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Photograph Source: Sámediggi Sametinget – CC BY 2.0

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales was overthrown in a military coup on November 10. He is now in Mexico. Before he left office, Morales had been involved in a long project to bring economic and social democracy to his long-exploited country. It is important to recall that Bolivia has suffered a series of coups, often conducted by the military and the oligarchy on behalf of transnational mining companies. Initially, these were tin firms, but tin is no longer the main target in Bolivia. The main target is its massive deposits of lithium, crucial for the electric car.

Over the past 13 years, Morales has tried to build a different relationship between his country and its resources. He has not wanted the resources to benefit the transnational mining firms, but rather to benefit his own population. Part of that promise was met as Bolivia’s poverty rate has declined, and as Bolivia’s population was able to improve its social indicators. Nationalization of resources combined with the use of its income to fund social development has played a role. The attitude of the Morales government toward the transnational firms produced a harsh response from them, many of them taking Bolivia to court.

Over the course of the past few years, Bolivia has struggled to raise investment to develop the lithium reserves in a way that brings the wealth back into the country for its people. Morales’ Vice President Álvaro García Linera had said that lithium is the “fuel that will feed the world.” Bolivia was unable to make deals with Western transnational firms; it decided to partner with Chinese firms. This made the Morales government vulnerable. It had walked into the new Cold War between the West and China. The coup against Morales cannot be understood without a glance at this clash.

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Bolivian Coup Comes Less Than a Week After Morales Stopped Multinational Firm’s Lithium Deal

November 12, 2019

Bolivian Coup Comes Less Than a Week After Morales Stopped Multinational Firm’s Lithium Deal

“Bolivia’s lithium belongs to the Bolivian people. Not to multinational corporate cabals.”

Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni salt flats hold the largest reserves of lithium in the world. — Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni salt flats hold the largest reserves of lithium in the world. (Photo: Psyberartist/Flickr/cc)

The Sunday military coup in Bolivia has put in place a government which appears likely to reverse a decision by just-resigned President Evo Morales to cancel an agreement with a German company for developing lithium deposits in the Latin American country for batteries like those in electric cars.

“Bolivia’s lithium belongs to the Bolivian people,” tweeted Washington Monthlycontributor David Atkins. “Not to multinational corporate cabals.”

The coup, which on Sunday resulted in Morales resigning and going into hiding, was the result of days of protests from right-wing elements angry at the leftist Morales government. Sen. Jeanine Añez, of the center-right party Democratic Unity, is currently the interim president in the unstable post-coup government in advance of elections.

Investment analyst publisher Argus urged investors to keep an eye on the developing situation and noted that gas and oil production from foreign companies in Bolivia had remained steady.

The Morales move on Nov. 4 to cancel the December 2018 agreement with Germany’s ACI Systems Alemania (ACISA) came after weeks of protests from residents of the Potosí area. The region has 50% to 70% of the world’s lithium reserves in the Salar de Uyuni salt flats.

Among other clients, ACISA provides batteries to Tesla; Tesla’s stock rose Monday after the weekend.

As Bloomberg News noted in 2018, that has set the country up to be incredibly important in the next decade:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Venezuela Leaders Confirm Active Coup Attempt In The Country

April 30, 2019

Venezuela Leaders Confirm Active Coup Attempt In The Country

Multiple reports say a military coup attempt is ongoing Tuesday morning in Venezuela as an anti-Guaido militia loyal to opposition leader and US-backed Juan Guaidó tries to establish military control of key points across the capital of Caracas and other major cities.

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez confirmed via social media the government is in the midst of putting down what’s being described as a “small coup” by military “traitors” working with the right-wing opposition.

File photo of Venezuela soldier in Caracas, via AFP

The AP has confirmed ongoing clashes between coup supporters and police inside Caracas, including reports of tear gas being fired, moments after Guaido issued statements in a video calling for a military uprising. Guaido was shown in the video accompanied by detained activist Leopoldo Lopez and surrounded by well-armed soldiers.

Crucially, Lopez said he was liberated from captivity where Maduro had put him under house arrest for leading opposition unrest in 2014, and in the video called on all Venezuelans to peacefully take to streets.

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The AP described the video which apparently sparked the subsequent anti-Maduro action in Caracas:

In the three-minute video shot early Tuesday, Guaido said soldiers who took to the streets would be acting to protect Venezuela’s constitution. He made the comments a day before a planned anti-government rally.
“The moment is now,” he said, as his political mentor Lopez and several heavily armed soldiers backed by a single armored vehicle looked on.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Planning of a Coup against Venezuela: Chile, September 11, 1973: The Ingredients of a Military Coup. The Imposition of a Neoliberal Agenda

February 22, 2019

The Planning of a Coup against Venezuela: Chile, September 11, 1973: The Ingredients of a Military Coup. The Imposition of a Neoliberal Agenda

Chicago Economics: Neoliberal Dress Rehearsal of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP)

The main objective of the US-supported military coup in Chile was to impose the neoliberal economic agenda. “Regime change” was enforced through a covert military intelligence operation. Sweeping macro-economic reforms (including privatization, price liberalization and the freeze of wages) were implemented in early October 1973.

Barely a few weeks after the military takeover, the military Junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet ordered a hike in the price of bread from 11 to 40 escudos, a hefty overnight increase of 264%. This “economic shock treatment” had been designed by a group of economists called the “Chicago Boys.” “While food prices had skyrocketed, wages had been frozen. From one day to the next, an entire country had been precipitated into abysmal poverty.

In 1973, I was teaching economics at the Catholic University of Chile. I lived through two of the most brutal US sponsored military coups in Latin America’s history: Chile, September 11, 1973 and less than three years later, Argentina, March 24, 1976 under Operation Condor, which initiated Argentina’s Dirty War: “La Guerra Sucia”.

And today, the Trump administration is threatening to invade Venezuela with a view to “restoring democracy”, replacing an elected president (casually described by the Western media as a “dictator”) by a US proxy, speaker of Venezuela’s National Assembly.

***

Author’s Introduction

More than forty-five years ago on September 11, 1973, the Chilean military led by General Augusto Pinochet, crushed the democratically elected Unidad Popular government of Salvador Allende.

The objective was to replace a progressive, democratically elected government by a brutal military dictatorship.

The military coup was supported by the CIA. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger played a direct role in the military plot.

Is Washington’s ongoing initiative directed against Venezuela modelled on Chile?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Venezuela? The bad guys are on Wall St.

January 28, 2019

Venezuela? The bad guys are on Wall St.

With Washington talking up a military coup (Democrats for once in no hurry to berate Trump on the issue) and Russia a sufficiently interested party to have flown nuclear capable bombers into Caracas last month, it behoves us all to get up to speed on Venezuela. It should go without saying we can’t trust a word corporate media say but, case it doesn’t, here’s why.

First, corporate media are not independent but reliant on market forces. This applies not just to the billionaire media but, for reasons given elsewhere, to Guardian and BBC too.

Second, media both sides of the Atlantic have a long record of backing US predation on the global south. Never have they deviated from this – take the Guardian’s cheerleading on Iraq.Worse, they’ve abdicated a core duty in their refusal to explore motives that cast a very different light on Western interventions sold to us as humanitarian.

Third, sanctions have sown economic havoc in Venezuela. They’re spoken of in such calm tones that an already innocuous word loses even what little force it might have had. But sanctions kill. They are one way the powerful bully the weak in the name of high ideals belied, for those who choose to study them, by the facts.

I was a high class muscleman for Big Business, Wall Street and the Bankers; a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests in 1914, Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank to collect revenues. I helped in the rape of half a dozen Central American republics for Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar in 1916. In China I saw to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. Capone operated in three districts. I operated on three continents.
Major-General Smedley Butler

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Regime Change Fails: Is A Military Coup or Invasion of Venezuela Next?

February 15, 2018

Regime Change Fails: Is A Military Coup or Invasion of Venezuela Next?

The U.S. has employed all of its regime change tools in Venezuela and although so far they have failed, there is still a chance that a military attack is in store, warn Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers.

Several signals point to a possible military strike on Venezuela, with high-ranking officials and influential politicians making clear that it is a distinct possibility.

Speaking at his alma mater, the University of Texas, on February 1, Secretary of State Tillerson suggested a potential military coup in in the country. Tillerson then visited allied Latin American countries urging regime change and more economic sanctions on Venezuela. Tillerson is also reportedly considering banning the processing or sale of Venezuelan oil in the United States and is discouraging other countries from buying Venezuelan oil.

In a series of tweets, Senator Marco Rubio, the Republican from Florida, where many Venezuelan oligarchs live, openly called for a military coup in Venezuela. “The world would support the Armed Forces in #Venezuela if they decide to protect the people & restore democracy by removing a dictator,” the former presidential candidate tweeted.

How absurd — remove an elected president with a military coup to restore democracy? Does that pass the straight face test? This refrain of Rubio and Tillerson seems to be the nonsensical public position of U.S. policy.

The U.S. has been seeking regime change in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998. Trump joined Presidents Obama and Bush before him in continuing efforts to change the government and put in place a U.S.-friendly oligarch government.

They came closest in 2002 when a military coup removed Chavez. The Commander-in-Chief of the Venezuelan military announced Chavez had resigned and Pedro Carmona, of the Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce, became interim president.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Catalonia’s Referendum Unmasks Authoritarianism in Spain

October 5, 2017

Catalonia’s Referendum Unmasks Authoritarianism in Spain

Monica Clua Losada, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

I have long worried about the rise of authoritarianism in the European Union.

The Spanish government’s violent crackdown during the Catalonia referendum on Oct. 1 is the latest crisis to challenge EU institutions. Several member states are facing serious questions about territorial sovereignty. Just look to the Scottish referendum to leave the U.K. and questions opened up by the Brexit vote over the Irish border.

Catalonia experienced a level of police brutality not often seen in developed democracies. More than 800 people were injured, more than 100 of whom were hospitalized. Yet, in a rare televised appearance, King Felipe VI expressed full support for the Spanish government’s actions.

As a scholar of Spanish politics, I fear this creates the possibility for more repression and even the abolition of Catalonia’s autonomy.

Why has the Spanish government reacted with such a severe crackdown? To answer that question, it might useful to go back more than 40 years.

Franco’s legacy

When Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975, pro-democracy forces feared a new military coup. So they carefully crafted Spain’s 1978 Constitution to ensure stability, rather than create a radical change from authoritarianism.

The transition to democracy involved increasing political freedom for groups that had opposed Franco and had been persecuted by his dictatorship. But it also incorporated existing authoritarian groups and officials into the state. They included the Francoist military, the church and state structures that existed during the dictatorship – such as the judiciary, the police and the civil service.

Is Spain in danger of returning to the authoritarian days of the Franco dictatorship?
Zoeken Fotocollectie, Dutch National Archives, CC BY

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The Turkish Witch-Hunt Begins: Erdogan Begins Arresting Government Critics

July 17, 2016

The Turkish Witch-Hunt Begins: Erdogan Begins Arresting Government Critics

Having arrested those who were supposedly directly involved in the attempted coup, which at last count this morning amounted to over 6,000 individuals of which 3,000 members of the army (or less than 1% of Turkey’s 315,000-strong forces) and the Turkish legal system, including judges and prosecutors. That Erdogan was so quick in assembling a list of enemies in the judicial branch, whose arrests started early on Saturday even before the coup was fully doused, is the clearest indication that Erdogan was not only prepared for the “coup”, but its inevitable outcome.

The video below released by the government Anadolu Agency, shows Turkish police interrogate senior army officers allegedly involved in the failed coup.

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12:11 PM – 17 Jul 2016

However, it was the next step that was the critical one: the one where Erdogan – having cracked down on his immediate military and legal opponents – took his crusade against everyone else, including the press and the educational system.

The first inkling of the upcoming “witch hunt” took place earlier today, when the Turkish police asked “citizens” to report those who support terrorism and crime. In other words, McCarthyism reborn, only this time the bogeyman is not communism.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Turkey Convulsed By Failed Coup: Turkish Voters, Not Soldiers, Should Toss Erdogan

July 17, 2016

Turkey Convulsed By Failed Coup: Turkish Voters, Not Soldiers, Should Toss Erdogan

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ruled Turkey for more than a decade. He should be enjoying his time of triumph. He towers above the political system, able to create and dismiss governments at will.

The mayor turned prime minister turned president created a new, victorious Islamic movement. He eradicated the gaggle of old, squabbling secular parties. He promoted more business-friendly policies, generating prosperity for those previously left behind. And he won support from women, academics, and liberals as he defanged the military, which long was the ultimate arbiter of Turkish politics.

Turkish army’s tank enter the Ataturk Airport on July 16, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Defne Karadeniz/Getty Images)

Yet his country almost crashed and burned on Friday. Elements of the army and air force attempted a coup d’etat. Airports were closed. State television was occupied. Planes bombed the parliament. Tanks blocked the bridge which crosses the Bosphorus, sundering the land link between Europe and Asia. Soldiers and police battled in the streets. Loyalists’ planes attacked renegades’ helicopters and tanks. Army forces besieged the intelligence agency’s headquarters. Insurgents detained the army chief of staff and other top officers. Civilians confronted the coup’s foot soldiers.

At last count nearly 300 people were killed and almost 1500 were injured. So far some 3000 members of the military have been arrested, and that number is likely to rise. Erdogan promised revenge against those involved, who will “pay a heavy price for their treason.”

No doubt they will, since the thin-skinned Erdogan long has been making even mild critics suffer for their alleged sins. To tame the military his government previously tried hundreds of military officers and others in mass trials involving improbably fantastic conspiracies, such as the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer cases.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Are Americans And Britons Being Prepped For A Military Coup?

October 1, 2015

Are Americans And Britons Being Prepped For A Military Coup?

A recent poll conducted by YouGov revealed that a sizable portion of the American public is open to the idea of a military coup in the United States. The poll was conducted amid the continual polling that takes place during the U.S. Presidential election yet it did not focus on the elections per se, but the potential lack of elections in the future.

The YouGov poll surveyed 1,000 people online and determined that 29% of Americans, over a quarter of the population, could imagine supporting a military coup against the civilian government. Only 41% could not imagine supporting a coup.

The numbers supporting a potential coup were highest among Republicans with 43% of them saying they could envision supporting a coup, 29% of independents followed, with Democrats trailing at 20%.

The numbers apparently increased in support when the question asked “whether they would hypothetically support the military stepping in to take control from a civilian government which is beginning to violate the constitution.”

Critics of the polls have suggested that the method used to conduct the survey was largely unscientific and not a reasonable representation of an accurate sampling of the general American public.

Regardless of how it was conducted, the real question here is “Why was this poll conducted in the first place?” Why are Americans being asked if they would support a military coup? After all, in the past, whenever a critic of the government would suggest such a possibility, that individual was laughed off the stage as being paranoid and hyperbolic. We are told military coups are not an option in the United States and, being the exceptional nation, we are outside of history. We are told that the very idea that a military coup could ever take place is laughable. So, why the poll?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

British General Threatens Military Coup If Corbyn Elected

September 22, 2015

British General Threatens Military Coup If Corbyn Elected

Late last week we brought you a collection of vivid images from a military coup in the West African nation of Burkina Faso where forces aligned with former President Blaise Compaoré arrested the acting President and Prime Minister ahead of democratic elections planned for October.

To be sure, most observers would argue that the idea of military coups like the one described above occurring with any sort of regularity in the context of the developed world is far-fetched at best, but a growing disaffection with what many see as endemic corruption and ineptitude has not only served to catapult two dark horse presidential candidates to the top of the polls in the US but apparently has some Americans convinced that a military takeover might be preferable to the current system of governance as the following poll (which admittedly suffers from selection bias) from YouGov shows:

Well, don’t look now but the ascension of Jeremy Corbyn to the head of Britain’s Labour party has led at least one senior serving general to predict that a Corbyn government would face the very real possibility of a military “mutiny”. Here’s more from The Independent:

The unnamed general said members of the armed forces would begin directly and publicly challenging the labour leader if he tried to scrap Trident, pull out of Nato or announce “any plans to emasculate and shrink the size of the armed forces.”

He told the Sunday Times: “The Army just wouldn’t stand for it. The general staff would not allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of this country and I think people would use whatever means possible, fair or foul to prevent that. You can’t put a maverick in charge of a country’s security.

“There would be mass resignations at all levels and you would face the very real prospect of an event which would effectively be a mutiny.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“It May Come To A Military Coup”: Ukraine’s “Nazis” Threaten To Overthrow Government

August 3, 2015

“It May Come To A Military Coup”: Ukraine’s “Nazis” Threaten To Overthrow Government

“It may come to a military coup.”

That rather ominous assessment of the political situation in Ukraine comes courtesy of a Right Sector fighter who spoke to FT last week.

Like Saint Mary (the militia which recently pledged to create a “Christian Taliban” and insists that “Moscow must burn”), The Right Sector is one of the many volunteer battalions fighting to rout the Russian-backed separatists operating in eastern Ukraine.

As discussed here on Sunday by Justin Raimondo, “the Right Sector and allied far-rightist militias are the core of [Kiev’s] military operation against the east. Right Sector provided the muscle of the Maidan revolution, standing in the front lines against the widely feared Berkut special forces loyal to Yanukovych. If these thugs must be reined in, then the success of the ‘anti-terrorist’ campaign is doubtful: yet Kiev is increasingly unwilling to pay the high price of appeasing their increasingly troublesome Praetorians.”

To let FT tell it, these “troublesome Praetorians” may be set to overthrow the government in what Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh calls a “new phase of the Ukrainian revolution.”

The problem, as the battalion leaders see it, is that the revolution simply didn’t usher in much change, and that’s primary due to the fact that all of the “patriots” got sidetracked by defending the country from a Kremlin-assisted uprising. “The (Maidan) revolution was interrupted by the aggression (in the east) and the patriots left Maidan and went to the east to protect Ukraine. Only 10 percent of people in positions of power are new; the rest are all the same, pursuing the same schemes they always did,” Serhiy Melnychuk, an MP and volunteer battalion founder recently told Reuters.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Egypt Is On The Edge Of Full Blown Civil War

July 4, 2015

Egypt Is On The Edge Of Full Blown Civil War

Via GEFIRA,

In the last few days there were dozens of separate attacks in Egypt from the Sinai up to Cairo. Probably more than 60 people died while the Egyptian army used F16 attack plains to protect itself against it disgruntled population. It is clear that the Egyptian rulers will not be able to contain the current situation, today could be marked as the start of Egypt’s civil war.

Democratic elected governments were violently overthrown, in Algeria, Egypt and Palestinian territories.In Algeria the FIS had won the first held elections with a convincing majority in 1990 and 1992. It has been removed from power in 1992 by a coup d’etat that was highly approved by the West. Probably 150.000 people died in the civil war that followed these events up.

HAMAS winning the 2006 elections in the Palestinian territories resulted in a war among Palestinians and ended up with a split of Gaza and the West Bank

In 2011 Morsi, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood won the first free elections in Egypt.

In 2013 the first elected president of Egypt was removed by the army. There are clear signs that anti-democratic forces were deliberately destabilizing Egypt before the coup d’etat in 2013. In the running up of the July 3th coup by General Sisi an artificial oil shortages was created that contributed to the mass protest against the elected president of Egypt.

The new army coup was financially supported by the Saudi rulers while the West was mute, the only vocalized opposition came from Turkey’s ruler MrErdo?an.

Washington was silent about Egypt’s coup and even resumed the delivery of military hardware to the Egyptian rulers, at the same moment Morsi received the dead penalty during a mock process. The situation in Egypt will be much worse than the situation that we saw in Algeria in 1992.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Thousands protest Burkina Faso army’s power grab | Reuters

November 2, 2014

Thousands protest Burkina Faso army’s power grab | Reuters.

(Reuters) – Thousands gathered on Sunday in the center of Burkina Faso’s capital to denounce what they called a military coup, two days after mass protests forced President Blaise Compaore to resign.

Compaore’s 27 years in charge of the landlocked West African country ended on Friday when his bid to change the constitution to extend his rule was thwarted.

A power struggle ensued and on Saturday Presidential Guard commander Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida was appointed as transitional leader, superseding an earlier claim by the army chief of staff.

In Ouagadougou’s Place de La Nation on Sunday, opposition leaders denounced the power grab to the assembled crowds, while a U.N. official warned of possible sanctions if Zida obstructed a return to civilian rule.

The central square was the site of the violent demonstrations against Compaore, in which three people were killed and the parliament set ablaze.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Army officer takes charge in Burkina Faso, ousting general | Reuters

November 1, 2014

Army officer takes charge in Burkina Faso, ousting general | Reuters.

(Reuters) – An officer in Burkina Faso’s presidential guard seized power on Saturday promising to lead the West African country to elections after the resignation of longtime President Blaise Compaore, in an apparent putsch against the military chief of staff.

Compaore stepped down on Friday after two days of mass protests against his attempts to change the constitution to extend his 27-year rule. At least three people were killed after protesters stormed the parliament building and set it on fire.

Army chief of staff General Honore Traore, a Compaore loyalist, had quickly announced on Friday he would take over the presidency on a transitional basis, but this was rejected by the demonstrators and a number of junior officers.

After reports of heavy gunfire near the presidential palace early on Saturday, Lieutenant Colonel Issaac Zida, the operational commander of the elite presidential guard, announced on radio that he was taking power.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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