In today’s program we gave a report from the Global day of protest against war on Iran held on 25 January 2020. Later on in the program you will hear a report on Bolivia by Alexi Goncharuk, a member of the Campaign for International Co-operation and Disarmament.

Transcription of Bolivia segment:

Bolivia Coup: Two Months On

On November the 3rd a coup took place in Bolivia, ousting indigenous President Evo Morales, led by right wing forces such as Carlos Mesa, Jeanine Añez, Rio de Pie and with OAS having a big part to play in it. This was due to Morales’ plan to nationalise the resources of Bolivia and put them to use in favour of the people, which went against the business interests of those interested in Bolivia’s lithium reserves.

Sections of the military and police betrayed the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) government to join forces with Mesa. Large scale unrest ensued including arson of MAS-aligned homes, murder of dissenters. Morales accepted political asylum in Mexico and fled the country under threat

There is little media coverage of the current situation and much distortion, Mesa’s government, headed by Jeanine Añez, is preparing to sell off state assets to private ownership, one such case is Entel, Bolivia’s state telco.

There has also been seeing the expelling of a Mexican diplomat from Bolivia and two Spanish diplomats and even reports of the embassies of the two respective countries being attacked, after both countries granted political asylum to Morales and a number of of his allies.

Meanwhile on the other side of the struggle, the working class and Indigenous peoples of Bolivia have managed to secure themselves in the Chapare region of Bolivia.

The people of the Chapare region have evicted the police from the region, due to reasons of concern for corruption such as forces removing the indigenous flag from their uniforms and declaring support for the right wing interm government and reasons as massacre such as the Cochabamba massacre that occurred, and have been preparing themselves for any conflict that the right wing interm government will attempt to carry out on this region.

Another region, as of recent, has been able to expel the Bolivian military from the region, after days of harassment, known as “Plan 3000” which is the largest working class area in the city of Santa Cruz, this area is also he heartland for the MAS party, with a number of residents being internal migrants from indigenous Andean areas.

Unions and Indigenous groups of the Chapare region have also been making progress on organising, one such act is signing a “pact of reconciliation” between the many Indigenous groups that exist in the region with the goal “to confront the violation of our rights by the neo-liberals”, meaning that the resistance movement is slowly overcoming divisions that exist, and must do so in order to survive. The Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) has also been holding congresses and meetings, electing representatives and as well as candidates for the upcoming elections, which have been announced for the 3rd of May.

It has also been announced that on the 22nd of January a mass mobilisation of the MAS movement will occur, to protest the right-wing interm government and for the removal of interm president Añez. In response to this military and right-wing groups have been deployed to the city of La Paz to serve as a counter to the protests on 22nd January

Which brings us to the next interesting development, in which the right wing interm government has not outlawed MAS but in fact has ruled that MAS is officially allowed to run in any upcoming elections. This shows that MAS still holds a significant amount of influence and support amongst the masses.

In conclusion, these developments have shown that there is still support of Morales in Bolivia and that people are rejecting and resisting the right-wing interm government and it’s neo-liberal policies that has taken over the country and harassed and murdered many journalists and dissenters, and to protect the progress of Morales’ economic reforms, such as universal healthcare and industrialisation of natural resources, that has brought prosperity to Bolivia for 14 years, from being undone.

Solidarity with the Bolivian working class and Indigenous people!