"We will coup whoever we want": Regime Change in Bolivia

Amy Goodman: I'm Amy Goodman, as we turn to an explosive new report that claims the U.S. government has secretly targeted Bolivian President Evo Morales with a drug sting codenamed Operation Naked King. The report, just released by The Huffington Post today, draws on court documents filed by a longtime DEA confidential informant, Carlos Toro. It appears to confirm Morales's longstanding suspicion that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, has sought to undermine Morales's government. In 2008, Morales expelled the DEA OK. —from Bolivia, accusing the agency of bribing police officers, violating human rights, covering up murders and destroying infrastructure. Morales then embarked on his own strategy of combating drug trafficking by working cooperatively with coca growers to diversify crops and promote alternative development. His government's efforts were largely effective. The United Nations announced last month the cultivation of coca leaf in Bolivia has fallen to a 13-year low. Despite that victory, the DEA announced this week plans to officially decertify Bolivia A bureaucratic move that would cost Bolivia financial assistance and amounts to an accusation by the DEA that Bolivia is not sufficiently cooperative in combating drug trafficking. For more, we're joined by 2 guests. In Washington, D.C., Nick Wing is with us, a reporter at The Huffington Post who just broke this story called Operation Naked King: U.S. Secretly Targeted Bolivia's Evo Morales in Drug Sting. And from Cochabamba, Bolivia, we're joined by Democracy Now! video stream by Catherine Ledebur, director of Andean Information Network. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Lay out what you learned.

Nick Wing: Well, we learned through the complaint filed by Carlos Toro that there are a number of sealed indictments against officials who are either connected to or actually in the top ranks of the administration, of the Morales administration. And we don't know a whole lot exactly about what the evidence against these individuals is. But we do know that there was enough to secure these indictments. And we have also known for a while that the U.S. is interested in trying to connect the Morales administration to cocaine trafficking. I would point out that the previous— 2 of the previous drug czars for Bolivia have been implicated in sort of the top ranks of some sort of drug trafficking. Scandals. And it's been known for a while that members of the military, and particularly the police, have also been involved in this. So we're not exactly sure what the evidence against these individuals is or what the status of this case is right now, but we do know that there was enough to get a sealed indictment against them.

Amy Goodman: Now, the president himself, Evo Morales, is a former coca grower. Can you talk about What the U.S.'s motives are and what their relationship with Morales has been?

Nick Wing: I would say— I mean, the answer to that question definitely depends on whom you ask. Morales, for a long time, has accused the DEA of really being an arm for sort of Western imperialism and colonialism and being in the country really to undermine his leadership and undermine his —role and his role as someone who is trying to cut down the growth of coca in Bolivia. So, he would say that this is an effort— I'm guessing that he would say this is an effort to further undermine him and to try to link his administration to a cocaine trafficking ring, which then they could use to say that not only is his— are his efforts to cut down production ineffective, but they're also corrupt. Now, I'm guessing the DEA would say this is just an honest effort to take cocaine off of the global marketplace, but there would probably be a big disagreement there between the two of them.

Amy Goodman: In 2010, Democracy Now! broadcast from the World People's Conference on Climate Change in Cochabamba, Bolivia. We spoke to the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, for an hour about how the U.S. is combating drug trafficking. Listen carefully.

Evo Morales: And I continue to be convinced that cocaine, drug trafficking, is an invention of the United States. And with that invention, they have been able to create this war against drug trafficking. Capitalism lives from war. Capitalism needs wars in order to sell its weaponry. So, this is not an isolated drug issue.

Speaker 4: It goes to the very interests of capitalism.

Evo Morales: And under pretext of fighting drugs, they establish military bases. That's political control and at least domination that they want. It's the new colonialism.

Amy Goodman: That's President Morales speaking to Democracy Now! You can watch the whole hour at democracynow.org. But I wanted to bring in Catherine Ledebur, right there in Cochabamba, director of the Andean Information Network. Can you respond to learning that the DEA is targeting President Morales with this sting operation? Even the name of this operation, Operation Condor, is a reference to the CIA's secret operation Katherine?

Catherine Ledebur: Well, I think the DEA is well known for bizarre operation names. And I think this is a very interesting revelation in many senses. One, there were a lot of Morales complaints and administration complaints about inappropriate activities of the DEA, of going beyond their mission, of levels of entrapment or political involvement, and that were really dismissed by U.S. officials at the time of the DEA expulsion. And what we see now is that there was a DEA agent. DEA operation in course, when in fact the DEA had absolutely no authorization to operate in the country. I think it's an important time for us to all reevaluate criticisms of the DEA— and there have been many, but specifically within Bolivia— and criticisms of U.S. drug policy, and look at these revelations and look at what really needs to be changed dramatically.

Amy Goodman: And what does it mean for the U.S. to go after Morales in this way? What will it mean in Bolivia?

Catherine Ledebur: Well, I think there's going to be a great deal of frustration. I don't think there's going to be a lot of surprise. There were— there have been, in the international press, hints of this over the past 5 or 6 years. And so, I don't think anybody's going to be surprised. I don't think this is going to do anything to improve bilateral relations. There have been a series of failed attempts to do so. But I really hope that this is a point in time where the U.S. can realize that there's not oversight over the DEA.

Speaker 6: Right.

Catherine Ledebur: And that U.S. drug policy, in the case of Bolivia and in the Andes, has failed.

Amy Goodman: Bolivia is in a state of political crisis after longtime President Evo Morales resigned Sunday following what he described as a military coup. Bolivia has been the scene of weeks of protests since a disputed election last month. Morales announced his resignation in a televised address Sunday.

Evo Morales: Las hermanas y hermanos de Bolivia.

Amy Goodman: To my brothers and sisters of Bolivia, the whole world, I want to inform you, from Loja, Iñe, I'm here with the vice president and minister of health, that I have decided, after listening to my friends at CONALCOM and the Bolivian Workers' Center, and also listening to the Catholic Church, to resign my position as president. President Morales spoke shortly after the Bolivian military took to the airwaves to call for his resignation.

Gregory: After analyzing the internal conflict situation, we ask the president of the state to renounce his presidential mandate, allow —allowing for peace to be restored and the maintenance of stability for the good of Bolivia.

Amy Goodman: Bolivia's vice president also resigned Sunday, as did the head of the Bolivian Senate and the lower house. The top 2 officials on Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Court have been detained. Opposition leader Jeanine Áñez, who is the 2nd vice president of the Bolivian Senate, is claiming she will assume the presidency today. Evo Morales was Bolivia's first indigenous leader, was credited with lifting nearly a 5th of Bolivia's population out of poverty since he took Yeah. —office in 2006. But he faced criticism from some of his former supporters for running for a 3rd and then a 4th term. Evo Morales's whereabouts are now unknown. His home was ransacked Sunday. Mexico has offered Morales asylum. Hours before resigning, Morales had agreed to call for new elections after the Organization of American States issued a report claiming there was, quote, clear manipulation in last month's election results. According to the official results of last month's election, Morales won 47 But the OAS immediately questioned the election process, sparking mass street protests. Critics of the OAS say the global body did not provide any evidence of actual vote rigging. We go now to Washington, D.C., where we're joined by Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, his latest piece for The Nation headlined The Trump Administration Is Undercutting Democracy in Bolivia. Talk about the latest developments, the resignation of President Evo Morales, the arrest of 2 opposition leaders, and the ongoing protests.

Speaker 8: Yeah.

Amy Goodman: Anthony Ballas, the first indigenous president of Bolivia?

Mark Weisbrot: Well, this is a military coup. There's no doubt about it now, after the head of the military told the president and vice president to resign, and then they did. And I think it's really terrible the way it's been presented, because from the beginning, you had that OAS press release the day after the election, which hinted—or implied, actually, very strongly—that there was something wrong with the vote count, and they never They never presented any evidence at all. They didn't present it in that release. They didn't present it in their next release. They didn't present it in their preliminary report. And there's really nothing in this latest so-called preliminary audit that shows that there was any fraud in this election. But it was repeated over and over again in all the media, and so it became kind of true. And, you know, if you look at the media, you don't see You don't see anybody— you don't see any experts, for example, saying that there was something wrong with the vote count. It's really just that OAS observation mission, which was under a lot of pressure, of course, from Senator Rubio and the Trump administration to do this, because they wanted— they've wanted for some time to get rid of this government.

Amy Goodman: And explain how the election went, Morales stopping the election count, resuming it, and then OK.

Mark Weisbrot: So, this is very important, because this has been very badly described, I think, in most of the media. You have a quick count, which is not even the official count of the election, and it's not binding. It's not what determines the result. It's just something that is done. While the votes are being counted, to let people know what's going on at that time. And so, the quick count was interrupted. And when it resumed— and it was interrupted with Avo leading by about 7 percentage points. And when it came back, his margin increased. And if you read the press here, any of the articles, it's reported as though something terribly suspicious happened.

Evo Morales: Right.

Mark Weisbrot: He didn't have enough votes. He needed a 10-point margin in order to— a 10-point lead over the next runner-up in order to win in the first round. And he didn't have that when the vote count, this quick count, was interrupted— or the reporting was interrupted, I should say. And then, you know, he got it in the last 14 minutes. —last 16% of the votes counted. He reached 10%. But if you look at what was really— so this was reported as a very suspicious thing. And this is what's reported over and over again to make it look like something was wrong. But if you look at it, actually, actually, the whole vote count, you see there was a steady trend of Avo's margin increasing. —almost from the beginning. And it didn't change in the last 16%. It just continued because— and you can look at the areas that were coming in— these were rural and poorer areas where Evo Morales had more support. That's all that happened. This happens in elections. You can see this if you watch election returns in the U.S.

Amy Goodman: Several lines—

Mark Weisbrot: There was never anything there.

Amy Goodman: Several Latin American leaders have criticized the ouster of Evo Morales in Bolivia. This is Argentina's president-elect, Alberto Fernández.

Speaker 10: What's happening in Bolivia is that there's a dominant class that will not resign themselves to losing power to the hands of a president who is the first Bolivian president that looks like Bolivians.

Nick Wing: That's what's happening.

Amy Goodman: And British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted Sunday, to see Evo Morales, who, along with a powerful movement, has brought so much social progress, forced from office by the military is appalling. I condemn Condemn this coup against the Bolivian people and stand with them for democracy, social justice and independence. So, if you can talk, Mark Weisbrot, about the role of the Bolivian military? And what about the Trump administration?

Mark Weisbrot: Well, I think the most— you know, the Bolivian military very clearly said— I mean, before they did that, they said they weren't going to intervene in terms of the protests. But they very clearly— the head of the armed forces, —said that Evo should resign right before he did that. And so, it was a military coup. And Evo Morales is calling it that, of course. And there isn't any doubt about it. The media hasn't really mentioned it as much as a military coup, but it definitely is. In terms of the Trump administration, you can look at tweets and statements from Marco Rubio right before the votes were even counted. Right. Saying that there was going to be fraud and, you know, making it clear that they didn't want this government to be there. And so, yeah, I think that— I mean, it's very obvious that they supported this coup. And it's very obvious that they pressured the OAS, where, you know, the United States supplies 60% of the budget. And, you know, this is the problem: The media treats this OAS as— Right. Though it's really an independent arbiter here. And they do have electoral missions. And most of the time, they're clean. But they are not always. And, you know, in Haiti in 2011, for example, they reversed the results of a first-round presidential election without any statistical test, recount or any reason. It was completely political. And in 2000, they reversed their position, their report on the election.

Speaker 8: Right.

Mark Weisbrot: When the United States, as you know and you've reported on this show, wanted to cut off all international aid to Haiti and spent 4 years preparing for the coup of 2004. So, the OAS played a major role in that by changing their report on the election in Haiti. And so, I think this is— this is a kind of a classic.

Amy Goodman: So, Mark Weisbrot, you have the CIA involvement in coups in Bolivia in 1952, in 1964, 1970, 1980. Would you add 2019 to that list?

Mark Weisbrot: I would add it to the list. I mean, we don't have the hard evidence of what they did. You know, it's not like 2009 in Honduras, where Hillary Clinton wrote in her memoirs that she worked in the OAS, too, to prevent the elected president, who you've had on this show, from coming back to the country and to the presidency. But I think we'll probably find out more later. But it's just— it is very obvious that they supported this coup.

Amy Goodman: Earlier today, Evo Morales tweeted, the coup perpetrators who attacked my house and my sisters, who threatened to kill ministers and their kids, who humiliated a mayor, are now lying —and trying to blame us for the chaos and violence they created. Bolivia and the world are witnesses to this coup. Among those who condemn the coup are Lula— yes, the Brazilian former president, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Also big news— and we just have 30 seconds— but if you, Marc, can talk about the significance of his release from prison after a year and a half? He had been the frontrunner in the election. Before he ultimately was imprisoned. Now he's out. What does this mean?

Mark Weisbrot: Well, this is definitely a victory. But the thing that I worry about most is they could arrest him at any time for any reason. You have the so-called justice minister of the country, who is the judge who put him in prison, in a trial that really almost everyone now knows —was lacking in evidence and was really a political trial. And so— and you have a very— I don't know how else to say it, but a fascistic government. So, he is definitely in danger. And there's going to be a need to, you know, really defend him.

Teresa Vo: The past few days have not been easy for people in El Alto. Bolivia's first indigenous leader, Evo Morales, Morales was forced to resign when the Organization of American States, or OAS, announced fraud had been committed in the presidential election. The military requested that he step down. His supporters denounce it is a coup. For Virginia Coronel Huanca, Morales was the man that gave them dignity after years of discrimination.

Speaker 6: In these years, we have seen change. We have seen our lives get better.

Teresa Vo: I am young, but I have seen how indigenous people have suffered. We've suffered in this country. Now these racists, the ones that burn our flag, want to shut us down. People are angry because Evo Morales' opponents burned the wiphala flag, which represents indigenous communities here. There are roadblocks everywhere in El Alto these days, as Morales supporters vow to continue the push for his return from Mexico. There's been chaos since he stepped down, forcing the police to request the help of the Army to to restore order in the city. The sight of fighter jets flying overhead is making people even more furious. We're here very deep in El Alto, where people are extremely angry. They have been coming down from the mountains to meet here.

Speaker 6: All of them are saying that they want Evo Morales back and that they're not going to be intimidated by the armed forces on the streets.

Teresa Vo: An interim president, Jeanine Áñez, was sworn in by Bolivia's opposition on Tuesday in an attempt to fill the power vacuum. Her supporters celebrated her designation. We are facing a presidential succession brought on by the vacancy of the presidency and the absence of the president. According to the Constitution, as president of the Senate, I immediately assume the presidency of the state. And I promise to take all of the measures necessary to pacify the country. But the Assembly meeting happened without the presence of Evo Morales' Movement Towards Socialism party. Congresswoman Asunta Quispe says they will not cooperate with those who carried out a coup.

Speaker 6: We are not of that assembly because we are not giving quorum, and we won't recognize her as a president. They forced our own senators to escape and step down.

Teresa Vo: Even though Morales is accused of fraud and violating the constitution, people in El see him as the man who changed Bolivia for good. Many are dreading the return of the racism they faced in the past. And that's why many say his resignation hurts them even more.

Speaker 6: Say what was once welcome!

Teresa Vo: Teresa Vo, Al Jazeera, El Alto, Bolivia.

Gregory: Protests against the coup government in Bolivia and the violent repression of these protests have continued almost every day since President Evo Morales was forced to resign last week. Last Thursday, the de facto interim president, Jeanine Áñez, issued a decree that exempts Bolivia's military from criminal prosecution when maintaining public order. In other words, she gave the military a free pass to use lethal force against Morales supporters, which immediately they took advantage of. As a result, the death toll has climbed to 23, with 9 protesters being killed just over the past weekend. The Áñez government is a far-right Christian fundamentalist one that has promised to bring the Bible back to prominence in Bolivia. Also, she has broken off relations with Venezuela, expelled Cuban doctors, and withdrew Bolivia from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. As the consequences of the coup have become clearer, it makes sense to look back at how the Organization of American States, the OAS, enabled this coup. Bolivia's opposition justified the coup on the basis of OAS election observer claims that the October 20th presidential election was highly suspicious. Even though Morales had committed to holding new elections as a result of an OAS audit, this was not good enough for the opposition and the military, which proceeded to force his ouster. He is now in exile in Mexico. Joining me now to discuss the OAS role in the coup in Bolivia is Mark Weisbrot. He is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and is author of the book Failed: What the Experts Got Wrong About the Global Economy. Thanks for joining us again, Mark.

Mark Weisbrot: Thanks for inviting me, Gregory.

Gregory: So, the main controversy about the election which the OAS generated had to do with the margin of victory. The very first election result report from the so-called quick count showed Morales ahead with about 8% of the vote, which was below the 10-point margin that was required to avoid a runoff election. And later, official results showed that Morales had 10.4% ahead of his main opponent, Carlos Mesa. But the OAS expressed, quote, deep concern and surprise at the drastic and hard-to-explain change in the trend of the preliminary results. Now, however, an analysis that your colleagues at CEPR conducted last week shows us that Morales' vote count was actually part of an existing trend and quite easy to explain. Tell us about what you found.

Mark Weisbrot: Yes. This is very, very, very important, because I think this allegation that they promoted 3 separate— on 3 separate occasions in their publication, starting with the first press release That the OAS observer mission, electoral observer mission, issued right after the election. This idea that something happened, that the election was somehow stolen, is the foundation of this coup. And it's completely false. And furthermore, I think what you can see if you look at the data is that the OAS was really dishonest about this. They had to know. That the story they were telling was false. And I'll try to explain that. What happened was, as you mentioned, there was an interruption in the vote count at 84% of votes tallied, and Naval was ahead by 7.9%. And then the vote— the tally resumed. And by the way, this is not even the official tally, so we shouldn't even really be arguing that much about it because it doesn't count for anything. It's just a quick count. Right. That's done to let people know what's going on as the votes are coming in. And they don't tell you that either. In most of these, in almost none of these articles do they even tell you that this isn't even the official count. And the official count was never even interrupted. But leaving that aside, this count, this quick count was interrupted at 84%. And then when Abel came back, as you mentioned, his vote was over— 84%. When the— I'm sorry, when the reporting resumed, Evo's margin was over 10%, which was the amount that he needed in order to avoid a runoff election. And the OAS reports this as though something that they were surprised and concerned and this kind of stuff. Well, if you have ever watched an election return, Or maybe can do 8th grade arithmetic or anything like that, the first thing you would ask when this happens is, are those later reporting districts, any precincts, are they different from the ones that reported earlier? And they never mentioned or asked that question in any of their 3 press releases or 2 reports so far. Now that shows you right there that there's something dishonest, cuz they're not enumerate. Okay. And we, you know, the data is all on the web, so anybody can go and look at it and, and figure out, uh, whether those districts were different. And it turns out they were very different. And in fact, um, they were much more, uh, pro-Avo. And that graph you put up is a very revealing one. That's another thing that was very, very dishonest about the OAS reports because the OAS never mentioned that it wasn't a jump from the first 84% that had a 7.9% margin to an over 10% margin. It was a gradual trend that was going on the whole time for a very simple reason.

Speaker 8: Why?

Mark Weisbrot: And the simple reason was that the pro-Avo districts reported later, or precincts, I should say, the pro-Avo precincts reported later than the earlier ones. And that's the whole story, and they know it, and they never told it. And they misled the media, and the media had, almost all of them swallowed it and reported it over and over until it became A kind of truth in our our post-truth Trumpian world.

Gregory: We've got a clip here of what Evo Morales had to say about the OAS the other day in an interview that was conducted with him in Mexico.

Speaker 4: La OEA decidió una.

Nick Wing: The OAS took a political decision, not a technical or legal one.

Evo Morales: Ese es su informe. Ahora me de cuentas.

Speaker 10: This is a report, and I realized from the. I agree with the recommendations of some leftist brothers and sisters that the OAS is not in the service of the people of Latin America, less so the social movements. The OAS is at the service of the North American imperialists.

Gregory: I believe that Evo Morales might be referring to CEPA here, actually. Now, talk to us about the OAS's role in all of this, since it's been used to justify the coup.

Mark Weisbrot: Well, the OAS is not always going to do the same thing. It depends on the situation. So, in this situation, the Trump administration wanted very much to get rid of this government. And I think Almagro— and they made statements showing this. And in fact, of course, the Trump administration issued a statement supporting the coup itself and saying that it was bringing democracy to Bolivia. So, it was very clear where they stood. And Luis Almagro, who's done a lot of terrible things as the secretary-general of the OAS, I think he saw an opportunity here once the election was close.

Catherine Ledebur: Right.

Mark Weisbrot: He saw an opportunity to intervene, because I think it had to come from high up in the OAS, because the people in the Electoral Observing Mission, I mean, as I said, they have at least the knowledge that somebody who watches election returns comes in. They could have asked that question. Well, how are these districts, how are these precincts different from the first returns? And also, they didn't have to focus so much on the trap count, on this quick count, because again, it wasn't the binding count. It wasn't even It's not supposed to, intended to, or announced as something that reports the entire count. That's probably why they stopped at 84, because in previous elections they stopped at 70. It's not the official count. It's just something to keep people informed when the count is still going on. The official count has more safeguards and takes longer. So this was really a deliberate thing. It was something— and they have done this before, by the way. You know, again, I'm not going to characterize the OAS as being on one side or another in all situations. It's not like that. In most, in fact, probably most observer missions are clean. But they have put their finger on the scales before. So in 2010, for example, there was an election in Haiti, and the OAS did something that probably no electoral— election monitors have ever done.

Speaker 13: Right.

Mark Weisbrot: Which is they actually, they set up a commission that looked at the results and they reversed it without any kind of a recount or even a statistical test. And in fact, the head of that mission admitted on video that it was a political decision. They didn't have any evidence for it. So they changed the results of Haiti's election in 2011. And in fact, In fact, Susan Rice, not long after that, in 2011, when Haitians were struggling not to accept that change of election results, she threatened them with a cutoff of aid, you know, desperately needed aid after the earthquake, if they didn't accept this decision, which was really made by the U.S. government through the OAS. That's just one example. There's worse ones. There's another one in Haiti in 2000.

Amy Goodman: Right.

Mark Weisbrot: Which was the foundation of a coup that took place in Haiti in 2004, where the OAS changed its report after they initially had issued a favorable report on the election. They changed it in order to support a cutoff of almost all international aid to Haiti that took place between 2000 and 2004, until the United States-backed coup succeeded in overthrowing the democratically elected president. So this has happened before, and it's a shame that so many journalists don't know this history, or they wouldn't just take the OAS's word for it, because really all they have to do is look at the data themselves. Or if they can't or don't have time, just assign that to somebody, and they would see that the OAS is really being extremely dishonest here.

Gregory: Well, finally, I mean, given all of this history, why do you think Evo Morales gave in to the OAS so easily when he agreed to abide by its audit?

Mark Weisbrot: Yeah, I think that was a mistake. And I think he was hoping that the audit would be— if I just have to guess, I don't know what he was thinking, but he might have been hoping that the audit would be cleaner than what they did in the election, because there was Mexico, for example, was involved, and Mexico, the Mexican government. And they had denounced the OAS first, their first incidents of lying about the election in their press release. They denounced that at the OAS. And so he might have figured that these other countries could keep an eye on them. And I think he miscalculated there.

Gregory: Okay. Well, we're going to leave it there for now. I was speaking to Marc Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Thanks again, Marc, for having joined Thank you, Gregory. And thank you for joining The Real News Network.

Evo Morales: The civic-military right-wing U.S.-backed coup d'état against the democratically elected Bolivian President Evo Morales, which installed a fascist and racist dictatorship of the right-wing usurper Jeanine Áñez, completed a month on December 10th. Morales, who is now in Argentina after being granted asylum by the new Argentinian President Alberto Fernández condemned the de facto government for committing innumerable human rights violations. Protests against Morales began the day after the general elections, on October 20th. The final results showed that he had obtained over 10% more votes than his closest rival, Carlos Mesa, which was necessary for victory. However, the opposition refused to accept the results. —and began violent mobilizations demanding his resignation. On November 10th, President Morales and Vice President Álvaro García Linera resigned after the Army-backed right-wing opposition coup against the constitutional government of the Movement Towards Socialism, or MAS. On November 11th, due to serious threats to their physical integrity and safety and the escalation of violence and intimidation, Morales and García Linera were forced to leave the country and seek asylum in Mexico at the time. On November 12th, in a session of Congress that met without quorum, right-wing legislator Áñez declared herself interim president of Bolivia. After assuming power, the de facto government of Áñez unleashed an unprecedented level of repression against Morales's supporters. Who have been protesting the coup in the streets. It also intensified selective prosecution of political and social leaders, to the extent that arrest warrants were issued against several MAS deputies and senators who opposed the coup. The coup-supporting police force and armed forces have been brutally repressing the multitudinous mobilizations with tear gas, firearms, arms, beating up and arresting protesters and carrying out violent house raids. The highest points of state terrorism were witnessed in the massacres in which 9 anti-group protesters in Sacaba in Cochabamba and 6 in Sencata in El Alto were killed by the security forces, and hundreds were gravely injured. The discriminatory and authoritarian stance of the de facto government became further This was evident when it passed the Supreme Decree No. 4078, which exempted the members of armed forces from criminal liability on the same day of the massacre in Cochabamba. In addition, the interim government tried to impede the communication about what was happening in the country. The local press was censored, and foreign governments were harassed and attacked. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Rights, or the IACHR, and other international human rights defenders verified that Áñez's government committed a number of human rights violations post-coup. On December 11th, the IACHR issued a report on its observation visit to Bolivia between November 22nd and November 25th, following the invitation from the de facto government. In its report, the IACHR expressed utmost concern about human rights violations. In the aftermath of the coup and also highlighted the climate of violence characterized by polarization, hostility and hatred, based on discrimination, intolerance and racism. The organization cited several examples of excessive use of force in the joint operations of the military and police force. According to the data recorded by the IACHR, 36 people were killed and more than 800 were injured during the coup. During military and police operations. Referring to the Supreme Decree No. 4078, the IACHR said that the security officials involved in the acts of violence cannot be protected by any type of amnesty or exemption. The organization recommended the de facto government to respect the right to protest, guarantee the right to freedom of expression, make use of force according to international standards, suspend the mass deployment of armed and fully armed police forces, cease repression of social protests and arbitrary detention of those who participate in the protests, among other advisers. In addition to making recommendations with respect to human rights, the commission requested that an independent international investigation be carried out on the events recorded in the country after the the coup. Last week, the delegation of Argentine human rights defenders, social leaders and lawyers that traveled to Bolivia with the objective to observe the human rights situation in the country following the coup also denounced a series of human rights violations by the de facto government. The delegation, in its preliminary report based on evidence and testimonies gathered during their 2-day stay in Bolivia, confirmed the complicity of Áñez's government in the massacres perpetrated in Sokava and Singkata. The delegation also said it had evidence of the explicit support of foreign governments in the coup. The dictatorial government explicitly confirmed this by restoring relations with the United States and Israel, suspended more than a decade ago, and manifesting a new alignment in terms of international politics. In addition, the visa requirement for American and Israeli citizens has also been eliminated. Morales had earlier invited the Organization of American States to conduct an audit. The OAS's preliminary report called for fresh elections. Following this, Morales called for new general elections hours before he had to resign. However, after the coup, the OAS, responsible for auditing the election, was unable to demonstrate any significant irregularities. The information entered with the counting and computing of votes cannot be verified, according to them, because of the burning of ballots in the region of Beni, said the OS in its final report. Besides, the word fraud didn't appear even once in the final report. In addition, through a document, more than 100 economists and statistics experts from different universities in the U.S., Spain, Argentina, India, Brazil, Canada and other countries ruled out any possibility of fraud in the presidential elections and criticized the actions of the OAS. However, to legitimize itself, the dictatorial government of Áñez took advantage of the leadership vacuum in MAS after Morales's exile to get the Parliament to annul the election on October 2020 and called for new elections in the first quarter of 2020. It also managed to ban Evo Morales and Álvaro García Linera as candidates. In this context, last weekend the MAS held a national assembly in the city of Cochabamba, where Morales was appointed as the campaign leader of the MAS for these elections.

Gregory: Bolivian political parties and presidential candidates launched their campaigns this week for the May 3rd general election. This upcoming election is meant to make up for the October 20th election of last year, which Bolivia's parliament canceled following the November 10th coup against leftist President Evo Morales. Morales remains in exile in Argentina and is now running for a seat in Bolivia's Senate instead of for the presidency. His designated successor, under the banner of the Movement Towards Socialism Party, is Luis Arce, Bolivia's longtime Minister of Finance under Morales. His running mate is Morales's former foreign minister and indigenous leader, David Chocahuanka. Here is Luis Arce speaking last Saturday during the campaign launch rally in La Paz. Today we face a historic challenge. We need to be able to meet this challenge. We aren't just contesting an We are contesting more. We are an important geopolitical reference point for the region.

Speaker 10: The empire wants to send a signal with us.

Gregory: It wants to bring the Bolivian people to their knees. Arce's main opponent is the incumbent president, Jeanine Áñez, who took the country on a sharp turn towards the right when she took over the presidency following the coup against Evo Morales. Bolivia's right is internally quite divided, however, which could give Arce an opportunity to win the election if it is a fair election.

Speaker 13: I'm here with Luis Arce Catacora, who's known as Lucho, and we're on the campaign trail today. We are 5 days away from the election, Sunday, October 18th, and we are in the city of Cochabamba heading to a campaign event in Sacaba. How are you feeling today? Thank you for joining me.

Speaker 10: Hi. Good morning to everybody. Yes, we are going to Sacaba. We have a very good event there, because we're finishing the campaign here in Cochabamba. And you will be— you will see a lot of people there waiting for us to hear what we're going to say at the end of this campaign in Cochabamba.

Speaker 13: I hear a lot of people are waiting there at the stadium in Sacaba. So today and tomorrow are the final Yes. —days of campaigning, and then campaigning comes to a close 3 days before the election actually takes place. So thank you so much for joining us. Of course, we're an international outlet, and you've been very busy with the Bolivian media this morning, which is what brought us here to the vehicle. We weren't able to film outside as we had thought we would. So, Sacaba is a very significant place for the MAS. Of course, Cochabamba will win by a landslide. It's a very important stronghold for the party. And of course, it's also where a lot of significant things took place following the coup, including the Sacaba massacre. Can you tell us why you believe so many different sectors, especially here in this part of the country, support the movement towards socialism?

Speaker 10: Because we are feeling here in Bolivia, we are facing increasing poverty. Increasing poverty, also unemployment, unemployment rate has increased a lot. There's a huge economic crisis here in Bolivia. There's no economic movement. And also we have bad results in the pandemic health services. Bolivia. Also, we closed the school year in Bolivia. We are the only country where we couldn't face with this government, de facto government, we couldn't face the education system in pandemic and so on. So the people is very, very tired about this government, about the right-hand side parties, because they don't know how to manage the economy. They don't They don't understand people, people's needs. They don't understand how they could manage all the advantage we have, also including our natural resources.

Speaker 13: So there are some very big and popular candidates here in Cochabamba. Of course, you're running senators as well. It's not just the presidential race. How is the movement towards socialism feeling? How are you feeling, 5 days until the vote? And what type of outcome are you expecting?

Speaker 10: Very confident. We are very confident that we are going to win in the first round this election. And we are also confident that the right-hand side parties will say, in the next Sunday morning— Sunday night, they will say that there is a new— a second round. For this election, of course, this will be you know something like a provocation to the population because everybody knows that we are going to win the elections. Everybody's backing the movement towards socialism in Bolivia, so we are confident to win these elections. But they won't they gonna play with that, and also we have some. We have some doubts about the— we call it here in Bolivia the Tribunal Supremo Electoral, which is in charge of running this election. We have some observations that we have sent a letter to them and also to the international observers that have come to Bolivia in order to guarantee the transparency in these elections.

Speaker 13: So, as you mentioned, there's a little bit of apprehension in the country. I think some people are wondering whether or not your opponents are actually going to accept defeat, or if there will be a peaceful change of power. There's a lot of questions. What kind of expectations do you have? Do you believe that this election can take place without any violence? Do you think there's a possibility of a bit of a conflict when the result comes out?

Speaker 10: Did we go There will be a conflict if they follow the strategy to say this Sunday night that there is a second round, which is— they are looking for. They are not looking for winning us in this election, in this defense round, because they know they are going to lose. But the only way they have is at least to go to the second round, which is— And that's the strategy? Implies that the difference between the Movement Towards Socialism and the second party will be less than 10%. But we are quite positive that we are going to have more than 10%.

Speaker 13: Exceed the 10% threshold.

Gregory: Exceed it.

Speaker 4: Uh-huh.

Speaker 10: So the only way is that they can do something that they would say, something for, you know, generating in Bolivia violence. We are going to wait until the final results of the Tribunal Supremo Electoral, because there are the results. But the movement, just to also say, we have our own system, and we will know this Sunday night also how much we have and what's the difference. That we have, that we win to the second party in this election.

Speaker 13: And the United States government has provided immediate and vocal support for the de facto administration of Jeanine Áñez. To what extent do you believe that Washington is playing a hand in supporting your opponents, Carlos Mesa or whichever others of the right-wing candidates? To what extent do you think that they have a hand in those candidacies and are supporting them in their run for the presidency?

Speaker 10: Well, it's very easy. I'm going to give you a simple example. The minister of government here, which is the— and also the people in charge of the political issues in this government, he— before this election, he was saying that Mr. Carlos Mesa is not the best candidate. that everybody shouldn't— should not vote for him in this election. But suddenly, he went to United States. He was for 2 weeks.

Speaker 13: That's Arturo Murillo you're speaking about?

Speaker 10: Arturo Murillo, yes. He went for 2 weeks, at least, more or less. And he came back and say— and he says everybody has or should vote for Carlos Mesa. They changed completely. His point of view. And that, for me, it's a very clear issue that they— he's receiving instructions from the United States to change their mind. And I think also that all the candidates that are defecting, you know, they are leaving this running elections running, they have also instructions from the United States to avoid, you know, that the Movimiento al Socialismo wins this election. That's the program for all the right-hand side parties in Bolivia, is to say, stop to MAS, no MAS anymore. But there's no answer to the people's problem, no answer to the health problem, to the education problem, to the economic problem.

Speaker 13: The only party who is giving to everybody You have said that we are seeing the intensification of political persecution against yourself and other leaders and candidates of the MAS. Tell us a bit about that.

Speaker 10: Well, not only political persecution, trials, trials that they are giving us. But also lies, a lot of lies. There's a dirty, dirty war in the media, in the webs, in the social media, trying to say that I'm involved in many, many cases, you know. Of course, the only thing that all of those things tell me is that they are very, very worried. I'm not worried about the results that we're going to get next Sunday. The only way they can win is, you know, doing something wrong, something that is not the best way to do it for the democracy in Bolivia.

Speaker 13: Yesterday was, here in Bolivia, Day of Decolonization. Talk to us Tell us about the importance of the identity of Bolivians, the indigenous identity of Bolivians, and the continued resistance against imperialism, colonialism, and protecting natural resources, and how your position differs from those other candidates.

Speaker 10: Yes, we are completely different from the other candidates in that way. We are a party who belongs to the indigenous movements. We back them. I agree with all of the reasons that they were fighting, not only now, but since, you know, they are living here, because they were the first people who were living in this land. The Spanish people didn't discover us. They came here, and they get all the natural resources from our country. And no payback, you know, no payback. So the natural resources for us are very important, are the clue for the— and one of the reasons why Bolivia is going better in the economy and in the social indicators. So we back all the indigenous fights because they are our own fights.

Speaker 13: And another interesting distinction between you and your opponents is, of course, something we've seen in the 11 months since the coup, is the difference in the economic policies. We've heard that a lot of different state companies are being privatized, and they have lots of other plans in store. Tell us a bit about that.

Speaker 10: Yeah, sure. They, the right-hand side parties, the only want to come back to the neoliberalism model. But we are— we have our own model that we implemented since 2006, and we were very successful, because we have very good economic indicators. We were for 6 times consecutively, 6 times, the best economy in growth rate terms of the rest of the countries in the region. And also, we have the best social results, reducing unemployment, reducing poverty, reducing the difference between rich people and poor people. And also, you know, we have increased the expectancy of life in Bolivia more than the other countries in this area. So, we have good indicators. And that's the model that we are proposing to the Bolivian people. and people to reimplant in our government.

Speaker 13: Thank you so much for your time. You have the busiest schedule, of course, as presidential candidate for the movement towards socialism. We're almost in Sacaba. So with that, thank you so much.

Speaker 10: Thank you.

Speaker 6: So over the past 12 hours, the atmosphere has been of celebration. Last night after midnight when The initial exit polls came in. There were fireworks. People have been honking their horns. Generally, it's a very festive atmosphere after a very long day, a day of tension, a day of uncertainty. You know, a lot of— I mean, the democratic process went with a lot of— it was peaceful, very smooth. But of course, throughout the day there was kind of this overall sensation of what's going to happen. But right now people are very excited, very festive. That's what I can comment for now. Yeah. I mean, yesterday we went around to a lot of different polling stations as part of our task as international observers of the elections. And people were generally, you know, we saw people of all ages, people who could barely walk but were going out to vote, people who were just very committed to participating in this historic process, excited to participate, and acknowledging the importance of what these elections mean. You know, we were in a very northern neighborhood, Limanipata, a very strong base of the movement towards socialism. And people were excited. Were excited and nervous about what was going to happen. But were confident that the will of the people would be respected. Were confident that their vote would count. And that's what's happened. When we were in the south, in kind of a more upper-middle-class district, of course a lot of support for Carlos Mesa. A bit of a different atmosphere. People were a little, you know, having different prospects around the elections. But overall I think mostly people were, you know, really welcoming this return to democracy and what What it means for the Bolivian people? In his announcement, Carlos Mesa did say that they'll be waiting the official tally, of course, which is the only binding result. But I think it's a really strong sign. And I think it will really— I think one thing that people were very concerned about is if the right wing did not concede the victory of Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca, what would be the reaction on the streets? And I think that with Mesa conceding, this will kind of calm down the people. I mean, what happened last year is that when Evo Morales won the presidency, Carlos Mesa immediately said that fraud was committed, and he was, you know, really behind calling for mobilizations, calling for Evo's stepping down, calling for the second round. So I think this marks a very clear departure from that kind of reactionary, provocative response. And I think it really, it shows that there is a clear path towards democracy, and that hopefully Hopefully things will remain in the same path they're going. Another thing to look out for is the composition of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, because of course that is a really key part of the government. And that has been dominated by MAS, which has allowed them to be able to fight the coup regime at every step. And so we'll have to see what percentage of the Plurinational Assembly that this Citizens' Community, which is the Carlos Mesa party, has won. But otherwise, I think this is a very, very strong, very exciting response, and that hopefully the mood continues to be the same one of celebration and of return to democracy. Plan Todos por Bolivia, Plan Everyone for Bolivia, was a very threatening kind of like show of force of militarization. You know, in the video you see Over 1,000 troops that are concentrated on the street. After that, the minister, Arturo Murillo, who's arguably been kind of the hawkish, very right-wing, threatening figure within the Áñez, within the de facto government, he made some very, very concerning statements, to say the least. He thanked the armed forces for one year saving Bolivia from the dictatorship. And so, this kind of marked a certain tone.

Speaker 13: Right.

Speaker 6: But since then, you know, as I mentioned yesterday, the day went through without huge incidents, without big incidents of repression. Of course, military and police were deployed across national territory. They're in charge of kind of maintaining control over the electoral process. So this means that they're deployed across the country to oversee the moving of the electoral of all of the electoral material from one station to another. But in general, it seems there hasn't been any huge reports of repression taking place. I think the major concern right now is what will be the response of the far-right paramilitary groups, which we know are concentrated in Santa Cruz, which is the stronghold of Luis Fernando Camacho, and then also in Cochabamba. And those were kind of the 2 hotspots last year during the coup where we saw very very devastating reports of right-wing mobs attacking MAS supporters, attacking indigenous people, attacking people from the movements. So I think that's something we have to keep a watch for. And in terms of the military, it's— right now we haven't seen many reports, but of course we— in a situation of a coup government, we always have to be on watch. But we'll see what happens with that. From anything you can see from the last— from over the last year, the MAS's base has only grown stronger. Stronger, has grown more committed to the MAS project, and has really stood strong in its rejection of the coup, in rejection of the de facto regime, and in rejection of neoliberalism. I'm honestly shocked that that is what they're reporting. And especially because a lot of the early polling before the elections was already showing a landslide victory of ARCE. You know, kind of, I think those MAS voters who maybe turned to the right wing are a very small exception. In general over the last year, just seeing the complete destruction of the Bolivian state of stripping away social programs, putting people in a very precarious, vulnerable situation. I think especially the scandals that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic that are continuing to happen till today, of big corruption scandals with the Áñez government, really just laid bare this very clear corporate interests, private interests, you know, acting in favor of U.S. interests and not in the interests of the people. And so, you know, across the board we've just seen a huge, huge bastion of support for the MAS. And of course that's reflected in the polls yesterday. So we've been in a lot of conversations over the past couple days with social movements, with movements on the ground who are, you know, work with the MAS, who are directly linked to the MAS, or are just part of the process of change, which is the process that started 14 years ago when the Movement Towards Socialism took office under the leadership of Evo Morales. And, you know, we've asked similar questions. What is it going to look like if there's a Luis Arce, David Choquehuanca victory? What is it going to look like when MAS comes back to power? And, you know, everything they've said is that principles are not negotiated with. And the people who brought Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca and the Movement Towards Socialism The way that the people of Venezuela came to power in these elections was not through, you know, a conciliation with the right wing. It was through people's power. It was through, you know, movements on the ground fighting for the past 11 months. And so, when we talk about this electoral victory yesterday, it's not only about yesterday. It's about, for the past 11 months, mobilizing for elections, demanding that elections happen, demanding that the U.S.-backed coup regime step down, and not allowing You know, of course, Áñez has been able to implement a lot of different, you know, terrible plans in terms of privatization, in terms of stripping away social protections. But they've been— movements have been on the street challenging the regime at every step. And so when we see this victory, we know it's a victory of the people, and that the people are going to continue being on the streets demanding that the government, under the leadership of Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca, continue to deepen the process of change, continue to deepen this revolutionary process, and, you know, respond to the movement's demands. Because the actual full name of the party, Movimiento al Socialismo, is Movimiento al Socialismo: Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples. And so it is a political instrument. It's an instrument that responds to the demands, to the demands of the people on the ground, to the movements. I mean, Evo Morales himself was a trade union leader. He has a massive base of support. Among the cocaleros. So we need to understand the movement towards socialism is not just a far, distant political party that has no accountability to the people. This is a party that is deeply integrated into the movements that are mobilizing. So I think we can only— what we'll see is a deepening. I think it will be interesting, something that we've noticed in our conversations with everyday people people, is that there's a lot of talk of division. And so I think through the past 11 months it's become very clear, the division between the elites of Bolivia and the working class and the indigenous people. And so I think there will be an— it'll be interesting to see how the elites, how kind of this white elite class that has been so threatened by an indigenous working-class government responds to this. And I think that's something we'll have to watch out for. And I think, you know, even looking at how the MAS government had operated before, they have made concerted efforts to respond to business owners, to try to help them. I mean, there are many statistics that show that Bolivian business owners grew a lot and had many gains during the MAS government. So I think, of course, they'll try to make those kind of concessions to make sure everyone's winning in this government. And how do you think this will affect the future of the government? With, of course, a people-focused approach. The importance of this victory cannot be underestimated, both for Bolivia and Latin America as a whole. I mean, this really sends a very strong message that in this moment of complete neoliberal crisis and collapse, where, you know, countries across Latin America have been plunged into levels of inequality, into levels of poverty that have been— you know, hadn't been seen over the— in the first decade of the 2000s because of precisely this pink tide, this progressive wave of governments. And I think this is a strong response to that. And this kind of follows in the whole last year that there have been mobilizations in Chile, mobilizations in Colombia, mobilizations against this neoliberal model. And I think something to look for coming up is both the elections in Venezuela in December, but also the elections in Ecuador next year. In Ecuador we've seen a similar pattern of trying to ban the movements that are associated with Rafael Correa, the political parties associated with him. He was not allowed to participate in the presidential ticket. And there was almost a threat that the presidential ticket, which is led by Andrés Arauz, would not be even allowed to contest in the elections. You know, this week we found out, finally, they were able to register their candidacy, and they will be participating in the elections that are upcoming, 2021. But I think this will be also a very key country to watch out for, because, you know, that's a case where we saw a very sharp neoliberal turn. And, you know, the mobilizations there last year really showed that the people are not agreeing with this neoliberal model and that they want a people-centered approach. And I think we'll probably see that reflected in the polls next year in Ecuador.

Teresa Vo: Triumphant. That's how Evo Morales returned to Bolivia on Monday. He traveled to the city of La Quiaca, right at the border between the 2 South American nations.

Evo Morales: I always knew I was going to return, but not as fast.

Speaker 6: Something historical, thanks to the unity of the Bolivian people. My brothers and sisters, history repeats itself: a fight for life, dignity, peace and dignity.

Teresa Vo: Morales was forced to leave Bolivia last Morales fled last year after violence followed a presidential election that, according to the Organization of American States, were filled with irregularities. The armed forces asked him to resign. Morales fled first to Mexico and then came to Argentina. Once here, he became the campaign manager of Bolivia's Movement Towards Socialism party, that won the elections last month. Morales' new president, Luis Arce, was inaugurated on Sunday. Morales crossed the border with Argentina's president, Alberto Fernández. He said Morales' return is an example to Latin America.

Nick Wing: That's what Evo was, the real president that represented the heart of Bolivia. When these things in Bolivia were not allowed, as president, he did an impressive job. If there is one place in Latin America where the social and economic structure They did take care of the deficit, development, equality and justice.

Teresa Vo: Morales will be traveling with an 800-vehicle caravan around Bolivia's coca-growing regions in the next few days. Evo Morales is a divisive figure in Bolivia. And while there are millions who love him and are thankful for the rights they gained while he was in office, there are others who claim he was authoritarian. —authoritarian and criticized his attempt to hold on to power despite losing a referendum that prevented him from seeking a 4th term. But the election of Luis Arce shows there are millions who believe Evo Morales changed Bolivia for the good. Rural and indigenous populations started to have a say in the country's future while he was in office.

Speaker 4: The return of Evo Morales was possibly the most important moment in Bolivian history. This time last year, far-right protesters kidnapped Patricia Arce, the mayor of a small town called Vinto. They made her walk over broken glass. They cut her hair, doused her in petrol and red paint, told her that they're walking her to her death. And they were trying to get her to resign. And to condemn Eva Morales, she refused to do both, and so they tortured her. After the coup took power, she was persecuted. She had 17 criminal charges hanging over her: terrorism, sedition. The whole year was a nightmare for her.

Speaker 8: Ese dolor que ha causado en el pueblo de Bolivia, de verdad es muy, muy doloroso porque creo que nadie se merece eso.

Speaker 4: She fought an election. Campaign, and now she's a senator. As soon as the results were announced, Patricia Arce said that she couldn't even speak. She was crying with happiness. She said, for the first time in a year, I'll be able to go to sleep and know there's not the threat of being taken away. The aim of the coup in Bolivia was to destroy the social movements that had built their own political party, which was the Movement Towards Socialism, Evo Morales's party. However, they weren't able to crush the organization, even though they persecuted The movement towards socialism is more than a few figureheads. It's a coalition of social movements, trade unions, indigenous groups in every single region of the country. Immediately after the coup took power, there were 2 massacres. First in Saqaba. This is where Evo Morales used to be a union leader. And people from this region were trying to march to the city. However, when they got close, the police stopped them, and then military helicopters flew about 40 meters above the ground shooting at the crowd. 11 people were killed. A few days later, there was a second massacre. There is detention orders for the Interior Minister Arturo Murillo and the Defense Minister Fernando López, the ones who ordered the executions. However, they've already escaped to the United States. There are also charges against the former self-declared president, Jeanine Áñez. And when she tried to escape to Brazil just a few days ago, social movements surrounded her neighborhood and wouldn't let her leave. So people are determined to get justice. And it wasn't just a massacre.

Speaker 10: It was a massacre.

Speaker 4: That took place. After the massacres, what began was an incredibly deep persecution against the most prominent leftists in Bolivia, people like Andrónico Rodríguez, Leonardo Loza. Both are now senators. However, just a few months ago, they had more than 15 criminal charges brought against them each for things like terrorism, sedition. Questioning the legitimacy of the government was considered sedition. Organizing a protest was considered terrorism. There were many moments when they were on the verge of being arrested. However, I think something that warded the state off from doing that was the strength of organization. They knew if they took these leaders of the people, the country would be lit on fire. So, it was that organization of people, even in the face of persecution, that kept the party going throughout the year of the coup and to be able to then go into the elections as the largest movement in the country and win. The return of Evo Morales was possibly the most important moment in Bolivian history. I was there in the town of Villazón, which is a border town with Argentina, and he came walking across the bridge with Argentina's president. The moment he stepped on Bolivian soil, just a mass of humanity just sort of descended. All the security that was supposed to be there just sort of dissolved under the sheer weight of people, everyone just trying to touch him, trying to get a look. Filming, for me, became impossible. I was being, you know, thrown around, being squashed by just masses and masses of people from all around the country. Had come to the border to receive him. We're part of his convoy. And everywhere he went, he is received as a father figure. People ran up to offer him their produce. One elderly lady just sort of ran in and just gave him a load of onions that she had just picked from her land. That was the atmosphere. And what he's been doing since he's been back is going around the country to discuss how to strengthen the link between social movements and the state and the party. It's a role he's already played throughout the '90s and the early 2000s. He was the leader of the unions. He led the struggle against USAID, against the DEA. He built the party and spoke to the whole country. And that's what he's going to be doing again. And not just within Bolivia. He's using his platform as a social movement leader here to speak to the world. Already he's received delegations from indigenous groups in Ecuador, in Peru, from trade unions in Argentina. And he's already announced that there's going to be a conference here at the end of December, a pan- Latin American conference on the basis of anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism. What he wants to do is share the experience of Bolivia, how Bolivia beat a coup in just one year, with social movements, trade unions around the world, so that people can beat their own ruling class. The coup was launched because among Bolivia's middle and upper class there's a deep-seated resentment, a racial humiliation, because of the fact that they were being governed by someone who they saw as their social inferior. Evo Morales is a union leader. He's indigenous, and he rose through the ranks of the social struggle, and he governed for 14 years. He won 3 elections, and the white middle and upper class felt humiliated by this fact. That was the domestic forces driving the coup. There's also the involvement of the United States, support for the narrative that there was electoral fraud last year, a narrative we now know was completely manipulated, funding for various groups that are involved in the coup. And the United States has its own set of interests. Evo Morales is a popular socialist leader, anti-imperialist leader, who opposed the influence of the United States in Latin America. And Bolivia is also sitting on the largest lithium supplies in the world. And lithium is incredibly important, because it's something that goes in batteries and things such as electric cars. It's been called the mineral of the future, to build the technology of the future. And that's why countries like the United States are desperate to get their hands on it. That's why oligarchs Like Elon Musk are desperate to get their hands on it. He bragged on Twitter, "We'll coup whoever we want. Deal with it." That's how the oligarchy in the United States, the ruling class in the United States, views natural resources in Latin America. They view it as their own property. Evo Morales was destabilizing that model. Tell them no, this isn't your property. This is our property, and we're going to use it to benefit the Bolivian people and to bring people out of poverty.

Speaker 10: Todo nuestro pecado es haber nacionalizado.

Speaker 4: And that's why he had to go, and that's why the United States intervened.

Speaker 10: Vamos a volver al gobierno, no con armas como la derecha, no con balas como los racistas fascistas.

Speaker 4: The level of the persecution, racial discrimination within Bolivia was so thick that people from rural indigenous areas or in the working-class areas of the city, they sometimes thought that they were fighting alone, going up against an enemy so much more powerful than they were. But when they saw the level of international solidarity, it gave them an enormous amount of strength. The regime knew that the world was watching. If people didn't care, then I think they would have carried out 2, 3 more massacres. And it continues to be incredibly important. Huge sections of the far right in Bolivia, backed by the United States, refuse to recognize the election results. It's important for the international community to know what's going on in Bolivia, to know what the coup was, so that when they try to launch that again, people know what's going on. Many times throughout history, the big ideological clashes in Latin America are about universal issues. What every country around the world is facing at the moment is how do we really rebuild our economies after the pandemic. Either you pay for what was spent during the pandemic by brutal austerity, by neoliberal shock doctrine, or you force the burden of the recovery to be paid by those with the broadest shoulders, by those who have lived off exploitation for so many years. And that's what Bolivia and Argentina are doing. They're introducing a wealth tax, and that's how they're going to pay to rebuild the economy, the country's infrastructure, to bring back employment. Those are the 2 paths. Not just for Bolivia, not just for Latin America, but for all the world. The Bolivian people have shown that it's possible for people to win. It's not inevitable for protest movements, social movements, to be in a situation of permanent oppositional protest. It is actually possible for those movements to beat the ruling class and take power and govern oneself. That's what Bolivia shows. There's nothing special about Bolivians or about Bolivian culture. This is something that can take place in every corner of the globe. It's something that needs to take place. place in every corner of the globe. Because all around the world, people face the same problems of inequality, of poverty, of climate catastrophe. And these are things that can be beaten through taking lessons of Bolivia's experience of how Bolivia nationalized natural resources and key industries to lift millions of people out of poverty, to building a democratic political model for governance in which social movements and trade unions participate in the exercise of power. These are things that can be It's applied everywhere around the world and should be applied everywhere around the world.

Katy Alloppis-Odoiyan: 4 months ago, Jeanine Áñez was president of Bolivia. Now she's under arrest, accused of staging a coup against her predecessor, Evo Morales. Shortly after being detained in the city of Trinidad, she was flown to the capital, La Paz, to face charges of terrorism, sedition and conspiracy. He's a conservative senator and at odds with the Socialist Party that now governs under President Luis Arce. He's a former protégé of Morales, the former president she's accused of pushing out in 2019 to seize power. She says the charges are fueled by political revenge. It's an irregular detention, because I was never summoned. In addition, as a former president, I'm in a unique position. It's a unique situation. But even amid all the abuse and the outrage, I'm here. A group of opponents and supporters gathered outside the prosecutor's office.

Speaker 6: There was no coup.

Katy Alloppis-Odoiyan: The former president was involved in fraud. And she took over the presidency through constitutional succession. Although divisive, her detention isn't a surprise. While in power, Áñez was accused of siding with security forces to shut down dissent.

Speaker 4: She came to power undemocratically. And within her first week, she oversaw 2 different massacres and offered immunity to the soldiers that carried out the massacres, and, for the next year, carried out a slew of human rights abuses.

Katy Alloppis-Odoiyan: The political crisis goes back to 2015. It all began in 2019, when protesters took to the streets accusing Morales of stealing his reelection. Under pressure, the once esteemed president resigned and fled Bolivia. Áñez then proclaimed herself interim president. More protests followed, and dozens of people died after she took office. Now other politicians in her party also face charges.

Mark Weisbrot: Estamos hablando We are talking about 2 former ministers, the former minister of Justice and the former minister of Energy. People who have conspired or committed crimes of sedition in our country will be investigated.

Katy Alloppis-Odoiyan: While some say the arrest of Áñez could lead to her political downfall, it's already reigniting tensions in the South American nation. Katy Alloppis-Odoiyan, Al Jazeera.

Evo Morales: In Bolivia, the state's general attorney, Juan Lanchipa, presented to the Supreme Court of Justice the accusatory requirement against Jeanine Áñez for the massacres of Sacaba and Zinkata committed during the coup of 2019. The requirement will have to be remitted to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, which would authorize an account of responsibilities trial for the 20 dead and injured in Sacaba and Zinkata. The PA explained that Áñez is provisionally accused with the crimes of genocide, severe murder injuries and injury followed by death. The legal claim was presented amid an accusatory proposition by the victims of the violent acts played out in Bolivia between November 15th and 19th, 2019, in the sector of the Huayllani Bridge of the Saqueba municipality and the Zinkategui plant in the city The Public Ministry presented today in the Supreme Court of Justice the accusatory requirement against the citizen Jeanine Áñez Chávez for the acts and events provisionally deemed as genocide, severe and mild injuries, and injuries followed by death.

Speaker 15: It's an accusatory requirement presented by the Public Ministry in the Supreme Court of Justice about the events that led to the death of 20 people on several —of wounded are based on the elements of conviction stated under the principle of objectivity. This is transparency in the development of the backstory and context search, an information buildup stage of the investigation process, as seen in the Law 044.

Speaker 8: In Bolivia, more than 50 victims of undue detention and torture during the de facto government sued the main authorities of Jeanine Áñez before an international tribunal. Our correspondent Fred Hampton Freddy Morales tells us the details.

Speaker 15: National expert investigations established that more than 1,500 people were improperly detained, many of them under torture, during the de facto government of Jeanine Áñez. Processed for sedition, for terrorism, for damage to public health, all of that. But nothing was ever proven.

Speaker 8: They wanted me to say that I'm here because they have paid me and That is why I am here. But it was not true. We have called ourselves to come out in defense of democracy and also of the Pollera women, who are very humiliated.

Speaker 15: The de facto government even went so far as to shackle people who were hospitalized due to their delicate state of health.

Speaker 8: Until we obtain justice, because the final objective is that never again in Bolivia what happened in the government of Jeanine Áñez will be repeated. The whole world must know what happened.

Speaker 15: More than 50 people who suffered imprisonment and torture for political reasons have organized themselves into a victims' committee and announced that they have presented their cases to the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

Speaker 8: At the 72nd session of the Committee Against Torture, we have presented a criminal complaint for the crimes of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment to 54 people who have been victims of these crimes against humanity. This has been exposed before the Committee Against Torture, and they have mentioned it is in this final report of recommendations to the plurinational state of Bolivia, who has accepted these facts as true.

Speaker 15: The Convention Against Torture is a body of 10 independent experts that monitors compliance with the Convention Against Torture. torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishment by States that are members of the United Nations. It entered into force in 1987.

Speaker 10: Freddy Morales, Telesur, Bolivia.