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As news spread of the Nov. 10 right-wing coup against President Evo Morales, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and Indigenous communities of Bolivia, anti-imperialists and progressive forces worldwide prepared to take action. In the U.S., Struggle-La Lucha newspaper and the Socialist Unity Party immediately issued a call for emergency actions to “Defend the Life of Evo Morales and Stop the U.S.-Fascist Coup” from Nov. 11-17.

Baltimore

On Nov. 11, the Socialist Unity Party in Baltimore called an emergency demonstration to condemn the U.S.-backed coup in Bolivia and to defend the life and freedom of Evo Morales. A small crowd gathered at the foot of the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon Place to rally behind a banner that read, “No coup in Bolivia — Defend Evo Morales.”

Representatives of the organizations present, including the People’s Power Assembly, Youth Against War and Racism, the Black Alliance for Peace, the Answer Coalition, the Malaya Movement Baltimore, Friends of Latin America and the Baltimore Green Party, addressed the crowd. Speakers made connections between imperialist war and U.S. interventions abroad, and racist and sexist oppression at home. 

Everyone agreed: solidarity and unity among anti-imperialists is necessary now to put a stop to the terror being wrought by the U.S. and the war profiteers.

https://www.facebook.com/yawrbaltimore/videos/569077760590918/

Los Angeles

An emergency demonstration was held Nov. 11 at the Bolivian Consulate in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles. Well over 100 activists formed a loud and militant picket line with chants demanding an end to the U.S.-backed coup and pledging solidarity to Evo Morales and all the Indigenous people of Bolivia forced to endure this racist attack against their self-determination. 

The action was initiated by Unión del Barrio, the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice and the Socialist Unity Party/Partido por el Socialismo Unido, and joined by other organizations, including Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales, the American Indian Movement SoCal, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) and MEChA de UCLA. Maria Flores of UdB and Jefferson Azevedo of SUP/PSU chaired the rally. 

A much smaller crowd of pro-U.S. imperialism, anti-Morales right-wingers tried to shut down the action, but were met with a wall of sound and bodies refusing their encroachment into the demonstration, forcing them to eventually leave. 

Corporate media outlets were also present covering the demonstration. The event was live-streamed and photos were constantly being posted to social media. Reflecting on the success of the action, Unión del Barrio later noted on the Facebook event page: “It was beautiful to see so many leftist and indigenous organizations in LA unite to stand in solidarity with Evo Morales and the people of Bolivia!”

https://www.facebook.com/udblosangeles/videos/3355964501110732/

New York

Groups affiliated with the Venezuela Rapid Response Network held an emergency protest against the coup in Bolivia during the evening rush hour on Nov. 11. Hundreds turned out at the Bolivarian Mission to the United Nations in Midtown Manhattan and filled an entire city block between 42nd and 43rd streets with a noisy sidewalk picket line. 

Protesters chanting “USA! CIA! Hands off Bolivia!” carried Wiphala flags symbolizing the role of Indigenous Bolivians in the government of Evo Morales, and held signs and banners alerting passersby to the threats against the life of Bolivia’s legitimate president. As protesters gathered, the news was just breaking that Morales and Vice President Álvaro García had accepted an offer of political asylum from the government of Mexico because, as the MAS reported, there was an active assassination plot against them by the Bolivian police.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who praised the racist, anti-people coup as a triumph of “democracy,” was in New York for a Veterans Day event. Protesters decided to take their message directly to Trump Tower, where they made clear that the White House and U.S. Congress would be held responsible for the threat to Bolivia’s sovereignty and Evo’s life.

Fiery talks were given near Trump’s Tower of Greed by Roger Wareham of the December 12th Movement, Lucy Pagoada-Quesada of the Libre Party of Honduras and Nikki Gulay of BAYAN USA. Representatives of Brazil’s Lula Livre movement, the Answer Coalition, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and others offered words of solidarity and fightback. 

Speaking for Struggle-La Lucha, protest organizer Bill Dores said, “On Nov. 10, 1898, in Wilmington, N.C., the Ku Klux Klan overthrew the last of the elected Black Reconstruction governments that fought for the workers and poor, Black and white and Native. And yesterday, Nov. 10, 2019, the Indigenous-led government of Evo Morales in Bolivia was overthrown, because it also fought for the poor. They want to unleash the same kind of terror that was unleashed in the South against Black people. 

“We stand with Evo Morales, the Movement Toward Socialism and the Indigenous-led struggle in the Plurinational State of Bolivia, because they are fighting for all of the working class and the poor. It’s one struggle all over the world.”

Organizations from the Rapid Response group are planning another action for Saturday, Nov. 16, beginning at 1 p.m. at 10 Columbus Circle, the New York headquarters of CNN and the Time Warner media monopoly. 

https://www.facebook.com/strugglelalucha/videos/1534003430073747/

Demonstrations have been held in many other cities, including Chicago, Miami, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. More protests are planned. For updates, visit the events page at Struggle-La-Lucha.org.

Bayani, John Parker and Greg Butterfield contributed to this report.

SLL photos: Emma Rose, Maggie Vascassenno, Greg Butterfield

On Nov. 9, some 20 protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office in Bel Air, Md., to demand truth and justice for Marlyn Barnes and all prisoners. 

Barnes, an African American father of five, died at the age of 30 under suspicious circumstances at the Harford County Detention Center on April 10, 2019. 

The crowd included several members of the Barnes family and activists from across the state of Maryland. Some family members, including Marlyn’s aunt, traveled from as far as Durham, N.C., to join the demonstration. 

The Barnes family and the community are committed to demanding an end to racism and inhumane conditions prevalent in the Harford County correctional system, which claimed the life of Marlyn Barnes. 

Friday, November 15, 2019 at 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST

Gateway Center (Newark)
Newark, New Jersey 07102

Mass protest against US backed coup on Bolivia

One Gateway, Newark NJ, location of this event – is the Newark headquarters for US Senators Menendez and Booker who bear direct responsibility for representing our interests on US foreign policy toward Bolivia.

Menendez and two other US Senators have been cited in audio evidence, reportedly as having directly signaled to the right wing elements that the US is backing – US support for this violent coup operation.

We will make our opposition loud and clear to US support for this extreme right wing and violent coup operation.

We will demand the restoration of constitutional rule and the restoration of Evo Morales to his rightful position as elected president of Bolivia.

We will demand NO US support or recognition of the illegitimate Golpista (coup) installed regime.

And we will assert our support and solidarity for the struggles of the Indigenous people including the recognition of their historic rights to land and resources, justice for the victims of the right wing violence, and a restoration of the process toward a more equitable distribution of land and resources to the Bolivian people.

On Facebook

Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM CST

Bloomington and Lake Street

US Hands Off Bolivia Protest

Thursday, November 14th @ 5pm

Bloomington & Lake Street, Minneapolis

*Support Democratically Elected President Evo Morales!
*Say NO to Right Wing Coups
*US Out of Latin America

We are calling an emergency response protest to stand with Bolivia and show our opposition to US intervention in Bolivia. This action is one of many protests happening all over the world in solidarity with the progressive movements of Bolivia.

Co-sponsored by the Anti-War Committee and Women Against Military Madness.

On Facebook

Friday, November 15, 2019 at 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST

W 42nd St and 7th Ave, New York, NY

Hosted by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Stand with Gaza, remember the martyrs, and support Palestinian resistance!

On Facebook

The center of La Paz has been transformed into a scenario of barricades, queues to purchase in the few businesses that are open, transportation halted, neighbours stationed on corners crossed by barbed wires and zinc sheets. Near Plaza Murillo, the center of political power, groups pass by wearing helmets, shields, gas masks, Bolivian flags, police contingents betting on each other and asking for reinforcement from the National Armed Force (FAB).

It is Monday night and there is fear: that the city of El Alto will be brought down. The scenes seen during the afternoon reminded many in central and southern La Paz that half of the country that voted for Evo Morales exists and will not stand idly by.

What was thought to happen in El Alto happened, and thousands of residents, mostly from the Aymara nation, took to the streets to face the coup d’état, to defend the process of change, and something very profound: the Whipala flag, which during the hours of the coup offensive was removed from institutions and burned in the street by right-wing demonstrators.

What happened was not part of the plan of those who lead the coup d’état which, at this time, has more elements of confusion and violence than of a planned project. One element is clear: the main objective was to overthrow Evo Morales and persecute him, as he denounced when he made public that an officer of the Bolivian National Police (PNB) has an illegal arrest warrant against him, and that he is in an unknown location.

Morales’ situation was uncertain last night. Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, announced that the former president was on a plane that would take him to that country.

His personal safety is a matter of great concern in a context where his house was attacked by violent groups and where there is no public authority among those who carried out the coup. The rule of law has been broken and that has opened the doors to absolute impunity for those who exercise power.

During the day, Morales sent messages from his Twitter account to denounce the repression in El Alto that claimed several lives, including that of a girl, and to ask people not to fall into confrontations “between brothers”. At night, before boarding the plane, he tweeted: “Sisters and brothers, I am leaving for Mexico, grateful for the detachment of the government of that brother people who gave us asylum to take care of our lives. It hurts me to leave the country for political reasons, but I will always be attentive. Soon I will return with more strength and energy”. The proposal for asylum in Mexico will be a possible way out for the overthrown and endangered president.

No government

In Bolivia, the coup bloc has not yet been able to form a government. After the resignation of Evo Morales, Vice President Alvaro García Linera, the President of the Senate, the Vice President, should assume the third front, Jeanine Añez, who landed in Bolivia. However, she should assume the presidency with the agreement of the legislative power, where in both chambers the Movement Towards Socialism, the party that was forcibly displaced, has a majority.

So there is no interim coup government visible after more than 24 hours of consummated coup d’état. On the other hand, there are powers that are deployed in repressive and persecutorial actions, with the announcements in social networks of Fernando Camacho, visible face of the civil wing of the coup, the actions of the PNB and the FAB.

The latter issued a communiqué on Monday night under the reading of Commander General Williams Kaliman: the FAB will deploy actions in the streets to accompany the PNB. There is no formal government, but there is the power of arms.

The scenario is not the one foreseen by those who led the coup d’etat. The question is really: did they have an organized scenario that was beyond simply overthrowing and persecuting Morales and the leaders of the process of change?

The coup bloc is heterogeneous; it contains civil, business, police, military, religious and international sectors. This last dimension was expressed in the complicity of the Organization of American States (OAS), which did not qualify what happened as a coup d’état, and in the declarations of the United States, which described the overthrow as a return to democracy.

The conjunction of forces that achieved the coup seems to have a clear objective: to decapitate the process of change, from its officials to the political leaders. That has translated into persecution, as evidenced by asylum applications in embassies, particularly in Mexico.

There is instability within those who led the offensive, as well as a mobilization reaction, not only in El Alto – with a strong level of radicalism – but in various parts of the country.

Thus, for example, the Confederación Sindical Unica de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (Csutcb) announced blockades throughout Bolivia on main roads, “general resistance to the coup d’état throughout the country,” as well as the expulsion of leaders who became part of the overthrow.

The situation is more unstable than the promise sold by Camacho and those who celebrated on Sunday afternoon and night. There is a country that they denied, despised, despite their efforts to be democratic and inclusive, and that country began to mobilize, to challenge, to confront the conservative restoration seeking revenge.

For the moment, there is no visible direction of the resistance processes. What is clear is that the decision of those conducting the coup will be to respond with repression on every possible level. By Monday night you could see the tanks in the streets of La Paz and the people who celebrated the overthrow and burning of Whipalas now applaud the militarization.

Source Internationalist 360º

Emergency Rally! No Military Coup in Bolivia! (Stand for Peace)

Sat., Nov. 16. @ 12 NOON – 1:30 P.M., Corner of East Locust & Dr. MLK Dr., Milwaukee

We strongly condemn the military coup in Bolivia, and extends our solidarity to the Bolivian people who are struggling to defend the massive gains won under the leadership of President Evo Morales in the face of this counter-revolution. U.S. imperialism is clearly the sponsor of the coup and we
are outraged at this crime against Bolivian sovereignty and democracy.

Come rally with us at the Stand for Peace Rally, which has been upheld on a weekly basis for many years by Peace Action Wisconsin, to condemn US intervention in the democratic affairs of a sovereign state. The battle in Bolivia and all of Latin America continues between the forces that want to empower the people and those that want to restore the power and wealth of the elite. People in the United States can play an important role in this intense struggle by pressuring our imperialist government to end its war on the people in Latin America and the Caribbean. U.S. hands off Bolivia!

Info: www.wibailoutpeople.org

November 12, 2019

Faced with a media siege that confronts the truth in our country, the Movement Towards Socialism sends this communiqué to the Bolivian people and the international community that since November 10, 2019, a plan of assassination by the Mobile Police Unit for Rural Areas (UMOPAR) and the Bolivian Police was activated in the hard phase of the coup d’état against our leaders Evo Morales and Álvaro García, which is why the Mexican government’s offer of asylum was accepted.

During the entire day of November 11, the coup plotters put the lives of our leaders Evo and Álvaro at serious risk, first with public threats from police to proceed with operations to stop them and then with the closure of our air space, through administrative obstacles of the Bolivian Air Force, preventing the entry of the Mexican airplane that came to pick them up.

The Bolivian people are living terrible moments, with policemen and motorcyclists creating panic in the streets and with the military high command deciding to attack the people in the name of pacification, even preventing personalities, church and politicians from finding constitutional and democratic solutions to the crisis we are facing.

The Military is in the streets, shooting from helicopters in Cochabamba, mobilizing tanks, troops and weapons in La Paz to annihilate our people just for resisting the injustice and outrage, racism, violence and the infamous strategy of preventing our leaders from continuing to lead the country.

The coup d’état was a construction of several steps, first installing the idea of electoral fraud to generate questions in the streets, denying our victory, and using the OAS audit report, distorting its content, when it categorically speaks of irregularities and not fraud; then asking for the nullification of the elections, then the resignation of our leaders, and to finally concretize their strategy with the police mutiny, articulating the anti-democratic plan, installing a regime of terror, with threats and persecution.

They are forcing the patience of our people, the resignation of our Brothers President and Vice President was not enough for them, but they are even trying to force a government out of the constitutional succession, by pretending that the 2nd Vice President of the Senate leads the coup d’état by becoming president of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly and automatically President of the State, when in strictly constitutional terms it is the President of the Senate, Adriana Salvatierra, who is responsible for assuming that transition.

In this line of irregular actions, the armed forces have materialized the betrayal of the Bolivian people, economically supported by the civilian Camacho, who, colluding with the aforementioned opponents, closed the circuit of the coup d’état.

Compatriots, not even the vileness and rage against our brothers Evo and Alvaro will achieve a look of sadness, repentance or sorrow, this new sacrifice of our leaders is to keep us united, strong and fighting for the people as we have always done…

Let us denounce the coup d’état, let us show the world that hatred the hatred we are witnessing is only because with great dignity we empowered the Bolivian people.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau

12 noviembre, 2019

Ante el cerco mediático que enfrenta la verdad en nuestro país, el Movimiento al Socialismo comunica al pueblo boliviano y la comunidad internacional que desde anoche 10 de noviembre de 2019 se activó un plan de magnicidio a cargo de Umopar y la Policía Boliviana en la fase dura del golpe de estado contra nuestros líderes Evo Morales y Álvaro García, razón por la cual el ofrecimiento de asilo por parte del gobierno mexicano fue aceptado.

Durante todo el día de hoy 11 de noviembre, los golpistas pusieron en grave riesgo la vida de nuestros líderes Evo y Álvaro, primero con amenazas públicas de policías de proceder con operativos para detenerlos, luego con el cierre de nuestro espacio aéreo, impidiendo con trabas administrativas a cargo de la Fuerza Aérea Boliviana el ingreso del avión mexicano que venía a recogerlo.

El pueblo boliviano esta viviendo momentos terribles, con policías y motoqueros infringiendo pánico en las calles y con el alto mando militar decidiendo arremeter contra los ciudadanos a título de pacificación, incluso impidiendo que personalidades, iglesia y políticos encuentren salidas constitucionales y democráticas a la crisis que enfrentamos.

Militares en las calles, disparando desde helicópteros en Cochabamba, movilizando tanques, tropa y armamento en La Paz para aniquilar a nuestro pueblo tan sólo por resistir a la injusticia y al atropello, racismo, violencia y la infame estrategia de impedir que nuestros líderes continúen con la conducción del país.

El golpe de Estado fue una construcción de varios pasos, primero instalando la idea de fraude electoral para generar molestia en las calles, negando nuestra victoria, y utilizando el informe de auditoría de la OEA, tergiversando su contenido, cuando este categóricamente habla de irregularidades y no de fraude; luego pidiendo la nulidad de las elecciones, posteriormente la renuncia de nuestros líderes, para finalmente concretar su estrategia con el amotinamiento policial, articulando el plan antidemocrático, instalando un régimen de terror, amenazas y persecución.

Están forzando la paciencia de nuestro pueblo, no les bastó la renuncia de nuestros Hermanos Presidente y Vicepresidente, sino que incluso intentan forzar un gobierno fuera de la sucesión constitucional, al pretender que la 2da Vicepresidenta del Senado conduzca el golpe de estado autonombrándose presidenta de la Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional y automáticamente Presidenta del Estado, cuando en términos estrictamente constitucionales es a la Presidenta del Senado Adriana Salvatierra a quien le corresponde asumir esa transición.

En esa línea de acciones irregulares, las fuerzas armadas, han materializado la traición al pueblo boliviano, apoyadas económicamente por el Cívico Camacho, quienes, coludidos con los opositores mencionados, cerraron este el circuito del golpe de estado.

Compatriotas, ni la vileza y el ensañamiento contra nuestros hermanos Evo y Alvaro logrará una mirada de tristeza, de arrepentimiento o pena, este nuevo sacrificio de nuestros líderes es para mantenernos unidos, fuertes y luchando por el pueblo como siempre lo hemos hecho…

Denunciemos el golpe de estado, mostremos al mundo que el odio solo es por haber empoderado dignamente al pueblo boliviano.