Nov. 16 — The Democratic Party leadership has chained the progressive masses to a defense of U.S. ruling-class militarism as the price for impeaching Trump. 

Tens of millions in this country and around the world justifiably want to see the right-wing bully, racist, misogynist bigot Trump brought down. But they are being forced to choose between Trump, who wants to blame his troubles on Ukraine, and the camp that wants to attack Russia.

This a completely false and dead-end choice.

This line of argument has been set forth by Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Adam Schiff and company, their lawyers and their corporate backers. The political masterminds behind this impeachment strategy have set up the proceedings to be especially harmful to the workers and the oppressed.

Legitimate reasons to want Trump out

Let us recount some of the legitimate reasons that people want to get rid of Trump. 

He called Mexicans rapists and criminals on his first day running for office and has continued to vilify immigrants ever since. He has forced migrants fleeing gangs and death squads fostered by puppet imperialist governments away from the U.S. southern border. 

Trump cruelly separated families at the border, put children in cages and moved children and parents hundreds of miles apart without any way of reuniting them. And he has waged a war on Black and Latinx immigrants, calling Africa and Haiti “shithole” countries, and more.

Trump also tried to ban Muslims from the country. He has been sued by 14 women for sexual assault. He has bragged about abusing women and grabbing their genitals.

He has moved legally against LGBTQ2S peoples’ rights. He has pardoned war criminals and reactionaries. He has used the White House to constantly enrich himself. 

Silence on tax breaks, deregulation, U.S. militarism and aggression

As for his attitude toward the ruling class, Trump has handed the military record budgets and given the commanders wide authority to launch operations in the field, despite disparaging NATO. He has plied the bosses and bankers with tax breaks to the tune of $1.5 trillion. He has given the corporate plunderers gifts of environmental and safety deregulation, while plundering and poisoning the land, sea and air — all the while characterizing the very real danger of climate change as a hoax.

As the impeachment hearings are going on, the Trump administration is waging war on the Bolivian Indigenous leader, three-time President Evo Morales. Bolivian generals trained in subversion and repression by the U.S. School of the Americas put the Bolivian masses under assault.

At the same time, Trump and Pompeo have been trying to overthrow the progressive, anti-imperialist Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro.

The Pentagon has moved to seize Syria’s oil wells and has assisted Turkish president Recip Erdogan in persecuting the Syrian Kurds.

Not a word about all this in the hearings.

Yovanovitch the ‘corruption fighter’

Marie Yovanovitch, former ambassador to Ukraine and a star witness for the Democrats, was presented as a brave “corruption fighter.” Her testimony followed a State Department official, George Kent, and another U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, William Taylor. 

One may ask who gave any U.S. official the right to investigate “corruption” in another country. If the Cubans or the Russians sent officials to investigate corruption in the U.S., they would have to send massive delegations to K Street, the White House and all federal offices of the U.S. capitalist government, because the U.S. ruling class governs by corruption. In addition, state houses and city halls are virtually occupied by lobbyists from every type of business group and individual corporations. But no such thing would ever be permitted here. That would be denounced as meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign country.

The criminal behavior of Biden  

Joe Biden’s connection to Ukraine is that he pressed to get Ukraine into the imperialist European Union and into an anti-Russian alliance with the U.S. after the elected Ukrainian government of Victor Yanukovich was overthrown in a U.S.-orchestrated fascist coup in February 2014.

The Obama-Biden administration collaborated with fascist elements to put a right-wing government in power in Kiev. It is important to go back to the tape-recorded phone conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, in February 2014. 

The European Union was planning a soft takeover of Ukraine, trying to undermine that country’s economic ties with Russia. The U.S. intervened in its own interests by encouraging fascist mobs to call for the overthrow of the elected government. The Ukraine Parliament pulled the police off the streets, allowing the mobs to break up the parliament. That is when Nuland made the infamous “Fuck the EU” comment, in which she openly expressed Washington’s preference for the ultra right-wing Fatherland Party, rife with fascists, to take over the government. (Washington Post, Feb. 6, 2014). When the smoke cleared, the Fatherland Party was in office and President Yanukovych was forced to flee.

Washington’s takeover of Ukraine was part of a plan to complete the encirclement of Russia and to reinstall a Yeltsin-type regime to do its bidding.

Between 1999 and 2004, despite Washington’s earlier pledges not to do so, the U.S. extended NATO’s reach to surround Russia. During this period, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia all joined NATO. Only Ukraine, which also shares a long border with Russia, remained outside the imperialist military alliance.  

The war in the Donbass

There is no disputing the fact that the $400 million in aid voted by Congress was held up by Trump in his corrupt attempt to extort the Zelensky government to open up public investigations of the Bidens and Burisma as well as alleged Ukranian interference in U.S. elections in 2016. But this aid  was meant to fight off the people of East Ukraine, who have resisted the right-wing regime in Kiev. They don’t want the International Monetary Fund or the European Union or U.S. imperialism to dictate their form of government. The $400 million was to give tank-killing missiles to Kiev to stop their righteous resistance. 

The resistance is supported militarily by Russia. It is part of the geopolitical struggle between Washington and Moscow, but the support for the Donbass resistance is progressive. And so was the seizure of Crimea, which, like Donbass, is largely a Russian speaking area.  

The imperialist bureaucrats who testified at the impeachment hearings are being hailed as heroes for fighting to get weapons to be used against a justified people’s war in East Ukraine.

Lost in all the criminality is the fact that Hunter Biden got $50,000 a month from Burisma, the first privately owned natural gas company in Ukraine. This means that Biden makes more for a month than most workers in Ukraine make in a year — for just being Joe Biden’s son. Was Hunter Biden an expert in natural gas? Was he a corporate wizard? Or was he simply the son of the U.S. vice president? His position is a clear case of pure nepotism and influence peddling in the wake of the fascist overthrow.  Yet he is being depicted as a victim by the Democratic Party leadership.

Impeachment a trap for the workers and oppressed

The Democratic Party leadership has carefully orchestrated these hearings to exclude all subjects that are of concern to the progressive masses. There has not been a word about corporate giveaways, accelerated destruction of the environment, record military budgets, massive and growing inequality, wage erosion, underemployment, poverty, food deprivation or voter suppression in their calls to save their “democracy.”

All the capitalist media have broadcast this reactionary circus. No commentators have criticized the politicians for leaving out the genuine concerns of the people. This has been one big election maneuver for the Demcratic Party leadership in the run-up to the 2020 elections. It has been one great evasion of the real burning issues of mass concern. It has revealed in bold relief the fraud of capitalist parliamentarism. 

If there were any semblance of democracy in this process, mass organizations would have been given the opportunity to frame the questions, call and cross-examine witnesses from the ruling-class establishment and frame the articles of impeachment in accord with the needs and desires of the people. 

Of course nothing even approaching this is possible under capitalist democracy, which is designed to foster the interests of capital and suppress any anti-capitalist dissent.  

What is really needed is a mass mobilization, a giant coalition of the workers’ and community organizations, student and immigrant rights groups, women’s and LGBTQ2S organizations, to mobilize on the ground and drive, not just Trump, but the capitalist politicians, the government bureaucrats and the lobbyists from their positions of privilege and political strongholds. This would be preliminary to launching an attack on capitalism itself.  

Posted to lowwagecapitalism.com on Nov. 17, 2019.

It has been five days since the violent, racist coup d’état forced the resignation of President Evo Morales and Vice-president Álvaro García Linera. Since then, the people of Bolivia and the world have remained firm in their resistance against the coup and in defense of Morales and the process of change in the country. Across Bolivia, people are facing heavy repression from the Armed Forces, the Police and fascist groups but still they remain determined both on the streets and within institutional spaces to reject and fight back against the coup.

Resistance

The city El Alto, which neighbors the capital La Paz and whose inhabitants are mostly Indigenous and working class, has been the center of the mobilizations in support of Morales. Protesters have been marching from El Alto to the capital daily to demand the resignation of the opposition senator Jeanine Áñez, who proclaimed herself ‘interim president’ on November 12.

Protesters have also erected road blockades surrounding the capital in order to stop the flow of supplies into the city and several hundreds have begun a protest-camp outside Plaza Murillo where the major government buildings are located, including Congress and the Presidential Palace.

The Executive Committee of the United Trade Union Confederation of Bolivia (CSUTCB), the Trade Union Confederation of Intercultural Communities of Bolivia, the Peasant Workers Federation ‘Ponchos Rojos’, the Six Federations of the Tropic of Cochabamba, among others, have manifested their complete support to Morales and his process of change. They have said that these demonstrations would not stop until Morales could resume his position as President of the Plurinational State in Bolivia.

A member of the organization Tupac Katari told journalist Marco Teruggi on the streets of La Paz that their resistance against the coup supporters and the right-wing is historic. “Today is November 15, one day like today [in 1781] they killed our great leader Tupac Katari because he was strong, because he fought for the peasant class, because he fought for the Aymaras, Quechuas, and Guaranís [Indigenous nations in Bolivia] and those in the countryside in general,” he explained, “And what did they do? To teach a lesson to all of the peasant class, they dismembered him using four horses because he did not give up and swear allegiance to the Spanish crown. So they tied him to four horses to stretch him but he was so strong that they had to use the machete to dismember our great leader.”

For this protester and many others, their resistance is about carrying on the legacy of anti-colonial resistance of Katari and many other Indigenous leaders, “I am from the land of Tupac Katari, I am from the Aroma province and I will not surrender. We are going to resist until the last consequences because we have already taken down a right-wing leader, who is also a coup supporter, a dictator, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada that was an assassin and now the North American empire has him there as the golden boy. Now they have brought their student Jeanine Añez, as well as Luis [Fernando] Camacho…but they will pay because they can silence the people for a moment but the people have memory and we will not surrender, we are not willing to surrender, we will struggle, and even if we have to die, we will die.”

Repression

The coup supporting Police Force and Armed Forces have unleashed brutal repression against those in the streets against the coup. They are attacking the multitudinous mobilizations with tear gas, firing at close range with firearms, beating up protesters, and have also been arresting people suspected of pertaining to the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and carrying out violent house raids.

They are the same forces that turned a blind eye to the right-wing groups committing violent acts against members of the MAS and sustaining road blockades and strikes in the days following the general elections and leading up to the coup. Now the US-trained repressive apparatus in Bolivia has been fully activated to stop the Bolivian people from demanding that their votes in the elections be respected, that the illegitimate Jeanine Añez step down, and that the right-wing cease acts of violence and racism.

According to a report compiled by the Latin American Center for Strategic Analysis (CLAE), the International Committee of Youth for Peace in Latin America, and Generation Evo, the escalation of violence after the civic-military coup has already cost 12 deaths and more than 530 have been injured. The report was released prior to the massacre committed in Sacaba, Cochabamba wherein Armed Forces and the Police fired tear gas and live bullets at protesters and killed at least 5 and injured hundreds.

Ruddy Uria, the Director of Communications of the National Police said on November 13: “We are going to organize groups in all of the cities where the greatest level of violence exists, we will go to the focus points that have been identified and retake the city. I ask the citizens to collaborate with us, and to the people who do not know that democracy has returned to our country, that they abstain from committing excesses, we will proceed to arrests, we will catch all of the heads that are creating chaos in our country.”

Bolivia’s Guaidó

On November 12, right-wing Senator Jeanine Áñez declared herself ‘interim president’ of Bolivia in a session of Congress that did not meet quorum. She was later decorated with the tri-color presidential sash by members of the Armed Forces and accompanied by far-right opposition leader Fernando Camacho as she celebrated her proclamation with a bible in her hand. Her self-proclamation has been widely condemned as illegitimate due to the lack of quorum, but that has not stopped Añez from adopting measures and electing a new cabinet.

In addition to the mass rejection of Añez for illegitimately seizing power, she is also a representation of the regressive, racist, conservative sectors in Bolivia. Her declaration that “the bible has returned to the palace” perfectly synthesizes the motivating ideological factors behind this coup. The white conservative minority in Bolivia could not tolerate an Indigenous, coca farmer as President who is pro-people, and pro-working class, who made Bolivia a secular state and does not abide by the diktats of US imperialism.

Following her self-declaration, a series of racist tweets written by Añez in 2013 were uncovered which have since been deleted. “I dream of a Bolivia free of Indigenous satanic rituals, the city is not for the Indians, they should go back to the high plains or to Chaco,” she wrote.

Añez’ declaration has been recognized by the United States, Colombia, Brazil, the UK, Guatemala, and Russia.

Meanwhile Añez declared that she recognized the other self-proclaimed ‘interim president’ on the continent, Juan Guaidó of Venezuela, and cut diplomatic relations with the constitutional government of President Nicolás Maduro and ordered all Venezuelan diplomatic staff to leave the country.

Cuban doctors in Bolivia have also been targeted by government officials. On November 13, four members of the Cuban Medical Brigade in El Alto were arrested and accused of financing and instigating anti-coup protests.

Institutional Fight

In the hours before and after Morales and García Linera’s resignation, a series of ministers and legislators resigned from their posts due to a campaign of threats and violence. To give one example, Victor Borda, the president of the Chamber of Deputies from MAS, was forced to resign on November 10 after right-wing mobs burned his house and kidnapped his brother, he declared “I renounce from the Chamber of Deputies…hopefully at least it can preserve the physical integrity of my brother that has been taken hostage.”

The threats and intimidation to state functionaries was a key element of the coup plan as it opened up space for the right-wing to intervene and seize power. However, MAS legislators have been regrouping and fighting back in the legislative realm as they have a majority in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

On Thursday, after attempts by the security forces to violently block the entrance of MAS legislators to the Plurinational Assembly, composed of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, MAS was able to wage an institutional counter attack. In sessions with quorum, Sergio Choque of MAS was elected as the new president of the Chamber of Deputies and Mónica Eva Copa was elected as the new president of the Senate.

Choque announced that he plans to push forward legislation so that the Armed Forces are taken off the streets and vowed to work to pacify the country. Choque declared that him and his party do not recognize the self-proclaimed ‘interim president’ Añez as she violated several constitutional norms.

International

Social movements, trade unions, political parties and leaders across the world have maintained strong in their rejection of the coup carried out against Morales and the brutal attacks carried out by the Armed Forces and the Police against the Bolivian people who are resisting the coup.

An extraordinary meeting of the platform Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA–TCP) was held in Managua, Nicaragua on Thursday November 14 in order to address the pressing situation in Bolivia.

In a declaration released following the meeting they declared, “We categorically condemn the coup d’état carried out against the Government of brother Evo Morales Ayma, President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the persecution and disproportionate violence to which his Ministers and other government functionaries are submitted to, as well as leaders and their families.”

They also saluted Mexico for granting political asylum to Morales and García Linera as well as other progressive leaders for standing against the coup. They denounced the declarations of the government of Donald Trump, “which show both his support to the coup d’état in Bolivia as well as the threat to the legitimate, sovereign, and free governments of the brother republics of Nicaragua and Bolivarian Venezuela.”

Source: Peoples Dispatch

Chanting “resign now” to Bolivia’s interim, self-declared president Jeanine Añez, protesters across the Latin American country on Friday made their displeasure with the overthrow of the government by right-wing Christian extremists last Sunday known.

Thousands of demonstrators marched through the cities of La Paz and El Alto. Friday’s protests follow days of unrest as the Bolivian people rejected Sunday’s coup, which forced democratically-elected President Evo Morales to resign and flee the country.

An Indigenous woman, in comment to RT Thursday, asked if the coup leaders thought the people of Bolivia were ignorant of what was happening in the country.

“¿Creen que somos ignorantes?”: El contundente discurso de una mujer indígena a lo que sucede en Bolivia https://t.co/a6TmEMPk7b pic.twitter.com/POCHkQrLxy

— RT en Español (@ActualidadRT) November 15, 2019

Friday’s demonstrations were a show of force by the Bolivian people against the coup government. Video and photographs from the country showed long stretching lines of people waving the Indigenous wiphala flag and calling for Añez to step down.

Protests against the coup d’etat in #Bolivia are getting bigger and bigger. People from all over Bolivia are marching in support of #EvoMorales #BoliviaResiste
pic.twitter.com/PEHf5Nb01A

— nonouzi (@Gerrrty) November 15, 2019

A drone recorded a kilometer column of protesters marching through several streets of Cochabamba, Bolivia, in a massive protest to demand the resignation of Jeanine Áñez pic.twitter.com/vpx2EEYyWF https://t.co/4qvuYMQeLm

— etienneyerovi (@yerovietienne) November 15, 2019

#Bolivia: Massive protests against the coup continue, “Resign the self-proclaimed interim president”#EvoMorales #BoliviaResiste #EvoEsElPresidente
pic.twitter.com/dZ5CNYWRM0

— nonouzi (@Gerrrty) November 15, 2019

La Paz, 1:30pm: Mass march against the coup administration and with chants aimed at the police for repressing the Bolivian people to uphold unconstitutionality. @teleSURenglish pic.twitter.com/YzvcP4ORBm

— Camila (@camilateleSUR) November 15, 2019

La Paz, 2pm: Thousands against the many violations to democracy and the rights of the people under the coup. #Bolivia pic.twitter.com/3p98WNSXlf

— Camila (@camilateleSUR) November 15, 2019

Bolivia: indigenous people demand the resignation of Jeanine Áñez

Evo Morales supporters protest against the coup in Bolivia and ask that the ‘self-proclaimed’ president Áñez “resign now.” pic.twitter.com/vvNa0AAHBX https://t.co/DG4kGd94Vr

— etienneyerovi (@yerovietienne) November 15, 2019

Bolivia: indígenas exigen la renuncia de Jeanine Áñez

Partidarios de Evo Morales protestan contra el golpe de Estado en Bolivia y piden que la ‘autoproclamada’ presidenta Áñez “renuncie ya”. pic.twitter.com/8dKbisMtLE

— RT en Español (@ActualidadRT) November 15, 2019

“Evo Morales has been a good man,” a supporter identified as Sonia told Democracy Now! Thursday. “He worked for the people. He didn’t rob from us like these thieves who want to shake up the state and kill us like dogs, as if we’re not humans.”

Protests against the civic-military coup have been growing in strength across the country and security forces have responded with brutal repression

Bolivian security forces killed as many as five protesters on November 15 near the Huayllani bridge in Sacaba, Cochabamba and gravely injured hundreds. The Indigenous and peasant protesters, who hail from six coca-farmer federations, were attempting to march from the small city of Sacaba to the department’s capital, Cochabamba when they were met with a military and police cordon. As the peaceful march attempted to advance, soldiers and police officers fired at the protesters with tear gas canisters and live bullets.

Represión desmedida y masacre en Cochabamba, hoy 15 de noviembre. Imágenes fuertes, pero necesarias para denunciar el carácter represor y dictatorial de quienes han asaltado el poder en Bolivia. La Comunidad Internacional debe condenar y actuar para detener esta barbarie. pic.twitter.com/VfCWEe4vHR

— Jorge Arreaza M (@jaarreaza) November 15, 2019

Their intention was to march to the city of Cochabamba and to reach the country’s capital, La Paz, on Sunday to join the thousands of Bolivians mobilizing against the civic-military coup carried out against President Evo Morales and Vice-president Alvaro García Linera.

On November 12, right-wing senator Jeanine Añez declared herself “interim president” of Bolivia in a session without quorum, which would theoretically render the declaration illegitimate. Shortly after she was decorated with the tri-color sash by military officials, thrust up a massive bible and proclaimed “the bible has returned to the palace!” She was accompanied by right-wing leader Fernando Camacho who was one of the driving leaders of the pro-coup mobilizations.

A protester in Sacaba stated “We want freedom, until this “self-proclaimed” resigns, we will continue marching with road blockades, we will not stop. For 14 years in the Tropic of Cochabamba we have lived in peace, there has not been this type of conflicts, massares, robberies. This is a peaceful march.”

Organizations in Bolivia have denounced the complete media blackout on the violent repression of anti-coup protests. Apart from the five deaths and hundreds of injured today in Sacaba, reports indicate that as many as 6 have been killed in the past week as well as hundreds of injured. Many supporters of Morales’ Movement Towards Socialism have also been arrested, threatened, and intimidated by security forces and right wing thugs. Four Cuban doctors, members of the Cuban medical brigade were also arrested and accused of inciting the anti-coup protests.

Source: Peoples Dispatch

On this occasion they were peasants with red ponchos, men and women with hats, coming from afar, from the highlands. Then they joined those from the city of Alto, those who could get there, others were held back as they tried to reach the center. La Paz has become the scene of daily mass mobilizations, town councils, repressions, a raging river against a coup d’état.

This time the day ended without tear gas or motorcycles. The police and military maintained their usual encirclement of Plaza Murillo, center of national political power, where the seat of government, the legislative branch and the vice-presidency are located, among other institutions.

Thursday’s central events took place in those blocks. The Senate elected a new president: Eva Copa, a native of the city of El Alto, as well as the president of the Chamber of Deputies elected the night before, Sergio Choque. With the swearing in of both new presidencies, belonging to the party of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), which holds two-thirds of the seats, the direction of the legislative power was redefined.

Simultaneously, the self-proclaimed president Jeanine Añez appointed five more ministers to her cabinet. Two of them, appointed yesterday, had statements alerting them to the policies to be pursued by the government appointed outside the Constitution in an attempt to build an institutional image.

The first was the Minister of the Transitional Government, Arturo Murillo, who announced that he will undertake a “hunt” against three former officials of the overthrown government: Raúl García Linera, Juan Ramón Quintana, Hugo Moldiz, all wanted for “sedition”.

The second was Communication Minister Roxana Lizarraga, who threatened “journalists or pseudo-journalists”, both national and international, who engage in “sedition”.

The few announcements made by the transitory government, where high commanders of the Bolivian Armed Forces and the Bolivian National Police were also elected, have been a double threat within a general framework of news of repression, deaths, injuries, confrontations, military deployed in the streets and highways.

The coup strategy faces an inevitable contradiction. The coup d’état denies being a coup d’état, seeking to build an institutionality outside the law to sustain this narrative, but in the acts of self-proclamation and announcements of hunting of leaders and journalists it reveals its anti-democratic character.

That has been made clear to those who mobilize day after day and have among their main demands the resignation of Añez, whom they accuse of being a coup plotter and a racist. For these reasons, together with the demand for Evo’s return – which is not homogeneous in the mobilizations – they have set in motion an uprising in different parts of the country in a process of confluence towards La Paz.

It is expected that between Friday and Saturday those who mobilize from rural areas of the interior of the country will arrive, including the coca growers of the Tropic, who this Thursday protested in the city of Cochabamba.

Therefore, the situation is uncertain for the coup d’état. On the one hand, it is facing a growing national mobilization process increasingly marked by racial cleavages: those who mobilize recognize the self-proclaimed Añez, Fernando Camacho and Carlos Mesa, leaders opposed to Indigenous nations, due to their ancient and recent history and the trampling of the Whipala flag.

On the other hand, those who lead the coup must fulfil the announced pledge: the holding of presidential elections within ninety days. There are four central steps in the process: the overthrow, the formation of a new transitional government, the call for elections, and the holding of elections.

The process is currently at the moment of the establishment of the government, and is facing difficulties: it must appoint new authorities of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, something that must proceed through the legislative branch, where the MAS has presidencies and majorities. Will it seek an agreement with those who are persecuted or will it advance against the legislative branch, further evidencing its coup character? Will the MAS accept an agreement with the objective of achieving an electoral channel?

The mobilizations are expected to increase in the next few days with the arrival of people from different departments of the country and the massive presence of El Alto, where the dead are guarded this Thursday night. There is speculation of more than ten dead in the country, and more than two hundred arrested, a provisional and approximate figure within which the rule of law has been broken and journalists who do not comply with the coup order are being persecuted.

Source: Internationalist 360°

The Counter-Coup from El Alto Forced Jeanine Áñez’s Self-proclamation

During the colonial era, Cerro Rico de Potosí in Bolivia was the focus of Europe’s looting of gigantic quantities of silver ore. At the beginning of this century, specifically in Cochabamba, the transnational water privatization plan was woven, with the authorship of the Bretton Woods institutions and the faithful accompaniment of then-president Hugo Banzer.

Following this line, the Bolivian State, under the presidency of Evo Morales, found itself immersed in a series of global corporate pressures and aggressions. From an attempt to Balkanize Bolivian territory in 2008, to the recent cycle of armed violence that, with police and military support, consummated the coup d’état.

However, in the face of every offensive by the elites, the Bolivian people have responded with gigantic street demonstrations. And perhaps the social and class conflict that developed in Bolivian territory in 2003: the “Gas War” will serve as a sufficient example.
The Alteños were protagonists in the “Gas War,” a social and political conflict that was significant for the contemporary history of Bolivia.

The Times

The plan of privatization and sale of gas to the United States undertaken by the government of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (of which Carlos Mesa was the vice-president), met with the strongest resistance in the municipality of El Alto, where the Dantesque “October Massacre” would take place.

Both in the era of privatizations and in the current events, El Alto has been a bastion of struggle and resistance in the anti-democratic, commotion and fascist onslaught scenarios.

El Alto: “October is not forgotten”

In the contemporary history of Bolivia, El Alto has been characterized by a powerful organization among its inhabitants.

When the potable water services transnational “Suez”, in alliance with the company Aguas del Illimani, refused to make investments to expand the service in El Alto, the service rates increased considerably. As a result, the people of El Alto joined an indefinite strike that forced the government of Carlos Mesa to conclude the contract with the transnational.

The strike had great economic repercussions, so much so that the French water company withdrew from Bolivia. It pressured the Bolivian state to obtain soft loans in order to expand its concessions and thus its profits.

Part of the arguments of the people of Alteño in the face of this situation was that these credits should go to a national public company and not to a transnational company that centralized profits.

Likewise, in the full growth of energy demand with the use of oil and gas, Bolivia was not lagging behind in corporate plans for the management of these energy sources.

In 2003, after several decades of exploitation of its strategic resources, the Bolivians in El Alto joined together to stop the unjust management of these resources, holding multiple demonstrations to demand that gas be directed towards national development.

Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, popularly known as “Goni”, ordered the Armed Forces to combat the protests. By October 13 of that year, the intense repression had claimed the lives of more than 60 Alteños, leaving more than 500 wounded.
The Armed Forces repressed the Alteños during the “Gas War” using tanks and other heavy weapons.

It should be noted that during this political crisis, on the international front, the Organization of American States (OAS) gave its support to “Goni”, completely ignoring the human rights violations of his government. In El Alto, protests in defense of natural resources continued, and popular organizations established a scheme of self-defense groups, blockades, and permanent mobilization.

Days after these events, specifically on October 17, “Goni” resigned and fled the country with the help of the United States. This is how the people of El Alto demonstrated their strong organization and forcefulness against the imposition of corporate measures. It is the epicenter of a series of historical demands of the Bolivian people.

Currently, in the face of the coup offensive, El Alto has done the same.

Since the beginning of the change of regime, El Alto has demonstrated against the actions of Luis Fernando Camacho and in support of Evo, configuring a situation of counter-coup that has been forcefully reprimanded by the military and police.

On November 5, at the International Airport, the Alteños forced Camacho’s return to Santa Cruz, blocking his intention to approach the Palacio Quemado to bring a letter of resignation to Evo.

In synchrony with these events, the anti-coup mobilizations were strengthened by the initiative of the Federation of Neighborhood Councils of El Alto (FEJUVE), which gave Camacho 48 hours to leave his spaces, showing a rejection of the destabilization and violence perpetrated by fascist armed groups.
The population of El Alto came out in support of President Evo Morales and against the self-proclamation of Áñez

The police, who turned their backs on President Morales, continued to carry out riots and reprimands against the supporters of MAS. Faced with this, FEJUVE assured that they would build a Civil Union Police to protect citizens from the waves of violence directed by the security agencies.

As for the Bolivian Armed Forces, which give the final blow to Evo, they initiate a wave of repression of the population that goes out into the streets to denounce and reject the coup d’état and violence. The thousands of peasants of El Alto, armed with sticks and carrying the Wiphala, shouted the slogan “now yes, civil war”.

The anti-coup protests have persisted to date, despite the attacks of the security forces against the indigenous people, and with the planes of the Armed Forces flying over the municipality, replicating the modus operandi of “Goni” in the middle of the “Gas War”.

Demonstrations of El Alto against the self-juramentation of Áñez

With an empty Plurinational Legislative Assembly, without quorum, the opposition senator, Jeanine Áñez, proclaimed herself President of Bolivia and made symbolic use of the Bible in the process of breaking the constitutional order.
With the Bible in hand and violating the Constitution from end to end, Senator Jeanine Áñez proclaimed herself president.

In addition, neighborhood leaders from the city of El Alto and the other provinces announced mobilizations to the city of La Paz. On Wednesday, Áñez named a new military high command who was sworn in in front of an altar of crosses, in the middle of the repression of the protests in La Paz.

At the same time, the MAS bench tried to enter the Assembly, but the police prevented the passage, making barriers, using force and even using chemical agents. Even the president of the Senate, Adriana Salvatierra, of the MAS party, was blocked from access to prevent Jeanine Áñez’s self-proclamation from losing its effect.

The conscious destruction of the line of presidential succession that led to the self-proclamation of Áñez is explained by the counter-coup in El Alto, a situation that has been repressed to sustain the coup and undermine the mobilization that, as in 2003, threatens the crystallization of a new offensive by the elites.

Source: Internationalist 360°

No al golpe

We join with people around the world to condemn the military coup in Bolivia, and extend our solidarity to the Bolivian people! The people of Bolivia, who are struggling to defend the massive gains won under the leadership of President Evo Morales, are fighting 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. We know the goal of the coup is to restore the absolute authority of the Bolivian elites who rule as clients of the United States. They despise the country’s Indigenous majority and want to repress the rights of the working class.

The Bolivian ruling class and their military are following the dictates of the U.S. government, which has worked overtime to turn back the leftwing tide sweeping Latin America. We see in Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and in the failed coup of Venezuela. 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 rich.

BUT WE SAY NO! Our role is to stand with Bolivia, with Latin America here in the United States and demand that this government ends its war on the people in Latin America and the Caribbean! U.S. hands off Bolivia!

En las últimas horas distintas autoridades actuantes en el Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia han presentado la idea de que colaboradores cubanos alientan las protestas que se están produciendo en Bolivia, a lo que se une un enfoque similar en redes sociales, a través de cuentas de dudosa procedencia y perfiles falsos que incitan a la violencia contra el personal de la salud.

En ese contexto, el 13 de noviembre cuatro miembros de la Brigada Médica en El Alto fueron detenidos por la policía cuando se trasladaban hacia su local de residencia con el dinero extraído de un banco para pagar servicios básicos y alquileres de los 107 miembros de la Brigada Médica en esa región.

La detención se produjo bajo la calumniosa presunción de que el dinero se dedicaba a financiar protestas. Los representantes de la policía y del Ministerio Público, visitaron las sedes de la Brigada Médica en El Alto y La Paz y corroboraron, a partir de documentos, nóminas y datos bancarios, que la cifra de dinero coincidía con la cantidad extraída regularmente todos los meses.

Los cuatros colaboradores detenidos son:

• Amparo Lourdes García Buchaca, Licenciada en Electromedicina. En Cuba se desempeñaba en el Centro Provincial de Electromedicina de la provincia de Cienfuegos antes de iniciar la misión en Bolivia en marzo de este año.

• Idalberto Delgado Baró, Licenciado en Economía del Municipio Especial de la Isla de la Juventud, quien trabajaba en el Centro Municipal de Electromedicina de la Isla de la Juventud al incorporarse a la misión en Bolivia el pasado mes de marzo.

• Ramón Emilio Álvarez Cepero, Especialista en Terapia Intensiva y en Endocrinología que se desempeñaba en Cuba en el Hospital General Gustavo Aldereguía de la Provincia de Cienfuegos hasta comenzar su misión en Bolivia en julio de 2017.

• Alexander Torres Enríquez, especialista en Medicina General Integral quien laboraba en Cuba en el Policlínico Carlos Verdugo de la provincia de Matanzas cuando partió a cumplir misión el 3 de febrero de 2019.

Se ha mantenido el contacto permanente con estos cooperantes cubanos, a través de la Embajada de Cuba en la Paz y la Jefatura de la Brigada Médica.

Los cuatro colaboradores cubanos tienen una reconocida trayectoria acorde con su perfil ocupacional y como los restantes que prestan misión en Bolivia, se han atenido estricta y rigurosamente a la labor humanitaria y de cooperación motivos por los que viajaron a ese país con arreglo a acuerdos intergubernamentales.

El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores rechaza las falsas acusaciones de que estos compañeros alientan o financian protestas que se basan en mentiras deliberadas sin fundamento alguno.

En las circunstancias descritas, se ha decidido el retorno inmediato a la Patria de los colaboradores cubanos.

El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores demanda que los cooperantes detenidos sean liberados de inmediato y que las autoridades bolivianas garanticen la integridad física de cada uno de los colaboradores cubanos de acuerdo con las responsabilidades adquiridas por el Estado boliviano con la seguridad y protección de los colaboradores en correspondencia con los convenios intergubernamentales firmados.

El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores llama a las autoridades de Bolivia a detener la exacerbación de irresponsables expresiones anticubanas y de odio, difamaciones e instigaciones a la violencia contra los cooperantes cubanos, quienes han brindado su aporte solidario a la salud de ese hermano pueblo boliviano. Los millones de bolivianos que han recibido la altruista atención de los cientos de médicos cubanos, conocen perfectamente que las mentiras no podrán ocultar la meritoria contribución y noble propósito de nuestros profesionales de la salud.