STATEMENT BY THE PSOL (BRAZIL)
This Sunday (10 November) will go down in South American history as one of its darkest days. After weeks of institutional destabilization, business groups, landowners and the Bolivian Armed Forces have just succeeded in removing President Evo Morales and his vice-president García Linera from office. This is a coup d’état with a reactionary character and strong racist components, as shown by the successive attacks on the headquarters of indigenous organizations and the violence of the extreme right against activists in favor of popular sovereignty.
Hours earlier, Evo Morales had accepted the OAS (Organization of American States) recommendation and announced the holding of new general elections, including new authorities in the Supreme Electoral Court, signaling his willingness to find a peaceful solution to the political crisis. However, this was not enough to reverse the coup d’état of the oligarchies based in “Media Luna,” a region that brings together areas with a predominantly non-indigenous population. The elites, who at no time showed any respect or affection for the wishes of the various nationalities resident in Bolivia, accelerated the coup, with notorious pressure from the mainstream media on the government. The mutiny of the police and the “suggestion of resignation” made by the head of the Armed Forces in a national network were crucial for the final triumph of the coup.
It should be noted that this rupture in Bolivia’s democratic order occurs in a context of accelerated political instability in Latin America. We are currently witnessing massive popular rebellions against conservative and anti-popular governments, such as in Chile, Ecuador and Haiti. Neoliberal projects, such as that of Mauricio Macri in Argentina or Iván Duque in Colombia, are once again being punished at the ballot box. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the Bolivian right and extreme right have organized themselves (possibly with the help of agents of the Bolsonaro government, as revealed by the audio published by El Periodico) to interrupt the MAS government, whose genesis dates back to the indigenous and popular uprisings of the beginning of the last decade.
In this situation, the PSOL joins the international organizations that vehemently reject the coup d’état in Bolivia. We support with all our energy the resistance mobilizations of the Bolivian people. Furthermore, we will use all the means at our disposal to denounce the persecutions of social movements, trade union organizations and MAS cadres who seek to defend the plurinational regime created by the 2006 Popular Constituent Assembly.
Down with the reactionary and racist coup in Bolivia!
Total support for the resistance of the Bolivian people!
Troops back to barracks!
Executive Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSol) 11 November 2019