In office since 2006, Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, has been overthrown in a coup d’état. Debate on how this happened and what it all means has been proliferating on the international left. Ashley Smith talked with Jeffery R. Webber and Forrest Hylton, two long-time observers of Bolivia, to get a better sense of the issues at stake.
15 November 2019
What kind of coup has taken place in Bolivia, and what are the stakes in labelling it a coup?
In Bolivia, the military, police, and right-wing extremists have carried out a coup against the elected government. They intend to remain in power by violently suppressing the country's indigenous and poor.
Shiri Pasternak suspected corporations likely won more injunctions than First Nations did in land disputes.
But she was shocked after she and her fellow researchers began crunching numbers.
The team at Yellowhead Institute, an Indigenous-led think tank, reviewed nearly 100 injunction cases. They found corporations succeeded in 76 per cent of injunctions filed against First Nations, while First Nations were denied in 81 per cent of injunctions against corporations.
. . a very good statement opposing the coup. It is co-authored by seven prominent acadmics, and co-signed by an additional 21 academics and activists. - Tim Kennelly
[Editor: At our meeting we, (those attending the Vancouver Ecosocialist Group meeting of Nov. 10, 2019), agreed to endorse and post to our website and social media the denunciation below of the coup attempt against Evo Morales.
