112-0047.html

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/13/jeanine-anez-bolivia-president-promises-new-elections

Right wing, and considers indigenous Bolivians to be satanists. I'm sure there will be nothing negative that comes from this at all.

How terrible that there's a provisional President now that the old President has resigned. Truly this is a mark of utter chaos and calamity.

Whippersnapper

Hopefully, she doesn't do anything despotic, like rigging an election or getting a lapdog court to end-run the constitution so she stay in office indefinitely.

This is the interim President

She's referring there to the indigenous people whom she has declared are satans' creatures and have no place in civilisation. On top of that the massively influential trade unions have declared they will not recognise her authority.

This hardly seems like a stable situation

La Jornada claims to have audio evidence of conspiracy between the US and Bolivian military to coup:

Source (Spanish): https://www.jornada.com.mx/2019/11/...nqNlWqT8WfQMCupbxrYGamzsd0Nv_WwgQYJQjnWwUMQIw
English translation: https://translate.google.com/transl...nqNlWqT8WfQMCupbxrYGamzsd0Nv_WwgQYJQjnWwUMQIw

The audio is in Spanish, unfortunately, so I can't verify it.

you have me by one year, or perhaps a few months depending on your birthdate.

How long will it take the usurpers to reverse the substantial gains that Morales made in addressing poverty, indigenous rights and environmental protections, I wonder?

Not long. It's always easier to destroy than to create.

Looks like it's already going to shit.

Ironically Morales stood down to avoid any further bloodshed. Now, I'll be the first to admit I know very little about the man, but someone with a track record of substantial improvements in human rights who voluntarily stood down rather than having the military fighting his supporters in the streets doesn't seem quite so awful next to an unelected racist who refers to the indigenous people of her own country as subhuman works of Satan and declares she doesn't want them allowed in population centres seems a dubious step forward to me.

Especially as the fighting is happening anyway.

I find it fascinating how concerned the U.S. was over this horrible, horrible man, but we're fast friends with Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, and of course the ever present Saudi Arabia. I just... I just can't place my finger on why.

Something to do with him supporting the coca growing farmers, taking measures to protect the environment (yes, he really did, look it up folks), setting an uncomfortable precedent by cutting his own salary and those of other politicians, nationalising much industry, ousting US officials who challenged his policies, halving extreme poverty and refusing to cooperate with the USDEA or USAID.

It's almost as if the US viewed him as a thorn in their side. No disembowelled journalists I've been able to dig up info on, which is nice.

No it may have been an externally organised coup, it may not, but the Russians are thankfully being sensible and pledging to work with the interim administration despite being skeptical, so it's good to see there's at least one adult in the room.

Think that through, the Russians are panning out as being the most sensible and least self interested player here.

Agreed. Right now, too, the U.S. has been itching to get at Bolivia's very large lithium mines. Lithium is the new oil, in that battery technology is what will drive the solar electric future. They have the second largest reserve in the world, and Morales wasn't interested in letting the U.S. plunder it. Instead, he wanted the money from the mines to go directly into the Bolivian economy, investing in battery production facilities, and so on, so that the first benefactors of those mines were Bolivian workers.

Now, you know I'm on the fence over the suspicion of US involvement, there's nothing like enough evidence, but hearing about things like this certainly gives cause to consider the US a suspect.

Before Rightforge jump on me here I'd like to add a disclaimer that if this is the case it would require years upon years of sowing the seeds, not to mention that much of the moves Morales made to upset the US date back on that sort of timescale, which means if I am pointing a finger it's likely at the Obama administration at the very least.

slShe seems an economic conservative but hardly right wing. Also, what she said in 2005, was that as a devote Catholic she considers nonChristoan practices to be Satan worshipping. BTW that is the official position of the Church and a statement which would probably be agreed with by 60%-80% of Latin Americans. Have you ever even been to Latin America?

Coups are only wrong, if the leader is a socialist.

Nah, I get upset because the United States government loves to fuck with people in other countries based on what they have that the U.S. wants. In this case, Bolivia has natural gas and lithium, two highly prized commodities for a nation like ours trying to suck every last drop of energy out of the planet to support its dominance. The people of Bolivia could have handled whether or not they wanted to let Morales serve a 4th term or not, but if you read through the history of Bolivia, you can see where the far right wing elements have been trying for some time to prevent Morales from taking office again. Our fingerprints, that is the United States, are all over this coup. I think the more we learn, the more we'll start to see behind the curtain. As it stands right now, there's still enough evidence to heavily suggest things, if not to actually confirm them.

The U.S. has caused a lot of death in our search for more resources. I've posted it before, but even the "regime change" wiki is pretty straightforward about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change

The 1950s to now entries get really interesting.

To add, I'm fine if a country needs help because a brutal dictator has started crushing all dissent and is murdering people in the streets, and the U.S. comes to their aid. Less so when it's clear the battle is an economic one.

Conservative = right wing, we've done this before. How far to the right and in what regard is another matter, but declaring the entire indigenous population "satanists"?

Ultra religious leader who agrees with a commonplace prejudice and is happy to institute a government and social policy which ostracise huge ethnic swathes of the population? Swathes which the ousted leader was a member of?

Not seeing a problem?

Not seeing any uncomfortable parallels? Maybe further East on the map?

Wow, Trump broke John. Sad to see.

And the people continue to celebrate their newfound freedom from oppression.

I do wonder how people are going to spin this in the context of the China riot deaths. When does violent oppression become a tragic but necessary price for democracy?

Enormous protests are occurring within Bolivia, which the western corporate media refuses to cover.

Now up to ten killed and rising

Yup, definitely dodged the bullet there getting rid of that oppressive dictator.

Are we still spinning this as a significant step forward for democracy in the region?

Maybe if they didn't want him in office that much they could have, y'know, just voted him out?