Let’s begin in Bolivia with Pablo Solón.
Do you describe what happened as a coup?
I think it’s very complicated to say it’s a coup, because I think there was a popular
rebellion, because this issue started in 2016, when Evo Morales didn’t recognize the result
of a referendum that said that he couldn’t run for a new re-election.
If he would have respected that referendum, he would have finished his third term as probably
the best president in Bolivia.
But he didn’t do that.
He forced that the constitutional tribunal did a statement saying that it was a human
right to run for new elections.
And then we have the elections of the 20th of October, where there was definitely fraud.
We have so many evidences here, so many reports from different institutions, not only OAS
saying it, that, of course, the population went to the streets.
It was massive, and it has lasted for 20 days.
So, to say this is a coup d’état planned by the White House, the right-wing forces,
fascist forces, I think it’s to make a caricature of what is really happening.
Now, who’s going to take advantage of the situation are going to be right-wing forces,
is going to be the imperialists of North America.
But who created this crisis, I think, was this addiction to power that Evo Morales and
his party began to have during the last years.
I’d like to ask Kevin Young to deal with the same issue of whether this was a coup
or not, and also to deal with the reality that the majority in the Congress is still
of the — is the political party of Evo Morales.
So, to what degree can whoever becomes president be able to move forward with a political agenda,
given the enormous strength still of the Evo Morales forces in the country?
A coup has a simple and straightforward definition.
It’s the unconstitutional removal of a sitting president before that president’s term in
office is up.
And in the case of Bolivia, Evo Morales is the elected president.
His term isn’t due up until January 21st of 2020.
And in this case, on Sunday, you had the lead commander of the Bolivian Armed Forces directly
intervening and ordering Evo out of office.
So that’s a coup.
And I think that’s pretty straightforward.
That shouldn’t be controversial.
What makes this coup particularly dangerous is that it is being supported by the most
racist and reactionary elements in Bolivian society, as well as by the United States.
Now, all of that being said, the overall political situation in Bolivia is complex.
All of the opposition is not the same.
The opposition is not monolithic.
There are opposition protesters who are much more progressive.
Many indigenous groups, working-class Bolivians have become very disillusioned with Evo’s
government and have turned against it.
So, those voices are important to recognize.
We shouldn’t be painting the entire opposition with the same brush or insinuating that it’s
all some conspiracy by the United States.
But at the same time, it is important to recognize, as well, that almost half of the Bolivian
population voted for Evo Morales on October 20th.
And whether you think that’s 47%, as the government said, or maybe it’s only 46 or
45%, the fact remains that almost half of Bolivians still supported Evo on October 20th.
And those voices also need to be counted and recognized.
They may have criticisms of the government — many of them do, and I know some of them
— but they’re not supporting the coup, because they fear that a right-wing government
is really going to roll back some of the progressive gains that have been made in the last 13 years.
And in an immediate sense, they’re fearful of right-wing violence in the streets, which
is happening and which is targeting particularly indigenous Bolivians.
Now, what’s going to happen with the Congress?
Because despite the fact that many MAS legislators and officials have resigned, sometimes under
threat of violence from the right, it is still true that a majority of the Congress is controlled
by the MAS party.
They have signaled — they have said that they are interested in finding a constitutional
resolution to the crisis.
Now, what exactly that’s going to look like is still very unclear.
It’s not clear what new elections are going to look like or under what conditions they’re
going to be held.
The MAS party is somewhat in disarray the last several days.
So, we really don’t know what’s going to happen at this point.