This week on System Update, Glenn Greenwald hosts an in-depth exploration of the 2019 military coup that toppled Bolivia’s democratically elected President Evo Morales, the ongoing repression there, and what it reveals about US propaganda.
Bolivia’s President Jeanine Añez said on Thursday she has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Añez said in a tweet she was “well” …
When British Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson tested positive, he also initially said that he was ‘well’. But things got worse for him. He had to go to intensive care. Doctors estimated he then had a 50% chance of dying.
Ms Añez is a rich descendant of the Spanish conquistadores, who conquered Bolivia in the sixteenth century to get rich from its silver mines. She has enough money, not just to dye her hair blonde and for her plastic surgery; but also to be tested for coronavirus. Millions and millions of poorer people, in Bolivia and all over the world, don’t have that privilege.
The Bolivian government confirmed that at least seven ministers, including its health minister, had tested positive and were either undergoing treatment or recuperating at home.
The country has the highest number of infections in the world with 3.2 million infections. More than 133,000 people have died from the virus and the number of daily corona deaths per day is increasing in the US. In the past three days, an average of more than 900 people a day died from the effects of the virus.
Bolivia crematorium runs day and night, local residents concerned
In the Bolivian city of La Paz, the crematorium in the municipal cemetery is working overtime. According to Reuters news agency, the incinerators have been on day and night for months due to the higher number of coronavirus deaths. But the crematorium is in the middle of an inhabited area, and local residents are worried. “The smell is nauseating,” said one man to a Reuters journalist. “And the ashes blow into our houses.”
Residents have urged the municipality to move the crematorium …
In Bolivia, the number of coronavirus cases has been increasing rapidly recently, as in other countries in South America. More than 1,300 new cases were reported yesterday, the highest number to date in any one day. The total number of infections is now over 35,000; more than 1,200 people have died from the virus.
From the South: Thousands in Chile continue to protest against the government’s neoliberal policies, while a song denouncing rape performed by Chilean women goes viral. Peruvian opposition leader Keiko Fujimori walks free from jail after spending over a year in pre-trial detention over corruption charges. And we’re speaking with Olivia Arigho Stiles, a PhD candidate researching indigenous mobilisation in 20th century Bolivia, on the latest from La Paz.
Argentina’s president-elect calls on UN to intervene over massacres by Bolivia’s coup regime
ARGENTINA’S president-elect Alberto Fernandez called on the UN to do something about the massacre of anti-coup protesters in Bolivia at the weekend.
He spoke out after Bolivia’s self-proclaimed president Jeanine Anez granted immunity to soldiers who commit crimes while suppressing the demonstrations that have erupted against the overthrow of former leader Evo Morales by the military.
“The personnel of the armed forces who participate in operations for the restoration of order and public stability will be exempt from criminal responsibility when they act in legitimate defence,” the decree reads. It also specifies that security forces may use firearms to put down protests.
“The de-facto government that has usurped power in Bolivia has conferred to the armed forces the right to act without having to answer for their crimes. The number of deaths grows. The Argentinian government [of Mauricio Macri, who will remain in office until December 10 despite losing the last election] is silent. The Organisation of American States endorses it. [UN human rights chief] Michelle Bachelet and the UN must intervene,” Mr Fernandez tweeted.
At least nine Bolivians were killed over the weekend, with four protesters shot dead in La Paz and five in Sacaba, where a march on Cochabamba by thousands of coca farmers in protest at the coup was intercepted by the military. More than 30 people were injured and over 160 arrested.
Ms Bachelet’s office expressed “concern” at what it said was evidence of 17 protesters’ deaths and hundreds of arrests and called on Bolivian authorities to respect human rights.
And the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the “excessive use of force” against protesters.
A statistical analysis of last month’s election has now been published by the Centre for Economic & Policy Research in Washington.
It confirmed that there is “no evidence that irregularities or fraud affected the official result that gave president Evo Morales a first-round victory.”
Mr Guaido also called for demonstrations in Caracas to demand the removal of President Nicolas Maduro from office.
Bolivia’s racist coup is trying to drown resistance in blood: here.
FAR-RIGHT USES CRISIS TO SEIZE CONTROL OF BOLIVIA When Bolivia’s socialist president, Evo Morales, stepped down last week after nearly a month of protests, it was right-wing opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho who declared victory. Observers have debated whether the president was the victim of a coup, as he asserts, or a popular uprising. [HuffPost]
TENS of thousands of fake Twitter accounts were created to support the military coup against Bolivia’s elected president Evo Morales, a new study suggests. Spanish party Podemos’s head of social networks Julian Macias Tovar said that over 68,000 false accounts were set up to try to legitimise the army’s overthrow of Mr Morales following his re-election last month and to justify the massacres of protesters against the coup that have followed: here.
The coup d’etat in Bolivia – Statement by the Bartolina Sisa Resistance: here.
Bolivian police fire tear-gas at protesters bearing the coffins of their comrades: here.
As US-led capitalism declines, it’s open season in the Americas. Alight with coups, counter-coups, and mass protest, our Latin America Conference comes at a most critical time for the continent, writes ROB MILLER.
The coup in Bolivia is an attack on democracy. The right-wing de facto dictatorship must be widely exposed, writes Matt Willgress.
‘I saw the rise of a fascist state’. Speaking to the Adelante Latin America Conference, MIRIAM AMANCAY COLQUE describes the racist counter-revolution against the elections in Bolivia: here.
Argentina’s President promises to legalise abortion: here.
In Bolivia, during violence between the police and supporters of deposed President Morales, at least five people were killed and dozens injured. That says the director of a hospital in the city of Sacaba. Also a journalist from AFP news agency says he has seen five dead bodies.
According to the hospital director, most of the dead and wounded had gunshot wounds. He speaks of the most serious violence in his 30-year career.
Witnesses say the police opened fire on supporters of Morales when they wanted to pass a military checkpoint near the city of Cochabamba. … Earlier in the day, thousands of supporters of the deposed president had protested peacefully in the neighbouring city Sacaba. …
Morales, who fled to Mexico, speaks of a massacre on Twitter.
Pedimos a las FFAA y a la Policía Boliviana que paren la masacre. El uniforme de las instituciones de la Patria no puede mancharse con la sangre de nuestro pueblo.
The ousted president also warned that the United States was the “great conspirator” behind the coup d’etat that forced him to leave his country. The US is one of only a few countries to have recognised Ms Anez as Bolivia’s interim leader. Mr Morales claims that he officially remains the president since the country’s parliament has not yet accepted his resignation. He called for calm and dialogue in Bolivia and said: “I want to tell [my supporters] that we will have to recover democracy, but with a lot of patience and peaceful struggle”: here.
Bolivia unrest: Morales‘ supporters reject interim President Anez
Bolivia’s interim President Jeanine Anez says its former president who is now living in Mexico cannot be allowed to run for office again.
That’s further angered Evo Morales’ supporters who say they now fear discrimination and political ostracism. They want her to step down.
But Morales’ party is now in talks with members of the interim government because they want to be allowed to participate in the next elections, which must be held in the next 90 days.
Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo reports from La Paz.
This 12 November 2019 video from the USA is called U.S.-Backed Military Coup in Bolivia Condemned by Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn.
Peace campaigners gather in London to say No to the coup in Bolivia: here.
Tens of thousands of workers marched on Thursday from the predominantly working class and indigenous city of El Alto to the capital of La Paz—a distance of 15 miles—demanding the ouster of the coup regime that has assumed power in Latin America’s poorest country. The protesters continued to confront military repression into the night. Jeanine Áñez, the right-wing vice president of Bolivia’s Senate, proclaimed herself president and named a far-right cabinet and new military leadership to organize repression of the growing resistance to the US-backed coup that overthrew the government of President Evo Morales on Sunday: here.
Christian supremacist anoints herself ‘interim’ president of Bolivia: here.
Bolivia’s self-proclaimed president appoints cabinet as police attack indigenous protesters: here.
Canada’s Liberal government has abetted and endorsed the US-backed military coup in Bolivia that led to the forced resignation Sunday of the country’s president, Evo Morales, and numerous other elected officials. The coup, triggered by right-wing elements within the military, has unleashed a wave of terror and violence by heavily armed police and military units, as well as fascistic opponents of Morales, against largely defenceless workers and poor peasants: here.
CHILE will hold a referendum on replacing the country’s constitution, it was announced today, meeting a key demand of protesters. The current constitution came into force in 1980 under the former military dictator Augusto Pinochet: here.
This ongoing militancy shows that for the millions of workers and youth across Chile, life under capitalism has become intolerable. Protesters have defied a brutal military and police-state repression in which 23 people have been killed, hundreds have lost their eyes and many have denounced torture and sexual abuse by the state: here.
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