Coup Attempt in Bolivia

Ehhhh... yeah it's fun to beat up on the top dog, but statements like "US has engaged in 64 covert and six overt attempts at regime change" is a technique to convince people "USA are the debils" who aren't going to dig any further.

When you look at the details, i start to go "ehhh...".

The 1953 Iranian coup was against Mosaddegh, who had given himself "emergency powers" for another 12 months, was losing members of his coalition and was becoming more and more unpopular.

The CIA might be powerful, but it can't create crowds of hundreds of thousands of protestors out of thin air. Over 300 people were dead from riots leading up to the coup.

Whether the CIA or MI6 "helped" the coup, Mosaddegh was on his way out one way or another. It's not like Iran would have been a bastion of peaceful democratic bliss if the UK and US had just minded their own business.

If you look into the other "covert attempts at regime change", you realize it's pretty much the CIA aiding one particular group over another in a country that's on the brink of civil war.

It's not like the CIA is rolling into a stable democracy and just overthrowing countries.

One can claim the CIA never should have gotten involved, and sure, that's a reasonable position, but I'd also argue that the world is a community of nations, all with incentives/disincentives to have particular people in power in their peer nations. It's pretty natural that countries will try and influence that.

"Unprecedented" is easy to explain: since the military junta was overthrown in 1982 and democracy established, no president prior to Morales had ever served two consecutive terms, following a policy set by the country's constitution.

Not only was Morales final term unprecedented and unconstitutional, but it followed an attempt by Morales to amend the constitution via referendum, which failed.

Bolivia has notoriously pliant judiciary; that judiciary was used not just by MAS but also by Anez and by Morales predecessors to suppress dissent. Human Rights Watch is one place to go for analysis of the problems of the Bolivian judiciary, which does not function like that of the US or European states.

I understand you you might not care what OAS thinks, but Morales did: he ordered the OAS audit and conceded its results.

Anez assumed power after 3 layers of the Morales constitutional line of succession, all MAS party members, resigned in protest, thus assuring that the MAS opposition would assume power. It was a spectacular own-goal for MAS, and despite it, Anez' Democratic Socialist party immediately handed power back to MAS after the election that they timely called.

I would be interested in sources from western countries that have defended the imprisonment of Anez. There must be some. Thanks in advance!

I have no expertise in Bolivian politics. I read things, just like everyone else does. My opinions about US involvement in South America was set by the Jesuits in high school, who made us watch Romero and read Eduardo Galeano.

But when I read things here referring to the 2019 coup, I'm going to point out that unlike most of the US-backed coups of the Cold War, there is another side to this story. You might read the European Parliament resolution condemning Anez' imprisonment for another formulation of the same point. That Anez handed power off, almost immediately, to MAS, which then imprisoned her, is pretty dispositive for me. But we don't have to agree.

I wonder how many use VPN and/or Tor.

no, nothing like this has ever happened before in recorded history. probably that's fortunate

i mean people have elected all kinds of madmen as heads of state, so that's not the unprecedented part. but i don't think any country has ever elected a minarchist as a head of state. two weeks ago he gave a speech at a cato forum here describing the state he now heads as by nature a violent and criminal organization. he may be right about that, but generally believing such things makes you unelectable

we are in uncharted waters. this is going to be exciting!