Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced to resign Sunday after calls by senior military and police officials for him to step down. Morales won elections held on October 20th that were called into question by the Organization of American States (OAS), who determined in an audit there were "clear manipulations."
After the OAS revealed their findings on Sunday, Morales agreed to hold fresh elections and said he would replace members of the electoral board thought to be responsible for the alleged fraud. These concessions were not good enough for Morales’s opposition, who along with the military demanded his immediate resignation.
The claims of election fraud stem from a 24-hour pause in the vote count on election day after 84 percent of the vote was tallied. After the pause, the data was updated, and it showed Morales with a 10 percent lead, which he needed for an immediate victory to prevent a run-off vote. The OAS report found Morales had a favorable increase in the last five percent of the votes that was not consistent with the first 95 percent.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), a think-tank based in Washington, released their own detailed report on the election on Friday. The CEPR found "no evidence that irregularities or fraud affected the official result that gave President Evo Morales a first-round victory."
The CEPR argument for the increase in Morales votes towards the end was geography. The areas where the votes were counted before the 24-hour pause have a history of being friendlier to Morales’s opposition.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a statement after the OAS announced their conclusion that said, "We fully support the OAS and Bolivian calls for new elections and a new Electoral Tribunal that can ensure free and fair elections that reflect the will of the Bolivian people. In order to restore credibility to the electoral process, all government officials and officials of any political organizations implicated in the flawed October 20 elections should step aside from the electoral process."
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) released a statement on Morales’s resignation Monday. Rubio said, "The resignation of Evo Morales is a testament to the strength and the will of the Bolivian people. As I stated earlier this month, Morales was illegitimately holding on to power in Bolivia after the recent presidential elections."
President Trump released a statement on Monday that said, “The resignation yesterday of Bolivian President Evo Morales is a significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere … These events send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail. We are now one step closer to a completely democratic, prosperous, and free Western Hemisphere.”
Morales was running for a controversial fourth term, which would normally exceed the president’s term limit in Bolivia. But in 2017, the highest court in Bolivia ruled against term limits, making it legal for Morales to run again.
Morales’s Vice President and the president of the Senate also resigned, which are the two positions meant to succeed the president if the office is vacant. And Since Morales’s term would have ended in January, there is currently nobody holding the office of president in Bolivia.
Bolivia is one of the few South American countries that continues to recognize Nicolas Maduro as the president of Venezuela, breaking with most OAS members. Morales often railed against US imperialism at the UN, most notably at a UN Security Council meeting in 2018 in front of President Trump.
The US Congress funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has a strong presence in Bolivia. In 2018, the NED spent nearly one million dollars on programs in Bolivia, with titles like, "Democratic Development From A Private Sector Perspective," "Strengthening Democratic Values," and "Building Political Party and Civil Society Capacity for a More Participatory, Competitive Electoral Process."
Dave DeCamp is assistant editor at Antiwar.com and a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn NY, focusing on US foreign policy and wars. He is on Twitter at @decampdave.
This is evil. Another right-wing coup against another left-wing crusader against empire. Evo was one of the good guys. His disposal is a crime against peace itself. America is attempting to suffocate the Bolivarian Revolution. As we’ve seen from the streets of Santiago to the ballot boxes of Buenos Aires, they will fail, and they will burn.
Maybe instead of supporting either Tyranny on the left or Tyranny on the right…. support Liberty….
Show me a Bolivian Libertarian Party and I’ll think about it, but Evo is no tyrant. He’s spent most of his tenure filing down Bolivia’s authoritarian machinery. He’s done all he can with what he has.
He has not done enough to empower indigenous majority in the country. He was endlessly impeded and sabotaged by the usual suspects — the tightly knit former masters, both the descendants of colonists as well as post-WWII immigrants.
It is rather ironic that having wiped out our natives, we are now coming to the rescue of the endangered descendants of colonists. And they are our most fervent friends!
It is a huge mistake for us to take sides. and support those that are at present most willing to give us what we want.
It may not be tomorrow or next year or next decade — but the majority will eventually take power. US should be promoting solutions, not taking advantage of one side, to oppress the other.
But then, our policies were never graced with wisdom. As Bill Clinton said, it is OK to be liked, but it is better to be feared. But what Clintons of this world do not understand is — that it is far more important to be respected.
I’m calling bs bianca… you are going to have to link that quote or stfu. You like to show bland equity, yet your bizarre GOP whistles always blare. And, of course, whenever I call you on it, you ignore.
Really, on a story about a coup happening now, with a GOP rubber stamp pissedent, you try to shade the …clintons….are you the best shill the gop can afford ?
Yeah it’s too bad there’s not much of a liberty movement anywhere in the world.and yeah it wouldn’t surprise me if the overthrow here was just more US foreign policy.
Liberty was a word before 1776. There even was quite a bit, you know. Perish the thought?
I fully agree, comrade hermit. This is indeed evil. Evo Morales was one of the good guys, and his disposal’s a crime against peace itself. We know the US was behind this right-wing coup against a left-wing crusader against empire. As we’ve seen from the streets of Santiago to the ballot boxes of Buenos Aires, they’ll fail, and they’ll burn.
Bring in the Wal-Marts and Home Depots! Bring in Conoco and HMOs, PPOs, Liberty Mutual and Pfizer, T-Mobile and Comcast – $$$$$$$$$$ Old Bolivia will die, R.I.P. another holdout from global corporate hegemony falls. Trump’s people are already working on DEALS, to be SURE. Cadre will be their new landlord.
Where’s Jon Kelly ?
another coup by the Empire against the democratic forces of South America
Chalk up another win for the Langley gang.
When Trump says democracy, he means not-socialist and pro-US.
I am not a believer in ‘isims’ or ‘ists’ (I believe in shifting the existing war based paradigm) but the Bolivian people supported Morales, overwhelmingly. That is their choice, their right. The US, once again, has violated yet another Latin American country and that is not acceptable.
The right to self determination no longer exists in Ibero America or much of the rest of the world for that matter…
“¡Hasta la victoria siempre!” (“Until victory, always!”)-Che Guevara
“the Bolivian people supported Morales, overwhelmingly.”
Then why did he have to shut down the vote count until he could stuff enough ballots to avoid a runoff?
Hi Thomas:
As Dave writes: -The CEPR argument for the increase in Morales votes towards the end was geography. The areas where the votes were counted before the 24-hour pause have a history of being friendlier to Morales’s opposition.-
If a Republican or Democratic administration in the United States proclaimed a “24-hour pause” in vote counting, and then came back with a big change in outcome, nobody from the opposing party would buy any convenient excuses.
But if he’s in Latin America and of indigenous ancestry, naturally he walks on water.
And you know that — how?
Can we really be this stupid — or we are doing a great job at pretending, but we are behind all efforts to set backwards progress native population has made towards achieving political power through vote.
We have in Colombia supported in power the descendants of colonists, while the natives fought hopeless battles from the hinterland. The Is attempted in Venezuela — but it is harder, as during Chavez rule, indigenous population got identification cards and can vote. And is armed. So it will be harder to push them away and control oil.
In Bolivia, military has clearly come under control of a group that decided to ignore the vote. Because there is no way Morales could lose.
What remains to be seen is — what and who will come on the top.
Bolivia has some of the most rabid anti-indigenous European descent diaspora.
It will be really interesting to see what happens next.
“Because there is no way Morales could lose.”
Well, there was a way he could have lost — his pet Supreme Court could have declined to nullify the Constitution so that he could run for a fourth term. But once you’ve had three terms to pack a government’s institutions with your cronies, you usually get your way.
True, problem is, with the US bent on regime change, you take your facts where you hold your faith. The US is wholly responsible for it’s own disingenuousness in all matters regarding governments they disapprove of, and, the information we are allowed to see. Is that prejudicial ? Absolutely it is. And, deservedly so.
Well, I do my best not to “take my facts where I hold my faith.” I’m sure I don’t always succeed.
I’m not denying that Bolivia was a de facto coup or that the US was behind it, btw. It just always bugs the crap out of me when whichever would-be ruler for life the US regime is against this week gets set up as some kind of plaster saint.