The return of Evo Morales was possibly the most important moment in Bolivian history.
This time last year far-right protesters kidnapped Patricia Arce,
the mayor of a small town called Vinto. They made her walk over broken glass,
they cut her hair, doused her in petrol and red paint.
Told her that they're walking her to her death and they were trying to get her to resign
and to condemn Evo Morales she refused to do both and so they tortured her.
After the coup took power she was persecuted she had 17 criminal charges
hanging over her terrorism, sedition the whole year was a nightmare for her.
She Fought an election campaign and now she's a senator.
As soon as the results were announced Patricia said that she couldn't even speak
she was crying with happiness she said for the first time in a year
I'll be able to go to sleep and no there's not the threat of being taken away.
The aim of the coup in Bolivia was to destroy the social movements that had built
their own political party which was the Movement Towards Socialism,
Evo Morales' party however they weren't able to crush the organisation.
Even though they persecuted the leaders the Movement Towards Socialism
is more than a few figureheads it's a coalition of social movements, trade unions,
indigenous groups in every single region of the country.
Immediately after the coup took power there were two massacres first in Sacaba,
this is wherever Morales used to be a union leader and people from this region were
trying to march to the city however when they got close the police stopped them,
and then military helicopters flew about 40 meters above the ground,
shooting at the crowd 11 people were executed that day.
A few days later there was a second massacre.
There is detention orders for the interior minister Arturo Murillo,
and the defence minister Fernando Lopez the ones who ordered the executions.
However they've already escaped to the United States.
There are also charges against the former self declared president Jeanine Áñez.
And when she tried to escape to brazil just a few days ago social movements
surrounded her neighbourhood and wouldn't let her leave,
so people were determined to get justice.
And it wasn't just the massacres that took place after the massacres began,
was an incredibly deep persecution against the most prominent leftists in Bolivia
people like Andrónico Rodríguez Leonardo Loza both are now senators.
Only just few months ago they had more than 15 criminal charges
brought against them each for things like terrorism, sedition.
Questioning the legitimacy of the government was considered sedition,
organising a protest was considered terrorism.
There were many moments when they're on the verge of being arrested and jailed,
however I think something that warded the state off from doing that,
was the strength of organisation they knew if they took these leaders of the people,
the country would be lit on fire.
So it was that organisation of people even in the face of persecution,
that kept the party going throughout the year of the coup and to be able to then,
go into the elections as the largest movement in the country and win.
The return of Evo Morales was possibly the most important moment in Bolivian history,
I was there in the town of Villazón which is a border town with Argentina,
and he came walking across the bridge with Argentina's president.
The moment he stepped on Bolivian soil a mass of humanity sort of descended.
All the security that was supposed to be there just sort of dissolved,
under the sheer weight of people everyone just trying to touch him, trying to get a look.
Filming for me became impossible I was being thrown around being squashed by
just masses and masses of people from all around the country
had come to the border to receive him.
We were part of his convoy and everywhere he went he's received as a father figure
people ran up to offering their produce one elderly lady just ran in and just gave him
a load of onions that she just picked from her land that was the atmosphere.
And what he's been doing since he's been back is going around the country
to discuss how to strengthen the link between social movements,
and the state and the party it's a role he's already played.
Throughout the 90s and the early 2000s he was the leader of the unions,
he led the struggle against USAID against the DEA he built the party,
and spoke to the whole country and that's what he's going to be doing again.
And not just within Bolivia he's using his platform as a social movement leader here
to speak to the world already he's received delegations from indigenous groups
in Ecuador in Peru from trade unions in Argentina.
And he's already announced that there's going to be a conference here
at the end of December a pan Latin American conference on the basis of anti-capitalism
anti-imperialism what he wants to do is share the experience of Bolivia,
how Bolivia beat a coup in just one year with social movements trade unions,
around the world so that people can beat their own ruling class.
The coup was launched because among Bolivia's middle and upper class
there's a deep-seated resentment a racial humiliation because of the fact,
that they are being governed by someone who they saw as their social inferior.
Evo Morales is a union leader he's indigenous and he rose through the ranks
of the social struggle and he governed for 14 years he won 3 elections.
And the white middle and upper class felt humiliated by this fact.
That was the domestic forces driving the coup there's also the involvement
of the United States support for the narrative that there was electoral fraud last year,
a narrative we now know was completely manipulated.
funding for various groups that are involved in the coup.
And the United States has his own set of interests Evo Morales the popular
socialist leader, anti-imperialist leader who opposed the influence of the United States
in Latin America and Bolivia is also sitting on the largest lithium supplies in the world.
And lithium is incredibly important because it's something that goes
in batteries and things such as electric cars.
It's been called the mineral of the future to build the technology of the future.
And that's why countries like the United States are desperate to get their hands on it.
That's why oligarchs like Elon Musk are desperate to get their hands on it,
he brags on twitter: "We'll coup whoever we want deal with it."
That's how the oligarchy in the United States the ruling class in the United States,
views natural resources in Latin America they view it as their own property.
Evo Morales was destabilising that model telling them no this isn't your property,
this is our property and we're going to use it to benefit the Bolivian people,
and to bring people out of poverty.
And that's why he had to go and that's why the United States,
intervened to sweep him away.
The level of the persecution racial discrimination within Bolivia was so
thick that people from rural indigenous areas or in the working-class areas
of the city they sometimes thought that they were fighting alone,
going up against an enemy so much more powerful than they were.
But when they saw the level of international solidarity
it gave them an enormous amount of strength.
The regime knew that the world was watching if people didn't care,
then I think they would have carried out two three more massacres.
And it continues to be incredibly important huge sections of the far right in Bolivia
backed by the United States refuse to recognise the election results.
It's important for the international community to know what's going on in Bolivia
to know what the coup was so that when they try to launch that again
people know what's going on.
Many times throughout history the big ideological clashes in Latin America
are about universal issues.
What every country around the world is facing at the moment is how do we
rebuild our economies after the pandemic.
Either you pay for what was spent during the pandemic,
by brutal austerity by neoliberal shock doctrine.
Or you force the burden of the recovery to be paid by those with the broader shoulders,
by those who have lived off exploitation for so many years.
And that's what Bolivia and Argentina are doing they're introducing a wealth tax
and that's how they're going to pay to rebuild the economy the country's infrastructure
to bring back employment those are the two paths not just for Bolivia
not just for Latin America but for the world.
The Bolivian people have shown that it's possible for people to win,
it's not inevitable for protest movement social movements to be in a situation
of permanent oppositional protest.
It is actually possible for those movements to beat the ruling class and take power
and govern oneself that's what Bolivia shows.
There's nothing special about Bolivians or Bolivian culture this is something
that can take place in every corner of the globe it's something that needs to take place
in every corner of the globe because all around the world people face
the same problems of inequality of poverty of climate catastrophe.
And these are things that can be beaten,
through taking lessons of Bolivia's experience.
Of how Bolivia nationalised natural resources and key industries,
to lift millions of people out of poverty.
To building a democratic political model for governance in which social movements
and trade unions participate in the exercise of power.
These are things that can be applied everywhere around the world,
and should be applied everywhere around the world.
Please support Double Down News there's not many outlets that give a voice
to people around the world struggling for democracy in countries like Bolivia
and I'm proud to be a part of it.
Double Down News covers so many important issues within the UK
also here in Bolivia where other outlets such as The Guardian have tried to ignore
these stories Double Down News has been shining a light.
So that's why it's so important to support Double Down News on Patreon.