Having taking power and secured endorsement from the military, the interim Bolivian government seems set to try to cement its rule by going after MPs loyal to the previous government.
The Interior Ministry says that they are setting up a new “special apparatus of the Prosecutor’s Office” explicitly to crackdown on MPs from the formerly ruling Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) Party. He promised to publish a list of MPs banned from office and subject to arrest for “sedition.”
On top of the threats against the MAS MPs, who are actually the majority party in parliament, the Interim Communications Ministry also issued a statement threatening to arrest any journalists, both Bolivian and foreign, that are believed to be in league with the former government.
After President Morales resigned and fled into exile, Jeanine Anez declared herself interim president unilaterally. She was unable to secure support from the Bolivian Senate, and seems to believe that keeping the largest party out will allow her to retain power going forward.
As long as she has the U.S bribed military lined up behind her, she can do anything she wishes.
I am curious if this will last. Given the percentage of Morales supporting population, Army cannot be structured differently. Yes, the command is stacked, but not rank and file.
If rank and file decide to draw blood then yes, but I seriously doubt it.
Not only that. The coup regime has made up “hit lists” and gave the military free hands to shoot people. Just like in the good old days.
I was progressively disappointed in the growing neglect of the rule of law by the administration (actually the exact word would be government) of Evo Morales as it ignored the prohibition against more than two terms of office, as Morales ran for subsequent extension of his government not once, but twice, the second time after losing a referendum requesting exemption from the term limit in the constitution which his government had written. I am however even more disappointed with the methods of the new regime, which has begun with police brutality and is proceeding to outlaw any dissenting voice.
Being naive in this world is not a virtue.
Us being disappointed in Morales as he was trying to stave off the brutal rule by the minority over the native majority? He was supposed to play fair and by rules — while those that grabbed power are allowed to kill with impunity, extinguish the majority party and jail their elected representatives? But while the head of the Army, Williams Kaliman, got his job last year, it remains to be seen what will happen next. The utterly illegal “interim president’ is famous for telling how native Bolivians should not live in cities.
Bolivia is 55% Amerindian, 30% Mestizos and 15% White. The white Spanish or other Europeans, with some of the city Mestizos will never win presidential elections fairly.
This is why (and telephone conversations prove it), they planned up front to leave counting of heavy Morales support areas for last, creating a break in counting for dramatic effect.
What is disturbing here is the open, clear racism,?supported by US.
I think that Mexico is moving into this political space in Latin America. Mexico is a proud country of both Amerindians and Mestizos. By providing asylum for Morales, it appears that Mexico is going to champion the justice for both Amerindians and Mestizos. The practice of United States siding with the descendants of European colonists and other European immigrants — and brutally suppressing native populations, may come under increased scrutiny.
This may become one of the most divisive political issues in US.
“What is disturbing here is the open, clear racism,?supported by US.”
No more or less disturbing than the open, clear racism espoused by you, or the open, clear racism you claim on the part of “native” Bolivians versus native Bolivians whose ancestors didn’t arrive as recently.
I have no idea what is bothering you, but it cannot be “my racism”.
The definition of populace does not come from me, but from the countries I mentioned. Those are their census categories, just as we have our census categories.
Do not defend indefensible.
The interim president was appointed after majority party was not allowed to vote, and police and Army were given permission to kill without fear of prosecution. Nice.
We all know that the MAJORITY will be disenfranchised with the new proposed election law. There is no mystery that the former wealthy ruling class came to power.
This is Latin America, our backyard. And now pretenses are falling by the wayside, democracy, human rights, and such. It is at least honestly brutal.
I am not defending the coup.
That doesn’t change the irrefutable fact that there are no “indigenous” people in Bolivia. Every Bolivian’s ancestors came from somewhere else.
Some of their ancestors arrived later rather than earlier, but most significant political figures in Bolivia were born in Bolivia to parents who were born in Bolivia to grandparents who were born in Bolivia.
Are there long-term structural inequalities between the people whose ancestors arrived earlier and the people whose ancestors arrived later? Yep. But the pretense that the former are “real” Bolivians and the latter are not is racist on its face.
You are wrong. Indigenous population is not of European descent. Certainly not under any definition of European. Let us not pretend we do not know the difference.
NOBODY claimed that some are REAL Bolivians, and others not. A citizen is a citizen, regardless of national origin, race, religion.
I do not accept your view that itis only the question of “who came earlier”. That is, I am afraid, disingenuous.
Indigenous population of Bolivia has been oppressed and exploited by European colonists. They are indigenous by their ethnicity, and languages. Many still do not speak Spanish.
And this issue would be a non- issue, if the European colonial attitudes are the thing of the past. But it is not. To this day, and this interim president and her clique — the message is clear. We ought to rule, you are inferior and even ugly.
The privilege and racism here go hand in hand for many generations,
What Morales did was remarkable by all metrics. Education, health care, local governance — all have changed the outlook of indigenous population. For the first tine they received identity cards and could vote.
It disgusts me to hear anyone defending the “superior” Bolivians coming to power, with a CLEAR intention of never allowing indigenous population cone near power again, except in token roles.
The Ginny is out of the box — and the kind of racist superiority of “beautiful” people will not be tolerated as it was for centuries.
It is amazing how our own super sensitive woke crowd is blind to this shame.
The same thing was tried in Venezuela. It was utterly successful in Colombia.
But The case of Bolivia is so outrageous — it is setting of troubled instability elsewhere.
I am realist in history — and the time is not ripe in Latin America to deal with the consequences of colonialism. This is the root cause of the economic troubles.
“Indigenous population is not of European descent”
Correct. It’s of Asian descent. In other words, not indigenous.