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This week on counterspin: The Washington Post doesn’t want you to be confused, so they headlined their editorial, “Bolivia Is in Danger of Slipping Into Anarchy. It’s Evo Morales’s Fault.” Elite US media, you understand, are deeply invested in the well-being of Bolivia’s people, who are in uproar after a coup ousting Morales, over charges of irregularities in the recent election that appear to have no evidential grounding—nor, in media’s view, to require any. Back in 2006, US media were counseling Morales that policies like nationalizing the country’s gas industry were popular but “not the answer to Bolivia’s problems.” Their preferred answer, judging by today’s coverage, is celebrating the extra-legal pushout of the country’s first indigenous president, and welcoming the self-declared leadership of a legislator who has tweeted that she “dream[s] of a Bolivia free of satanic indigenous rites.” That’s the topsy-turvy world of elite US media’s “concerned” foreign policy. Which is why we’ll look for a different view from Alex Main, director of international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Transcript: ‘Years From Now, It’ll Be Clear to Everyone There Was a Coup in Bolivia’
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin Alex Main Interview @http://www.fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin191115Main.mp3″]
Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at coverage of Veterans Day.
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin Banter @http://www.fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin191115Banter.mp3″]
If the mainstream media’s accounts of Bolivia are biased, this coverage is equally biased in the other direction. Why is it so hard to understand that things are not so black and white (they seldom are) and that both sides are perhaps to blame in the chaos? Can you not admit that Morales was clearly attempting to stay in power longer than permitted by the constitution? Given the recent history of leftist governments doing this in other countries in the region like Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, and the horrible consequences for the people and institutions of these countries, is it so hard to understand why many Bolivians would be outraged by this? Especially given that the people already voted on this in 2016 and Morales said he would respect the results. To pretend that you are really interested in the interests of ordinary Bolivians while completely ignoring the reasons that thousands of people took to the streets for weeks is hypocritical to say the least. I see Alex Main has claimed to be interested in Venezuela’s wellbeing too, yet he never uttered a word as Maduro rigged elections and siphoned off the oil wealth until the country was broke. Pointing to the media’s bias while exhibiting your own major biases is highly ironic. Maybe FAIR should actually live up to their name and provide more balanced coverage?
Even if Morales had lost the election he would still be serving until January. This is a coup d’etat and it is a violent coup d’etat that has already targeted Bolivia’s indigenous majority. The thing is that he won the election handily and he probably would have won a second round handily because no one would vote for these wicked coupmongers.
Regardless of whether you call it a coup or not, it does not absolve Morales of his role in creating the crisis. And last I heard the only deaths that had occurred were of opposition protesters killed by Morales’ supporters. Not sure if that has changed in recent days, but the violence and abuses come from both sides. Maybe FAIR should live up to their name and admit that.
“The last i heard” there weren’t yet any deaths associated with the protests. “If thats changed in recent days” it would be well to remember that it is the military that has (illegally) seized power in Bolivia and that their employees are the ones carrying the machine guns.
Term limits were declared unconstitutional by Bolivia’s Supreme Court, so Morales was not trying to stay in power longer than the constitution permitted. He won the election fair and square. The only dissenting voice in this is the OAS, hardly a disinterested party, which claimed completely unsubstantiated vote fraud. The oligarchs and the army used this pretext to oust Morales and practically everyone else associated with his party.
The situation in Bolivia mirrors that of Venezuela. Both have large populations of poor brown people who favor the governments of Morales and Maduro respectively. This outrages the mostly white upper and middle classes who are greatly outnumbered and can never win in a fair election. The opposition in Venezuela has a history of boycotting elections and then crying “foul.” In both cases, the U.S. meddles and foments destabilization. The oligarchs apparently have the support of the army in Bolivia, but have not been able to pull that off in Venezuela. The “horrible consequences” you speak of in Venezuela are almost entirely due to the crippling economic warfare being carried out by the U.S., not by the mismanagement of the Venezuelan government.
Yes, the only dissenting voice is the OAS. Good job invisibilizing the masses of ordinary Bolivians who took to the streets for three weeks, the largest popular uprising in recent history. And you are utterly clueless about Venezuela, whose economic problems were extremely grave long before US sanctions. All you tankies are the same, shamelessly dishonest and dangerously in the pocket of authoritarians.
“The masses of ordinary Bolivians” ? ..Who are the people being beaten and shot at by the military crackdown at this moment ? Who are the people who re-elected Morales ? YOU must be talking about the stooges organized and imported from Miami and Columbia by the NED and the USAID
“masses of ordinary Bolivians” ? ..Who are the masses being beaten and menaced by the Bolivian military right now ?Who re-elected Morales ? If your kind ever speaks about “ordinary masses” you are always talking about the molotov cocktail throwing children of the ruling class, the police protecting them and the provocateurs imported by the NED and the USAID from Miami and Columbia
Let’s cut the crap and make it clear: the opposition’s motivation for the coup in Bolivia has nothing to do with justice or democracy.
Here’s the transcript of the blessing received by Luis Fernando Camacho, leader of the opposition crowds, entering the government palace. I don’t think it requires a translation:
“La Biblia está volviendo a Palacio de Gobierno, nunca más la Pachamama. Cristo está volviendo a Palacio de Gobierno. Bolivia es para Cristo, padre eterno en nombre de Jesús te damos las gracias porque tu palabra se ha cumplido, tú has dicho que tú lo vas a cumplir, lo has dicho señor, hemos confiado, hemos creído en ti. Aquí está tu hijo señor, Luis Fernando señor, quien tú lo has levantado como un David, que se ha defendido contra Goliat, te agradecemos señor, en el nombre de Jesús, amén”.
Then they burned the whipala, simbol of the andean native people.
So yes, it’s all about racism and religious fanatism. And Trump applauds. For democracy of course.
Why don’t we see this reality in mainstream medias?
Link to the videos:
https://redaccion.lamula.pe/2019/11/11/bolivia-evo-morales-renuncia-oposicion-ultraderecha-fundamentalismo-religioso/jorgepaucar/