Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM CST

Federal Plaza, 219 S. Dearborn, Chicago, IL
219 S. Dearborn, Chicago, Illinois

Hosted by Chicago ALBA Solidarity Committee

A U.S.-backed military coup is being carried out in Bolivia right now. Rightwing forces within Bolivia Bolivia have mobilized to overthrow the progressive, indigenous, president of Bolivia, Evo Morales.
Evo has consistently opposed all forms of U.S. intervention in Latin America. His administration has overseen unprecedented progress for the whole country, ending the apartheid system against indigenous peoples, providing universal health care, eliminating illiteracy, diversifying the economy, making Bolivia self-sufficient in food. The country has had the highest economic growth rate in Latin America under his terms in office.

Now the traditional oligarchy in alliance with military chiefs have overthrown his government and are hunting for leaders of the Evo Morales government and its party, MAS.

http://This coup situation is not over. Evo Morales. who just won the last election, has mass support among the working class and indigenous peoples. They could still overturn the coup as in Venezuela in 2002.
There are rallies in over a dozen cities in the US against this US backed coup. Come out and protest and help let the US people and Bolivian people know we stand with Bolivian democracy and constitution and with their legitimate president.
Follow the news on Facebook: Friends of Evo’s Bolivia / Amig@s de La Bolivia de Evo

Sponsored by Chicago ALBA Solidarity, Mass Action, Comite de Justicia en Ayotzinapa, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Chicago Peace Council, International League of People’s Struggle/ILPS Midwest, BAYAN alliance of Filipino anti imperialist organizations), Chicago Area Peace Action, Neighbors For Peace-Evanston/Chicago, Chicago Committee Against War and Racism, Chicago Anti-War Coalition, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Refuse Fascism- Chicago Chapter

The Sunday military coup in Bolivia has put in place a government which appears likely to reverse a decision by just-resigned President Evo Morales to cancel an agreement with a German company for developing lithium deposits in the Latin American country for batteries like those in electric cars.

“Bolivia’s lithium belongs to the Bolivian people,” tweeted Washington Monthly contributor David Atkins. “Not to multinational corporate cabals.”

The coup, which on Sunday resulted in Morales resigning and going into hiding, was the result of days of protests from right-wing elements angry at the leftist Morales government. Sen. Jeanine Añez, of the center-right party Democratic Unity, is currently the interim president in the unstable post-coup government in advance of elections.

Investment analyst publisher Argus urged investors to keep an eye on the developing situation and noted that gas and oil production from foreign companies in Bolivia had remained steady.

The Morales move on Nov. 4 to cancel the December 2018 agreement with Germany’s ACI Systems Alemania (ACISA) came after weeks of protests from residents of the Potosí area. The region has 50% to 70% of the world’s lithium reserves in the Salar de Uyuni salt flats.

Among other clients, ACISA provides batteries to Tesla; Tesla’s stock rose Monday after the weekend.

As Bloomberg News noted in 2018, that has set the country up to be incredibly important in the next decade:

Demand for lithium is expected to more than double by 2025. The soft, light mineral is mined mainly in Australia, Chile, and Argentina. Bolivia has plenty—9 million tons that have never been mined commercially, the second-largest amount in the world—but until now there’s been no practical way to mine and sell it.

Morales’ cancellation of the ACISA deal opened the door to either a renegotiation of the agreement with terms delivering more of the profits to the area’s population or the outright nationalization of the Bolivian lithium extraction industry.

As Telesur reported in June, the Morales government announced at the time it was “determined to industrialize Bolivia and has invested huge amounts to ensure that lithium is processed within the country to export it only in value-added form, such as in batteries.”

It’s unclear what the next steps are for the industry in a post-coup Bolivia, according to global intelligence analysis firm Stratfor:

In the longer term, continued political uncertainty will make it more difficult for Bolivia to increase its production of strategic metals like lithium or develop a value-added sector in the battery market. The poor investment climate comes at a time of expanding global opportunities in lithium-ion battery production to meet rising demand from electric vehicle manufacturing.

ACISA told German broadcaster DW last week that the company was “confident that our lithium project will be resumed after a phase of political calmness and clarification.”

On Sunday, Morales resigned.

Source: Common Dreams

Nov. 7 — For the 28th year in a row, an almost unanimous United Nations General Assembly demanded an end to the United States economic blockade of Cuba. Over 7 billion people live in the 187 countries that voted for the resolution entitled, “The necessity of ending the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.” 

For nearly 60 years, the U.S. has imposed cruel sanctions on Cuba. They’ve blocked Cuba from buying insulin and other U.S.-made medicines. The cost to the small country has been $138 billion, or $12,000 for each Cuban.

Every African country voted for Cuba. So did all of Cuba’s neighbors in the Caribbean. China and India voted yes. Even the 28 countries belonging to the European Union voted against the U.S. blockade.

All these countries said No! to the biggest bully on the planet: the Big Oil and bankster government of the U.S. Under the 1992 Torricelli Act, if any country’s ships trade with Cuba, they are barred from visiting any U.S. port for 180 days.

Provisions like these attempt to force the rest of the world to obey Wall Street’s blockade of Cuba. It’s a violation of international law.

Just three countries voted against the resolution: the United States of Trump, Brazil and apartheid Israel, which occupies Palestine. 

For the first time, Brazil voted against the annual resolution defending Cuba’s sovereignty. That doesn’t represent the feelings of the peoples of Brazil.

It’s the decision of fascist president Jair Bolsonaro, who kicked out Cuban doctors healing poor people. Bolsonaro has been linked to the assassination of the socialist Marielle Franco, a lesbian activist who was Rio de Janiero’s only Black woman city councillor. 

The two countries that abstained were the death squad government of Colombia and Ukraine. 

The action of the Ukrainian government was shameful. Over 20,000 Ukrainian children who suffered cancers and radiation poisoning from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster have been treated in Cuba for free. 

Love for Cuba

Ambassador after ambassador spoke with admiration and respect for the people of Cuba. “This meeting is indeed a show of solidarity from the world to Cuba. … It is a meeting to express our thanks to the enormous, marvelous and exemplary solidarity of Cuba with the peoples of the world,” declared Sacha Llorenty, the ambassador from the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

“I wish to pay tribute to the almost 30,000 Cuban health care professionals who are providing support in 85 countries throughout the world,” said Ambassador Liorenty. “When Ebola, malaria and other illnesses attacked the poorest of the planet, Cuban solidarity was there. … When racism and colonialism held hostage our African brothers, Cuba was there. When illiteracy affected many of our peoples, Cuba was there.” 

Bolivia’s ambassador quoted the words of Nelson Mandela: “The Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the peoples of Africa. Cuban internationalists have made an unparalleled contribution to the independence, freedom and justice of Africa.”

Tragically, the CIA along with its local stooges have now, at least temporarily, overthrown Bolivia’s elected president, Evo Morales.  

Grenada’s ambassador, Keisha McGuire, spoke of Cuba helping the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorrian swept over it. What a contrast to racist President Reagan invading Grenada with 7,000 troops in 1983. Antigua and Barbuda, and Trinidad and Tobago also spoke against the blockade.

“Cuba’s emergency assistance to the African countries affected by the Ebola crises in West Africa is a great example of its solidarity with the international community,” said the Palestinian ambassador, Dr. Riyad Mansour. 

Dr. Mansour, who grew up as a refugee, spoke on behalf of 134 developing countries known as the Group of 77 plus the People’s Republic of China.

Namibia’s ambassador, Neviiie Gertze, declared, “To Namibia, the Cuban people are family. Cuba has been at the forefront of contributing to the freedom and independence of my country.”

Cuban volunteers shed their blood alongside Africans fighting against the apartheid regime then in power in South Africa. As the late Pan African teacher and organizer Elombe Brath said, “When Africa called, Cuba answered.”

Recalling Simón Bolívar’s warning 

As soon as Venezuelan foreign minister Jorge Arreaza began speaking, Trump’s delegation walked out. That insult didn’t stop Arreaza from telling the General Assembly that “The government of the United States has tightened the criminal blockade imposed for almost 60 years. … For 28 years now, the General Assembly, the most democratic body in this organization, has called for an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade which thwarts the right to development of the heroic Cuban people and also seeks unconstitutional regime change in the sisterly socialist republic of Cuba, the Cuba of Martí, the Cuba of Fidel.”

Referring to Cuban doctors and other medical workers in his country, the foreign minister said that “Millions of lives have been saved, millions of Venezuelan families have been helped.” Trump claims these nurses and doctors are “occupying” Venezuela. Millions of poor people needing medical care from Harlem to Appalachia would love such an occupation.

Jorge Arreaza pointed out that “Now Washington is supposedly trying to breathe new life into that old infamous Monroe Doctrine.” Named after slave master President James Monroe, this policy claimed the right of the U.S. to overthrow any government in the Western Hemisphere, like what Reagan did in Grenada.

Arreaza reminded the General Assembly that “Almost 200 years ago the liberator Simón Bolívar said, ‘The United States seems fated by providence to bring misery to the Americas in the name of liberty.’” 

“It is time to put an end to this imperialist madness!” declared Venezuela’s foreign minister.

Billionaire diplomat

Trump’s ambassador, Kelly Craft, returned to the hall and admitted that “For the 28th time this resolution will likely pass almost unanimously.” Craft is the best diplomat that money can buy. A billionaire coal mine owner with husband Joseph Craft III, Craft got her job with the $2 million they shoveled to Trump’s campaign and inauguration.

Craft lied about Cuba refusing to buy goods from the United States. Diplomats in the hall must have chuckled when Craft attacked Cuba for having “collaborated with the former Maduro regime,” as if the elected president, Nicolás Maduro Moros, isn’t still governing in Caracas.

The U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet throttling the Pacific Ocean like its private Lake Michigan didn’t prevent the Solomon Islands representative from saying, “My delegation also wishes to thank Cuba … in particular … in terms of training of Solomon Islands students in the medical field.”

Cuba isn’t the only country enduring U.S. economic sanctions. So is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran, the Russian Federation, Syria, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Syria’s permanent representative to the U.N., Bashar al-Jaafari, said that the Syrian people, like the Cuban people, have been suffering for decades from the serious repercussions of unilateral coercive economic measures imposed by the U.S. and some other governments.

Iran’s ambassador, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, stated that “the inhuman sanctions and blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba for almost six decades is the most unjust and prolonged system of unilateral sanctions applied against any country.”

Zimbabwe’s representative also spoke out against the blockade.

Speaking truth to power 

Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, spoke immediately before the vote was taken. Here are some of his hard-hitting, truthful remarks:

“In recent months, the government of President Donald Trump has initiated an escalation in its aggression against Cuba, with the adoption of unconventional measures to prevent the supply of fuel to our country from various markets through sanctions and threats to vessels, shippers, and insurance companies. Its objective, in addition to affecting the economy, is to damage the living standard of Cuban families. The United States government is responsible.

“In April of this year, the filing of lawsuits in U.S. courts against Cuban, U.S., and third-country entities was authorized under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act.

“The persecution of our banking-financial relations with the rest of the world has intensified.

“Remittances to Cuban citizens were restricted; the granting of visas was reduced and consular services limited; an agreement between baseball federations was canceled; individual trips by U.S. citizens were canceled, along with cruise ship stops and direct flights to Cuban airports, except for Havana; the leasing of airplanes with more than 10 percent U.S. components and the acquisition of technologies and equipment with the same was prohibited; commercial promotional activities and cultural and educational exchanges ceased. The United States government is responsible.

“It has aggressively intensified the extraterritorial impact of the blockade of Cuba on third states, their companies, and citizens.

“The goal of economically asphyxiating Cuba and increasing damage, shortages, and our people’s sufferings is not hidden. …

“The accumulated damages caused by the blockade over almost six decades have reached 922 billion dollars, taking into account the depreciation of the dollar as compared to the value of gold. At current prices, quantifiable damages of more than 138 billion dollars have been incurred. …

“The U.S. government has also proposed to sabotage the international cooperation that Cuba provides in the area of health. With a slander campaign, U.S. politicians and officials directly attack a program based on genuine conceptions of South-South cooperation, which has been recognized by the international community.”

Keeping pharmaceuticals from people with cancer

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez detailed the suffering of individual Cubans because of the cruel blockade:

“As a result of the blockade, Bryan Gómez Santiesteban, 16, and Leydis Posada Cañizares, 19, of growth age, cannot receive expandable internal prostheses, but only fixed, and must therefore undergo frequent surgeries for replacement. Expandable prostheses are produced by the U.S. company Stryker. Yes, your government is responsible.

“The blockade also makes it impossible to access novel drugs for cancer treatment, only produced by U.S. pharmaceutical companies.

“Mayra Lazus Roque, 57, is a renal cancer patient who could not be treated with the optimal drug, Sunitinib, only produced by the U.S. company Pfizer. Thanks to the treatment she has received with products from Cuba’s biotechnology industry, she is in good general health.

“Eduardo Hernández Hernández, 49, suffers from metastatic melanoma. The optimal treatment for this type of cancer is Nivolumab, a drug only produced by the U.S. company Bristol Myers Squibb, which we cannot access. He is being treated with other alternatives. Your government is responsible.

“Year after year, the United States delegation at this headquarters, as the Ambassador just did, has expressed, with a good dose of cynicism, that her government supports the Cuban people. Can anyone believe such a statement?

“The government of the United States lies and falsifies data on alleged licenses for sales of medicines and food to Cuba, which are very difficult to obtain.

“The United States delegation in those seats should explain to this Assembly the conditions it imposes on Cuban purchases: there is no access to credit, official or private; payment in cash is required when goods reach the port; banks that process our transactions are persecuted; Cuban vessels cannot be used for transport. Yes, it is responsible. Who in the world conducts trade under such conditions?

“The successful, effective Cuban model has ensured and assures Cuban men and women equal opportunities, equity and social justice, despite hostility and coercion. …”

“The blockade policy’s definition is best expressed in the infamous memorandum written by Undersecretary of State Lester Mallory, in April of 1960, who I quote: ‘There is no effective political opposition. … The only possible way to make the government lose domestic support is by provoking disappointment and discouragement through economic dissatisfaction and hardships. … Every possible means should be immediately used to weaken the economic life. … denying Cuba funds and supplies to reduce nominal and real salaries with the objective of provoking hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the government.’”

For Mallory’s full memorandum, see 499. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom) 

Solidarity with poor and working people in the U.S.

Cuba’s leading diplomat also exposed the hypocrisy of the Trump regime talking about “human rights” when so many people in the U.S. are poor and exploited:

“The United States government does not have the least moral authority to criticize Cuba or anyone else in the area of human rights. We reject the repeated manipulation of this issue for political purposes and the double standards that characterize its use. … 

“The deaths of civilians caused by U.S. troops in various latitudes, and the use of torture merit condemnation; as well as the murder of African Americans by police and migrants by border patrols; the deaths of unaccompanied minors in immigration detention, and the abusive and racially disproportionate use of the death penalty. …  

“In the United States, there are 2.3 million individuals incarcerated, a quarter of the planet’s prison population, and in one year 10.5 million arrests are made.

“Opioid overdoses kill 137 U.S. residents every day and, for lack of proper treatment, 251 die of heart disease and 231, prematurely, of cancer. 170 preventable daily amputations are performed, associated with diabetes. 

“[The] repression and police surveillance of immigrants, the separation of families, the separation of parents and indefinite detention of more than 2,500 children, and the deportation of 21,000, and brutal measures that threaten the children of [undocumented] immigrants who were raised and educated in the United States are abhorrent. …

“There are 28.5 million citizens without medical insurance, and millions with low incomes will be deprived of coverage with the measures announced. … 

“The blockade also violates the human rights and civil liberties of U.S. citizens, for whom the right to travel to Cuba is unjustly and arbitrarily restricted, the only prohibited destination in the world. The United States government is responsible. …

“On behalf of the heroic, selfless, solitary people of Cuba, I once again ask that you vote in favor of the proposed resolution contained in document A/74/L.6, the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”    

For the full speech, see Bruno Rodríguez: Cuba has been the victim of the most unjust, severe, prolonged system of sanctions that has even been imposed on any country.

What we must do

The vote in the General Assembly was a victory for Cuba. Nobody expects the lawless Trump regime and the capitalist class he represents to obey the U.N. resolution.

That’s our job in the belly of the beast. Activists have to tell about the vicious U.S. blockade in neighborhoods, work places, community colleges and universities. 

A good place to start is to build the 2nd National Conference for the Normalization of U.S.-Cuba Relations on March 21-22, 2020. For more information, call (917) 887-8710 or email info@us-cubanormalization.org

Source, unless otherwise noted: https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/11/1050891

New York, Nov. 6 — Housing activists gathered on the steps of City Hall today and said no to the privatization of the largest public housing system in the U.S. Developers want to kick out working-class families in order to build more luxury housing.

Five hundred thousand people live in New York City’s public housing. They’re fed up with mold and roaches in their apartments. 

Elevators are often broken, a nightmare for disabled and elderly residents.  Many tenants at the Queensbridge Houses didn’t have heat last winter.

Saundrea Coleman, co-founder of the Holmes-Isaacs Coalition, chaired the conference. La Keesha Taylor, also from the coalition, demanded action, as did Jose Guevara, who’s also from the Holmes-Isaacs Coalition. Chants of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” filled the front of City Hall.

The capitalist government has let public housing rot for years. Just to repair the Fulton Houses will cost $168 million.

Around $32 billion is needed to fix the backlog of repairs in the entire system. That’s about what the so-called U.S. Department of Energy spends every year to develop new nuclear weapons.

Louis Flores from Fight for NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) demanded that elected officials get public housing fixed, or they will be voted out. Kei Pritsker from the Justice Center en El Barrio denounced the vertical patrols conducted by New York police in housing projects.

Pritsker pointed out that the unarmed Akai Gurley was killed in Brooklyn’s Pink Houses by a cop who discharged his weapon down a dark stairwell. If the elevators had not broken down and the stairway had been lighted, Akai Gurley might be alive today.

Kei Pritsker also told listeners that there are no homeless people in socialist Cuba and that Venezuela has built 2.8 million homes for poor people. What a contrast to the capital of capitalism—New York City—where 100,000 students will be homeless for at least part of the year.

Dannelly Rodriguez spoke from Justice for All, a dynamic grassroots group from the Astoria, Woodside and Sunnyside communities in western Queens. He denounced plans to build luxury housing over the Sunnyside railroad yards.

Rodriguez asked that if Mayor Bill de Blasio can find $11 billion to build new jails, why can’t they find the money to fix public housing?

People will have to fight to get it.

Monday, November 11, 2019 at 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST

The Torch of Friendship
401 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, Florida 33132

Hosted by Miami Hands-Off Venezuela Committee

A U.S.-sponsored military coup is being carried out in Bolivia right now. Far-right forces within Bolivia and outside of Bolivia have mobilized to overthrow the progressive, indigenous, president of Bolivia; Evo Morales.

Evo has consistently opposed all forms of U.S. intervention in the region. His administration has seen unprecedented progress for the whole country. Because Bolivia is very rich and diverse in its natural resources, the U.S. imperialists can only depend on fascist terrorism in order to topple a people’s government.

This is not over. People of conscience throughout the world can still come out and demonstrate their opposition to CIA-sponsored fascism in Bolivia and elsewhere. We are calling on Miami’s progressive people to come out in rejection of the U.S. sponsored coup in Bolivia!

On Facebook

¡Defendamos la vida de Evo Morales!

¡A detener el golpe fascista en Bolivia!

Convocatoria para una semana de acciones de emergencia del 11-17 de Nov.

El 10 de noviembre, el presidente de Bolivia Evo Morales fue obligado a renunciar durante un golpe militar apoyado por el gobierno de Estados Unidos. El terror fascista ha invadido el país en las últimas semanas desde que el presidente Morales ganara la reelección. Este terror ha incluido el ataque racista y sexista contra la alcaldesa de Vinto, Patricia Arce, quien fue aterrorizada y arrastrada por las calles.

El periódico Struggle-La Lucha y el Partido por el Socialismo Unido hacen un llamado a los trabajadores y al movimiento progresista a tomar inmediatamente acciones de emergencia para defender la vida de Evo Morales, la comunidad indígena y los movimientos sociales progresistas de Bolivia. Responsabilizamos al Presidente Donald Trump y al Congreso de los Estados Unidos de la seguridad de todos ellos. Nos sumamos al llamado del canciller cubano Bruno Rodríguez, quien dijo: “Hacemos un llamado a una movilización mundial por la vida y la libertad de Evo”.

Recordamos cómo el intento de golpe de Estado de 2002 contra el presidente venezolano Hugo Chávez fue desbaratado por la intervención de las masas y la solidaridad internacional. Debemos hacer todo lo que esté a nuestro alcance para evitar que se repita el terror fascista que azotó a Chile después del golpe de estado de Pinochet organizado por Washington el 11 de septiembre de 1973.

Evo Morales es el primer presidente indígena que representa a la mayoría boliviana en los 200 años de historia del país. Morales ha sido un líder mundial en la lucha por defender el planeta del cambio climático impulsado por el capitalismo. Los mismos intereses capitalistas que intentan destruir la selva amazónica están detrás del golpe en Bolivia.

Desde que Morales asumió el cargo en representación del Movimiento al Socialismo, la pobreza extrema se redujo de 38 por ciento en 2006 a 17 por ciento en 2018; el salario mínimo nacional aumentó en aproximadamente 104 por ciento; y se asignaron más de 1.000 millones de dólares para la construcción de más de 5.000 clínicas médicas, escuelas y gimnasios en zonas pobres.

La lucha en Bolivia está lejos de terminar. Hoy la lucha de clases se libra en todo el continente sudamericano entre las fuerzas que representan al imperialismo yanqui, el colonialismo, el racismo y la austeridad, y los movimientos populares que se niegan a ser aplastados bajo el talón de los ricos y poderosos.

Los trabajadores, los activistas antibélicos y antiimperialistas de Estados Unidos tenemos una responsabilidad especial de mostrar solidaridad con los oprimidos que luchan en todo el mundo contra la dominación de Wall Street y Washington. Es nuestra responsabilidad hacer todo lo que podamos para hacer retroceder los ataques políticos, económicos y militares de Estados Unidos contra Bolivia y toda América Latina.

Actúe:

• Realice acciones de emergencia en su área durante la semana del 11 al 17 de noviembre. Publique información sobre su acción local en la página del evento de Facebook. Descargue los carteles de protesta y otros materiales de esta página.
• Publique fotos con carteles que digan ‘Defiendo a Evo Morales’, ‘A detener el golpe en Bolivia’ en los medios sociales con hashtags #ElMundoConEvo #EvoNoEstasSolo #DefendEvoMorales
• Informe a sus compañeros de trabajo, amigos y familiares, y ayúdelos a participar!

Tuesday, November 12, 2019 at 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST

Matt Cohen Park
725 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario

This is a call for Solidarity with the people of Bolivia and against the ongoing coup by the military.

Bolivia’s workers, the Aymara and Quechua peoples have called for International solidarity to defend the historical achievements of the first indigenous government that ended with the forced resignation of President Evo Morales at the hands of the Military.

On Facebook

Statement by the Political Committee of the Movimiento Al Socialismo (Movement for Socialism) of Bolivia

Resist today to fight again tomorrow

Today, November 10, Bolivia’s humble citizens, its workers, the Aymara and Quechua peoples, we begin the long road of resistance to defend the historical achievements of the first indigenous government that ended today with the forced resignation of our president Evo Morales at the hands of a civilian-police coup.

Let history bear witness to our commitment to defend the nationalizations and industrialization program, our public companies, and our social policies and national symbols.

Today the right and the coup plotters seized the Wiphala (our indigenous banner and the dual of the Bolivian nation), and with it, they tore down our dignity as indigenous peoples. We will not kneel, we will defend our constitutional symbols.

Over the coming days, the hunting down of our comrades will continue. Our responsibility is to safeguard one another like a family, to rebuild the social fabric, to care for and protect our persecuted leaders. Today is the moment of solidarity, tomorrow will be the time for reorganization and to the step forward in the struggle that will not end with these sad events.

Our slogan is to resist today to fight again tomorrow. Our actions will defend the achievements of the greatest government in the history of Bolivia.

Our country or death!!!

The MAS makes history, the right is disgrace!!!

November 10, 2019

Bolivia

Originally published in Spanish at Rebelión.org

MAS is the political party that supports ousted president Evo Morales.

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, center, speaks during a press conference at the military base in El Alto, Bolivia, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019. Hours later Morales announced his resignation under mounting pressure from the military and the public after his re-election victory triggered weeks of fraud allegations and deadly protests. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)Amidst a right wing coup, Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced to resign Sunday. Evo’s forced exit from the Bolivian presidency was a right wing coup by army and police chieftains with imperialist backing.

Prior to the putsch, imperialism-backed rightists organized unrest, violence and arson including setting fire to residences of two governors’ and of Evo’s sister.

The rightists organized the widespread violence against Evo’s October 20 elections victory since the election.

Two officials next in line to take over the helm of the government also resigned as Bolivia is in turmoil.

“I resign from my position as president so that Mesa and Camacho do not continue to persecute socialist leaders,” Evo said during a televised address naming the rightist ringleaders.

The struggle continues, we’ll come back

Evo Morales stressed that his resignation does not mean that the socialist case is defeated.

“It is no betrayal. The struggle continues. We are a people,” said Evo.

“We will come back and we will be millions as Tupac Amaru II said,” Evo declared.

The Bolivian leader said that he decided to leave the post in hopes that his departure would stop the spate of violent attacks against officials and indigenous people, “so that they [the rightists] do not continue burning the houses [of public officials]” and “kidnapping and mistreating” families of indigenous leaders.

“It is my obligation, as the first indigenous president and president of all Bolivians, to seek this pacification,” he said.

Evo said that he hopes opposition would “understand the message.”

Evo urged protesters to “stop attacking the brothers and sisters, stop burning and attacking.”

Shortly after the announcement, his Vice-President Alvaro Marcelo Garcia Linera also submitted his resignation.

The two leaders said that they would be handing their resignation letters to the country’s National Assembly.

The next person in line to take over the government, the president of the Senate Adriana Salvatierra, resigned soon after. But she also later issued her resignation as well as the president of the Chamber of Deputies.

Jeanine, a lawmaker, assumes presidency

Jeanine Anez, a rightist opposition lawmaker from the Democratic Union party, has stated she will assume Interim Presidency.

Anez assured she will call for new elections.

As the second deputy senate majority leader, the Senator is the first official in line for succession after Vice President, Senate Majority Leader and First Deputy Majority Leader resigned following Evo Morales’ decision.

Earlier on Sunday Evo announced snap elections, giving in to the mounting rightist pressure over the disputed results of the October 20 polls.

The decision followed the release of a preliminary report from the Washington-backed Organization of American States (OAS) mission on the elections, that was unable to validate them, saying it is “statistically unlikely” that Morales secured a 10-percent lead, the constitutional requirement to avoid a runoff vote.

Bolivian rightist opposition urged Morales to resign altogether despite his promise of the new elections. Evo he briefly resisted such calls, branding them “unconstitutional” and an “attempted coup,” the President eventually gave in after the military joined that reactionary choir.

Shortly before Evo announced his resignation, Bolivian TV channels aired footage of what they say was a presidential plane departing from El Alto International airport.

It was reported that the plane took Evo to his political stronghold of Chimore in the Department of Cochabamba, 300 kilometers east of La Paz, a city where he launched his reelection bid back in May.

Evo and Garcia Linera will stay in Chimore in the central Department of Cochabamba to work with the people.

However, citing opposition source, a report said:

Police and military have been on the lookout for Evo.

Morales dubbed the arrest warrant “illegal” while police chief denied its existence altogether.

Earlier, Bolivian rightist protest leader Luis Fernando Camacho has said that an outstanding warrant exists for the socialist leader’s arrest.

Supreme Electoral Tribunal President Maria Eugenia Choque Quispe was arrested on November 10 after the resignation of President Evo Morales.

The Attorney General’s office has issued arrest warrants for all leaders of the electoral tribunal and members of the body.

Assault on Evo’s home

“I denounce in front of the world and the Bolivian people that a police official publicly announced that he has instructed to execute an illegal arrest warrant against me; in addition, violent groups assaulted my home. The coup destroys the rule of law,” Evo stated on Twitter.

Global solidarity against coup

Solidarity across the globe continues for Evo and his government.

World leaders and organizations expressed Sunday their solidarity with former Bolivian President Evo Morales under the hashtag #ElMundoconEvo (the World with Evo) and strongly condemned the right-wing coup, which forced Evo to resign.

The Cuban and Venezuelan leaders have voiced their support for Evo. They condemned the incident as a “coup”.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel described it as a “violent and cowardly” attempt against democracy.

Miguel Diaz-Canel urged for “the world to mobilize for the life and freedom of Evo.”

“A coup d’état is underway against the legitimate President of Bolivia, @evoespueblo,” Diaz-Canel said in a tweet. “The right-wing opposition refuses to recognize their defeat at the polls and resorts to violence against the constitutional order. We strongly denounce this coup attempt!”

The messages of solidarity came just hours before Bolivian President Evo Morales said Sunday that he was calling new presidential election.

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro tweeted: “We categorically condemn the coup realized against our brother president.”

Maduro added “the social and political movements of the world declare mobilization to demand the preservation of the life of the Bolivian Indigenous people victims of racism.”

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador praised Evo Morales’ decision to put the people first over his mandate.

Argentinean President-elect Alberto Fernandez says “institutional breakdown in Bolivia is unacceptable.” “My full support to the president @evoespueblo in the face of this attempt to interrupt the constitutional order,” Alberto Fernandez said in a tweet Saturday night. “The region together with the international community, we must follow this situation closely and act in case of any event that implies an institutional breakdown.”

The ALBA-TCP countries also issued a statement expressing support for the Bolivian government and institutions and denouncing the coup d’état in progress, while called for the return to peace.

Former President of the National Assembly and current Minister of Health Gabriela Montaño denounces that police are “illegally intending to arrest Evo Morales. We denounce this madness to the world.”

“I just heard that there was a coup d’état in Bolivia and that comrade Evo was forced to resign. It is unfortunate that Latin America has an economic elite that does not know how to live with democracy and the social inclusion of the poorest,” former Brazilian President and Leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.

“To see Evo who, along with a powerful movement, has brought so much social progress forced from office by the military is appalling. I condemn this coup against the Bolivian people and stand with them for democracy, social justice, and independence,” tweeted British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn Sunday.

Dictatorship, never again

Social movements and organizations also shared their messages of support and condemnation to the internationally repudiated coup in Bolivia.

Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement, the world’s biggest landless peasants’ organization, strongly demanded “dictatorship, never again”, as the organization called for the people to decide Bolivia’s future.

The Argentinean human rights movement Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo sided with Evo and his former vice president.

“We stand in solidarity with the people of Bolivia in these hours of suffering and demand the continuity of the transparent and unrestricted electoral process,” the progressive Group of Puebla issued a statement adding that they “demand that the International Human Rights Bodies guarantee the clarification of the acts of violence committed, the trial and punishment of those responsible, and the restoration of order, peace, social life, and democracy in Bolivia.”

Mexico receives 20 Bolivian officials

Mexico’s Minister of Foreign Affairs @m_ebrard confirms that they have received 20 officials from the Bolivian executive and legislature in the Mexican diplomatic residence in La Paz, while also offering asylum to Evo Morales if needed.

Rightists cheer

Videos from La Paz, the site of many recent anti-Evo Morales protests, showed rightist violent mob was cheering after the resignation announcement.

The lumpen and rich appearing rightist mob took to the streets to celebrate, chanting, “Yes we could”. They set off firecrackers in jubilation.

Ruling Bolivia since 2006, Morales has gained a reputation as a staunch defender of socialism, rights of the exploited. He is an ardent critic of U.S. imperialist foreign policy. Evo was one of the closest allies of Cuba and Venenzuela.

The country’s highest court ruled in 2018 that he could run for the fourth time. With Evo at the helm, the country, one of the poorest in the region but rich with resources, made exemplary progress in the areas of health, education and health. Bolivia under Evo’s leadership was making headways in many significant and big development projects, which would have improved life of the poor.

After the contested October elections, there were rival rallies of Morales’ opponents and supporters throughout the country.

While some anti-government protests have remained peaceful, others have led to rioting in major cities, clashes with police, and attacks on pro-government politicians.

Saturday saw some of the most violent nights in the country as opposition protesters burned down the houses of two governors as well as the house of Evo’s sister.

Violent protesters also took over two state media outlets and threatening their staff. The signal of Bolivia TV was cut down off air for more than eight hours.

Protesters burned the house of Oruro city governor Victor Hugo Vasquez, who stood by the president as tensions flared up.

Violent mobs harassed authorities in several cities. Police joined the demonstrators in some cities, marching in their uniforms.

Along with strong violent onslaughts against activists and leaders of the Movement to Socialism (MAS), the rightists intimidated journalists.

There was betrayal of political allies also. Several political allies of Evo resigned, some citing fears for the safety of their families.

Military chief’s call

An earlier report said:

Bolivia’s military urged President Evo Morales to resign stating that it would help to preserve “peace” in the country.

The military’s call came after Morales agreed to hold new elections.

“After analyzing the internal conflict situation, we ask the President of the State to renounce his presidential mandate, allowing for peace to be restored and the maintenance of stability for the good of Bolivia,” said the commander of Bolivia’s armed forces Williams Kaliman.

Shortly before Kaliman’s statement, Bolivia’s military said it had ordered air and land operations to “neutralize” unspecified armed groups that act outside the laws of the country.

It remains unclear what groups exactly the military plans to target.

The head of Bolivia’s Air Force has also suggested that President Evo Morales resign.

The Bolivian Police also demanded resignation of Evo Morales.

OAS 

On Sunday, the OAS mission, probing the election said it was unable to validate its results and urged Bolivia to hold new ones.

The opposition was insisting that the president should resign before his mandate runs out in January, which he called a “coup attempt.”

Preserve peace

Earlier, in an interview with teleSUR’s correspondent in Bolivia Freddy Morales, the former president said the decision to call new elections was to preserve the peace in Bolivia “so that we do not confront the Bolivian family,” while calling on the opposition protesters to end the strikes and remove roadblocks in order to not harm the economy of the country.

Opposition reaction

The rightist opposition leader Carlos Mesa, who came second in last month’s poll, thanked violent mob for “the heroism of peaceful resistance.”

In a tweet, he described the development as “the end of tyranny” and a “historical lesson”.

An NED operation

Citing a release of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the U.S arm for imposing its brand of political system, a teleSUR analysis said on April 4, 2019: The CIA’s influence in Latin America is not a “leftist rant”, it is ever-present and ignoring it represents a real menace for national sovereignty and the continuity of progressive governments in the region. In 2018, one of its offshoots, the NED channeled over US$23 million to meddle in the internal affairs of key Latin American countries, under the flagship of “human rights”, “democracy” and “entrepreneurship.”

Fascist action against a socialist mayor

A fascist mob led by the right-wing opposition Wednesday set fire to the Vinto Town Hall and dragged socialist mayor Patricia Arce down the street, where they humiliated her physically and verbally.

The MAS politician was still inside the town hall when the mob set it on fire.

Once she was taken to the street, the rightwing activists forced her to walk barefoot as they kept shouting slogans alluding to her status as a woman and member of the party of President Evo.

During some stretches of an improvised political “parade”, she was beaten and pushed to the ground. The mob also threw dirt on her.

“If you want to kill me, kill me,” Mayor Arce said before the cameras and added, “I am not afraid, I am in a free country.”

After walking several kilometers surrounded by the blood-smelling fascist who did not stop humiliating her, the socialist mayor was rescued by police officers.

Source: Countercurrents