Bolivia Nation-Building Resumes, Coup Forces Face Justice 
May 8, 2021. Bolivian Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) government, led
by President Luis Arce, marks six months in office.
The Bolivian people -- both those living at
home and in the diaspora -- are active, as is their new government,
working to consolidate the gains of last October's
electoral victory that swept out of office the foreign-backed coup
forces that had usurped power for a year. The Movement Toward
Socialism (MAS) government led by President Luis
Arce is today forging ahead, restoring important nation-building
projects and public services which were shelved, defunded or privatized
by the illegitimate coup government of Jeanine
Añez. One
of the new government's early actions was to return a
loan of over U.S.$340 million incurred illegally and with unacceptable
conditions from the International Monetary Fund. It
has also resumed the independent, anti-imperialist foreign policy
instituted by the government of Evo Morales. It has withdrawn from the
illegitimate Canada-led, U.S-inspired Lima Group formed to
attack
Venezuela, returned to the Bolivarian Alliance for the
Peoples of Our America -- People's Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) that
champions Latin American and Caribbean integration,
and joined a coalition of 17 countries calling themselves the "Group of
Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations" that promotes
legal means instead of force for settling
problems internationally and upholding the aims and principles
enshrined in the UN Charter. It also acted swiftly to undo the effects
of the exclusionary and discriminatory practices of the
racist oligarchy's short-lived coup government, aimed at humiliating
Bolivia's majority Indigenous population, a proud and important base of
the MAS. The government has also acted to
bring to justice those responsible for the massacres and repression
carried out at Huayllani, Senkata and Sacaba in the early days of the
coup as well as the torture and political
imprisonment of anti-coup protesters and MAS leaders and others.
Currently former Senator Jeanine Añez, some former
ministers of her
"de facto" government and commanders of the military and police who led
the mutiny that allowed the coup to
succeed, and certain others who engaged in egregious human rights
abuses as part of the revenge-taking unleashed by the coup forces are
in jail or under house arrest, awaiting trial or under
investigation for various criminal offenses. This has provoked a hue
and cry about "political persecution" from their patrons in the U.S.
State Department, its henchman at the OAS who
incited the coup, a few colonial voices from Old Europe and some racist
oligarchs in Bolivia smarting from their defeat but still intent on
seizing power. The demands of victims' families are
not calls for revenge, but for
those who murdered or injured their loved ones for their known or
presumed political views, and those who gave the
orders, to be punished. According to the national
ombudsperson's office there were 35 people
killed, 533 injured, and over 1,500 arrested or detained in the days
surrounding the coup. Government officials
and/or their family members had their houses ransacked and burned by
violent mobs, while Evo Morales and Luis Arce were subjected to
ridiculous trumped up charges of sedition and
terrorism. They and some others accepted offers of asylum in other
countries until it was safe to return to Bolivia. Some were offered
asylum but, blocked from going to the airport,
were forced to remain inside the Mexican embassy for a year under
threat of
arrest should they so much as step outside. Still others were wrongly
jailed for months. Today, Bolivians are very
active, organizing and speaking out inside
the country and internationally, holding webinars, online discussions
and engaging on social media to make sure the demand for justice is
broadly taken up so those who committed crimes against the people,
including those who gave the orders, are punished. Their slogans, "It's
not political persecution, it's justice!" and "It's not revenge, it's
justice" and "It was a coup" express the consciousness of the people
and their demands in response to the noise about "political
persecution." It is precisely political persecution and revenge-taking
that were hallmarks of the short, corrupt rule of Añez and
company. The response to the accusations of the
U.S., the OAS and others was
a speedy one, not only from the organized patriotic Bolivian people,
but from a long list of statespersons, former presidents, foreign
ministers and other personalities who joined them in calling for a stop
to this ill-intentioned, illegitimate meddling in Bolivia's sovereign
affairs.
By remaining vigilant in
defence of their nation-building project
and affirming the rights of all members of the Plurinational State of
Bolivia, without exception, the people of Bolivia
are contributing to the further development of the liberating social
and cultural revolution they embarked on 15 years ago.
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 5 - May 9, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/M5100522.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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