People's Forces Battle for Their Democratic Rights
- Margaret Villamizar -
July 14, 2020 demonstration in La Paz, Bolivia.
Workers, women, and Indigenous peoples and their
organizations along with other social movements
have returned to the streets to demand an end to
the wrecking of the coup government and the right
to elect a president and government of their
choosing without further delay. Demonstrations are
being held especially in places where the workers
have fighting traditions, such as Cochabamba and
El Alto, a suburb of the capital city of La Paz.
Over the past nine months the coup government of
the self-proclaimed "interim" president Jeanine
Áñez has been busy ruling by decree, dismantling
longstanding national projects and public social
programs initiated by previous Movement Towards
Socialism-Political Instrument for the Sovereignty
of the Peoples (MAS-IPSP) governments led by
President Evo Morales. It is also engaging in
all-out persecution and revenge-taking against MAS
leaders, members and supporters. It did away with
the Plurinational State of Bolivia’s proudly
independent foreign policy in order to align
Bolivia with the hegemonic aims of its U.S.
masters for the country and the region. It
dutifully joined the Lima Group and the failed
U.S. campaign to do to Venezuela what it had just
done to Bolivia. It withdrew from the Bolivarian
Alliance for the Peoples of our America-People's
Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), expelled the Cuban
medical mission from the country at the worst
possible moment and suspended diplomatic relations
with Cuba.
It has also recently come to light that the coup
government obtained an "emergency" loan of
U.S.$327 million from the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) in April, supposedly to help it deal
with COVID-19 by covering medical expenses and
providing support for the most vulnerable. The
money, disbursed through the IMF's Rapid Financing
Instrument, came with a raft of conditions,
committing Bolivia to drastically reduce public
expenditures and to eventually "flexibilize" (i.e.
devalue) the country's currency. This package of
harsh measures is similar to those agreed to by
the neo-liberal government of then-President
Mauricio Macri in 2018 that sent Argentina's
economy into a tailspin and left large swathes of
the population unemployed and destitute. The IMF
loan to Bolivia, which has already been deposited
in the country's central bank, was obtained
illegally as it was done without the approval of
the Legislative Assembly as called for in
Bolivia's constitution. Only now, after the fact,
and with a "health bond" equivalent to around
U.S.$70 earmarked for the most vulnerable members
of Bolivian society hanging in the balance, is the
legislature being asked -- or more to the point,
being blackmailed -- to give the odious deal its
blessing. It remains to be seen how the
legislature, in which MAS holds two thirds of the
seats, will respond. Information is also coming to
light of the corruption related to the use of
these funds.
Demonstrations Resume in Bolivia
 La Paz, July 8, 2020.
Between March and June it was mainly doctors and
other hospital workers who protested in the
streets, blocking traffic in major cities to back
their demands that the coup government provide
them with urgently needed equipment to protect
themselves and to treat the growing number of
COVID-19 patients being seen in under-funded and
under-staffed hospitals. Associated Press reported
on July 8 that 50 per cent of Bolivia's doctors
had contracted the virus.
The first big protest since the pandemic hit took
place on July 8 in La Paz where teachers joined by
students and parents held a militant demonstration
to demand free education for all and to denounce
the de facto government's privatization
agenda in education and the deplorable state of
rural education in particular. Many expressed
anger at the Ministry of Education's plans to
continue delivering online classes only for some
time, even though in rural areas families often
lack access to the internet and the costly high
tech devices required for their children to be
able to participate in virtual classes, meaning
they will simply be left behind. The response of
the dictatorship was to fire teargas at the
demonstrators.
Then on July 14, thousands of unionized workers
and members of social movements marched together
to denounce the corruption and anti-social
wrecking of the coup government, the lack of
medicines for the people and to demand there be no
further postponement of the general election
scheduled at that time for September 6.
Postponed Elections and Lawfare
A general election originally set to take place
on May 3 was rescheduled for September 6 and has
been postponed again to October 18, the result of
a consensus reached by the country's political
factions, according to the Supreme Electoral
Tribunal. Hours before the latest postponement was
announced, Evo Morales declared from Argentina
where he has been living in exile that another
delay would be against the interests of the
people, prolonging ungovernability and the
economic crisis wracking the country as the
pandemic rages out of control. He said it would
serve only to give more time for the coup forces
to continue their persecution of social leaders
and MAS candidates right at a time when the
party's candidate for president, Luis Arce, leads
the polls.
The delay will also give the coup government more
time to coerce the Electoral Tribunal to go along
with another of its key demands: that the legal
status of MAS be removed, so its candidates are
unable to run in the election -- a way to preempt
a win by its presidential candidate, who is also
falsely accused of violating the electoral law. In
response, MAS-IPSP issued a communiqué on July 19
condemning "in the strongest possible terms the
attempts of some politicians who want to achieve,
through the banning of our political instrument,
what they cannot achieve at the ballot box." It
said that MAS had declared itself in a state of
emergency in the face of this new attempt to ban
the party and its candidates and would take legal
action in its own defence. "Together with the
Bolivian people, and with the truth up front, we
will defend democracy, peace and social justice,"
the communiqué concluded.
It is to be expected that Áñez and her gang will
continue scheming to avoid holding the election
indefinitely and to bar MAS from running if and
when it does take place in order to consolidate
their coup. They are engaging in the same dirty
legal manipulations, often referred to as lawfare,
against MAS officials, members and supporters as
have been used against former Presidents Lula da
Silva in Brazil and Rafael Correa and others in
Ecuador. All are subject to bogus criminal charges
and vicious character assassination, with some
already jailed with no evidence they have
committed any crimes. Seven former government
ministers and officials of MAS granted asylum
months ago by Mexico have been forced to spend the
last eight months inside the Mexican embassy in La
Paz as virtual prisoners. They are threatened with
arrest should they step outside -- a crude
violation of diplomatic norms as well as
international human rights conventions that
require safe passage for asylees to leave the
diplomatic mission of a country that has offered
them asylum so they are able to travel to that
country.
Future Prospects
 La Paz, Bolivia, July 14,
2020.
All the evidence suggests that the U.S.
imperialists are unwilling to accept Bolivians
electing a president running on a program to
reverse the anti-national, anti-social direction
and state-organized racism they have so far
managed to impose in Bolivia through fraud and
force. If the people's forces and their candidates
once again win the election will they be able to
take office and govern based on that program? Is
the U.S. tiger likely to change its stripes? Or
the racist and violent Bolivian oligarchy? Or the
police and military commanded by unpatriotic
elements groomed and bribed by U.S. imperialism to
serve as an instrument of violent repression
against any and all who resisted last year's coup?
Everything taking place in Bolivia today confirms
that contempt for the rule of law, diplomatic
norms and the rights of sovereign nations and
peoples is the stock in trade of U.S. imperialism,
its accomplices and appeasers. Beyond just pinning
their hopes on winning a dubious election that may
never be allowed to proceed, the Bolivian people
are sure to draw on their experience and lessons
learned to organize themselves to face whatever
lies ahead in the fight for their democratic
rights and to defend the gains they have made over
the last 14 years. They have fighting traditions
and a rich heritage of anti-colonial,
anti-imperialist and revolutionary struggles going
back centuries to inspire them as they work out
how to organize themselves to fight for their
freedom, independence and rights in today's
conditions, keeping the initiative in their own
hands. In this they deserve the full support of
the Canadian and Quebec working class and people.
Workers of all industries and sectors continue
protests against Áñez and to protect social rights
created under Morales’s government.
Indigenous women have been at the forefront of
the fight to restore democracy in Bolivia.|
Luis Arce, MAS presidential candidate in the
upcoming election, and David Choquehuanca, running
for the vice-presidency. They lead all surveys so
far.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 27 - July 25, 2020
Article Link:
People's Forces Battle for Their Democratic Rights - Margaret Villamizar
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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