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The US Wanted a Coup in Bolivia: Like Magic, It Got One

November 14, 2019

The US Wanted a Coup in Bolivia: Like Magic, It Got One

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales was ousted in a coup. What happened?

Military Coup

The US wanted Leftist President Evo Morales gone.

Guess what? He’s gone.

The Guardian reports Many Wanted Morales Out. But What Happened in Bolivia was a Military Coup.

On Sunday the head of Bolivia’s military called on Evo Morales to resign from the presidency. Minutes later Morales was on a plane to Cochabamba where he did just that. These facts leave little doubt that what happened in Bolivia this weekend was a military coup, the first such event in Latin America since the 2009 military coup against Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya. (The 2012 and 2016 impeachments of Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo and Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff are widely viewed as “parliamentary coups.”)

The mainstream press has bent over backwards, and tied itself in more than a few tangled knots, to avoid drawing this conclusion. The Wall Street Journal celebrates Morales’ ouster as a “democratic breakout.” The New York Times is characteristically more circumspect, hemming and hawing about how “the forced ouster of an elected leader is by definition a setback for democracy” but might also “help Bolivia restore its wounded democracy.” This head-spinning rhetoric does not prevent the Times from swiftly dismissing left-of-center politicians’ “predictable” claims that what happened was a coup.

It is hardly surprising that conservative governments and powerful media outlets applaud Morales’ ouster and dismiss the claim it constitutes a coup. More surprising is that leftist commentators, including Raquel Gutiérrez and Raul Zibechi, have taken a similar stance. Zibechi attributes Morales’ fall to a “popular uprising.”

Morales’ Illegitimacy

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

Bolivia Adds to the Ranks of Global Political Chaos

November 12, 2019

Bolivia Adds to the Ranks of Global Political Chaos

Two days before Bolivian president Evo Morales was pushed out by the country’s military, Mark Weisbot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research penned a warning about what was happening, and what might unfold, in a Nation article titled, The Trump Administration Is Undercutting Democracy in Bolivia.

He noted:

Multilateral organizations like the Organization of American States (OAS) have a certain perceived impartiality because they are, in theory, controlled by a diverse group of nations. But sometimes a great power can wield a disproportionate influence. It could theoretically be a coincidence that both the Trump administration and the OAS have tried—without offering any evidence—to discredit Bolivia’s national election in the past couple of weeks. But it’s more likely that this dangerous, ugly, and destabilizing operation is being pushed by Washington.

This “destabilizing operation” came to a head yesterday when Morales resigned under pressure from the military amidst a wave of protests and violence. The situation is Bolivia is complicated, but one thing you can be sure of is anything you hear or read in U.S. mass media will be a heaping pile of lies and propaganda. Fortunately, I came across a really helpful thread courtesy of Kevin Cashman.

THREAD: If you haven’t been following the situation in Bolivia here’s a rundown. Briefly, the OAS, an emboldened opposition (which clearly is not the most popular party in the country), the media, and the Trump admin ousted a successful leftist leader. For the longer story:

Morales was barred by the constitution from running for another term, but he attempted to override this with a referendum which he lost 51% to 49%. The Bolivian Supreme Court later ruled that term limits were unconstitutional, so he decided to run again.

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

Lakes run dry from too much water extraction and climate change

January 8, 2019

Lakes run dry from too much water extraction and climate change

Source: Hannah Osborne. Feb 8, 2016. Bolivia’s vanishing Lake Poopó: ESA images show fully evaporated lake from space. International Business Times.

Preface.  It’s bad enough that aquifers are being depleted that won’t recharge until after the next ice age, or in some places like California, never, because greedy farmers suck all the water up and the caverns below collapse and will never fill up with water again.

But equally problematic are lakes and rivers drying up, essential for agriculture, fisheries, drinking, and industrial water supplies.

Ah the poor grandchildren, what a bleak future, with little time left to do anything, if that’s even possible given human nature…

Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer and “Crunch! Whole Grain Artisan Chips and Crackers”. Podcasts: Practical Prepping, KunstlerCast 253, KunstlerCast278, Peak Prosperity , XX2 report

***

Kate Ravilious. 4 March 2016. Many of world’s lakes are vanishing and some may be gone forever. NewScientist.

Bolivia’s second largest lake has vanished into thin air. In December, Lake Poopó became a dry salt pan and its largest lake – Lake Titicaca – is heading towards trouble, too. The combination of silting up and irrigation withdrawal from the Desaguadero River, which feeds Poopó, together with climate change and the extra warmth from current El Niño, were enough to finish this lake off.

Recent research and new data suggest that lakes in other parts of the world may also be on their way out.

“Considering the size of the lake – 2700 square kilometers (1042 square miles) – this is quite an astounding event, with slim prospects of recovery,” says Dirk Hoffmann from the Bolivia Mountain Institute. “This event should serve as a real warning. Eventually, we can expect Lake Titicaca to go the same way.”

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

WikiLeaks: US Government Plotted to Assassinate Bolivian President

October 13, 2015

WikiLeaks: US Government Plotted to Assassinate Bolivian President

Cables leaked by U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning reveal an apparent plot by the U.S. government to assassinate Bolivian President Evo Morales and overthrow his administration.

The cables in question were published in August in “The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to US Empire,” a book in which multiple journalists along with Julian Assange analyze the contents of the treasure trove of cables Manning provided to WikiLeaks in 2010.

The book devotes a section to what “The WikiLeaks Files” contributors Alexander Main and Dan Beeton call “the day-to-day mechanics of Washington’s political intervention in Latin America.”

According to the cables, the plot to orchestrate a coup or carry out an assassination against Morales came after years of resistance by the Morales government to the United States’ Latin American agenda.

TeleSUR, a Latin American TV network, reported last week that the Bolivian government is continuing a formal investigation into the allegations, despite denials by U.S. government officials:

“In a strongly worded statement the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia said, ‘The government of the United States was not involved in any conspiracy, attempt to overthrow the government of Bolivia or assassinate President Morales. This kind of unfounded allegations does not contribute to improving bilateral relations.’”

These allegations of a U.S. plot mirror recent revelations that the DEA is targeting the Morales government with secret drug indictments after his administration kicked the U.S. agency out of Bolivia to pursue their own, locally-oriented and highly successful cocaine-reduction strategies.

Contrary to the official denials, the WikiLeaks cables show how the U.S. escalated attempts to put pressure on Morales and his government over several years. According to Main and Beeton’s analysis of the cables, pressure on Morales began soon after his 2005 election as part of a wave of left-leaning candidates winning elections in Latin America.

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

Washington Works To Overthrow Argentine Government

February 24, 2015

Washington Works To Overthrow Argentine Government

The Strategic Culture Foundation has published Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya’s report on the effort underway by Washington and Argentine intelligence agents to overthrow the reformist president of Argentina.

Washington cannot tolerate reformist governments in Central and South America. For example, Washington’s interferences in Honduras and overthrow of reformist governments are legendary. One of Obama’s first acts as President was to overthrow the government of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya. Zelaya was allied with reformist Venezuela president Hugo Chavez and, like Chavez, was portrayed as a dictator and a threat.

Currently Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Argentina are on Washington’s list of governments to be overthrown.

For decades Washington has had what is euphemistically called “close relations” with the Honduran military. In Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, Washington is allied with the Spanish elite, which traditionally has prospered by permitting US business interests to loot the countries. In Argentina Washington is allied with the Argentine intelligence service, which is currently working with Washington and the oligarch class against the reformist president.

 

Washington squelches reforms in order to protect the looting ability of US business interests. As US Marine General Smedley Butler said of his service in Central America, “I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.”

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

Bolivian authoritarianism: not just a right-wing charge | ROAR Magazine

November 9, 2014

Bolivian authoritarianism: not just a right-wing charge | ROAR Magazine.

Winning Bolivia’s presidential elections in 2005, 2009 and most recently in October 2014, Evo Morales of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), or Movement for Socialism, has now entered his third presidential term. Morales is known worldwide as Bolivia’s first indigenous president, an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, environmentalist, and a beacon of hope for the international left. However, inside Bolivia there are many progressives — including Morales’ former comrades — who accuse him of betraying his own political agenda, unjustly libeling all critics as right-wing conspirators, and abusing state powers to silence them.

The MAS won its third landslide victory in October’s presidential elections. Taking 54 percent of the vote in 2005 and 64 percent in 2009, incumbent president Evo Morales received around 60 percent this year. There were only two choices in the elections, Morales was quoted as saying by Reuters: “This was a debate on two models: nationalization or privatization. Nationalization won with more than 60 percent (support).”

It is not the first time that Morales has simplified Bolivian politics as a binary choice between a left-wing government and a right-wing opposition. In March, the President told a crowd of masistas that “there are only two roads defined by the people. If they are not masistas, they are fascists,” and “if they are notoficialistas [supporters of the ruling party], they are imperialists!” According to the official minutes of this speech, the crowd applauded approvingly. For Morales, all opponents of the MAS belong to the same camp.

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

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