The Colombia/Ecuador/Venezuela Mess or Let's Place Bets on How Long Before the U.S. Backs a Colombian War With Venezuela

but I refuse to play the idiotic left vs right zero sum game

You are brave and I, for one, salute you

Juan Guaidó travels around with “a personal astrologer.” pic.twitter.com/FRnkKlZDO6

— Tim Gill (@timgill924) June 4, 2019

tfw u explain to your advisor why you're dropping a chapter from your dissertation pic.twitter.com/HAucsDeOJz

— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies) June 20, 2019

Fred and Van Horn Street RIP

He's got a bigger regime change to worry about now.

Obviously I’m very happy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/04/world/americas/venezuela-police-abuses.html

One for the imperialists on the board:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/21/venezuelan-leader-nicolas-maduro-confirms-months-of-secret-us-talks

Cool scenes:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/13/juan-guaido-faces-questions-over-links-to-organised-groups

Meanwhile in Bolivia :-(

Jon has good sources in Bolivia; one close to Morales says he was forced to resign and this should be considered a coup https://t.co/WBqYxaxOEA

— Vincent Bevins (@Vinncent) November 10, 2019

This is super depressing.

Evo Morales’ government has transformed Bolivia, giving dignity to millions of workers, peasants and indigenous people.

The imperialist coup against him must be condemned. Full solidarity with the Bolivian people in their struggle for sovereignty, justice and democracy.

— Momentum (@PeoplesMomentum) November 10, 2019

'My sin was being indigenous, leftist and anti-imperialist' - Evo #Morales on his resignation pic.twitter.com/48YWDTR6LM

— Ruptly (@Ruptly) November 11, 2019

this was Evo's predecessor. Spanish speakers will notice that he cannot even speak Spanish properly. That's because he had spent all his life in the US before becoming President of Bolivia. https://t.co/kCcKdFwFWp

— Flavia Dzodan (@redlightvoices) November 11, 2019

This quote from an Al Jazeera article expresses my sense of what's happened.

Cochabamba feminist activist Maria Fernandez told Al Jazeera: "Evo's last two terms in office were marked by corruption, arrogance and a disregard for the people who put him into power. But I'm not celebrating his resignation because I'm afraid that this is a takeover by religious extremists who are anti-women and racist."

Yes there have been (like in Venezuela) criticisms from the left..

My father was born and raised in La Paz, and I still have family there---many of whom have moved to Santa Cruz, so you can understand what their perspective on this would be. But the religious aspect of Luis Fernando Camacho's rise is a new aspect of Bolivian politics.

And just on that

Fascists burning the wiphala and declaring that "Bolivia belongs to Christ" is meant as a threat of violence to Natives across South America.

Yes, it hits especially hard for Aymaras and Quechuas.

Yes, I'm feeling pretty angry and f**ked up.

Yes, we will survive this too. ✊🏾🌈

— Daniel Delgado (@DDelgadoVive) November 11, 2019

Bolivia's politics have been built on racism since the colonial era (despite many of us being mestizo). It has shaped my life and the life of every Boliviano I've known. The sexism and homophobia now being highlighted by "El Macho" is newly explicit, though obviously it has been present since forever like everywhere else. Women have long been active participants in Evo's MAS movement, so the new amplification of racism and sexism is not unexpected.

Neither are Camacho's links to the gas industry. Bolivia under Evo was a narcostate (and the good and bad of that can be talked about, I say that merely as description, not judgment), but under the right it will be a gas state. For the Spanish it was a silver state. For the Chinese or the Germans it would be a lithium state. At least the coca industry is indigenous. Otherwise Bolivia is just another place for the capitalists to loot, as it's been since my ancestors went there to do just that.

https://www.nodal.am/2019/11/quien-es-luis-fernando-camacho-el-hombre-que-intenta-desestabilizar-bolivia/

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/your-complete-guide-to-the-n-y-times-support-of-u-s-backed-coups-in-latin-america/

I don't know, term limits are super important.

Good/interesting thread on some of the complexities at work (and the difficulty of sorting social media takes)

People need to trouble their liberal (mis)understanding and (mis)use of identity. Here's an example:

Tomasa Yarhui is an indigenous Quechua political "voice" from Bolivia. She's also a center-right Christian Democrat, here mourning the death of a violent coup-supporting cop. https://t.co/har2g9pVOk

— #HandsOffBolivia (@OLAASM) November 12, 2019

I’m mostly sympathetic to Morales, I hope his party can thrive, but really I don’t think anyone should be the head of government for more than 14 years

What was the response of pro-Morales voices re: him ignoring the results of the 2016 referendum?

Maduro retweets post mocking the crudeness of Bolivian interim president-designate Áñez's new video calling for the Bolivian army to intervene, with the tweet remarking they never would think they would ever see a "more improvised and crap production than those of Juan Guaidó". pic.twitter.com/5QKUQvt3zX

— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) November 12, 2019

Does anyone know what was wrong with Alvaro Garcia Linera since he never got to run?

I generally trust the OAS but reports that the head of electoral commission turned herself to the police to report irregularities is much more damning.

A far-right supporter of failed Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaido got punched in the face by an Afro-Brazilian today when he tried to invade and occupy the Venezuelan embassy in Brazil with other Guaido supporters. pic.twitter.com/rMzOkswJyb

— redfish (@redfishstream) November 13, 2019

I love this pic

One thing I notice over and over again is how "anti-government protestors" in e.g. Bolivia and Venezuela read as "normal folks" to American eyes, when in reality their North Face and Nike reflects extraordinary local wealth.

anti-Morales protestors:
https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/0ea3e96ac5754cbfab60d95f8c46e359/1000.jpeg

pro-morales protestor:
https://i.cbc.ca/1.5358740.1573687837!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_780/bolivia-protests.jpg

I remember Venezuelan protests a few years back where every protestor looked like they had just dropped a thousand bucks on camping gear at L.L. Bean.

https://systemicalternatives.org/2019/11/11/what-happened-in-bolivia-was-there-a-coup/"> https://systemicalternatives.org/2019/11/11/what-happened-in-bolivia-was-there-a-coup/

Good article

It is by a source you can trust, and he dispels both typical left/right narratives by eager western commentators but still details how this is a horror show. Available in sopanish and french too.

I wouldn’t take a few carefully selected photos as a source for anything.

I love this pic

idk the MLK t-shirt makes it a little incongruous

Sorry writing from phone on a bus.

I mean, no doubt, but it's pretty consistent. What's remarkable to me is not so much the difference between the two groups as how the American eye (mine, at least) tends to just slide right over the expensively-clothed right-wingers in photos and scan them as "normal", when they're really not

That article seemed pretty one-sided to me, and the site in general kinda seems like a Catholic-backed propaganda outlet

How could Áñez become acting president without a parliamentary quorum?

4. The government has treated the mobilisation as a fascist and racist coup. It is true that the sectors of the reactionary right have celebrated the protests. In Santa Cruz, the main leader of the Civic Committee, Luis Fernando Camacho, comes from an ultra-right organisation called the Union of Cruceño Youth. However, in other cities, there have been quite different articulations by independent groups with politicians from right and left leading the protests. In Potosí, the opposition to the government radicalised before the elections due to the signing of a 70 year contract without payment of royalties for the production of lithium hydroxide in the salt flats of Uyuni. In the case of La Paz, the National Committee for the Defense of Democracy counts among its main leaders two Ombudsman who served under the Evo Morales government and had denounced human rights violations such as the repression of the indigenous march of TIPNIS in 2011. For his part, Carlos Mesa, who was vice president during the neoliberal government of Sanchez de Lozada, and became the main electoral opponent of Evo Morales does not have a structured party base and was more a vehicle for opposition at the ballot box then a key organizer of the protests. The rebellion which Bolivia is experiencing is largely a spontaneous act led particularly by young people against the abuse of power.

It is important to be clear that there are indigenous peoples and workers on both the government and opposition side. The government clearly has more support in rural areas, but the opposition also includes coca producers from the Yungas, peasant leaders, mining workers, health and education workers, and above all young students, both middle and working class. Contrary to what happened in previous conflicts, it was the government that exacerbated the racism, saying that the protests were trying to take away the rural indigenous vote made in support of the government. During the conflict, there have been racist attacks from both sides. The burning of the wiphala, the flag of the Aymaran and Quechuan peoples, is absolutely deplorable. However, it is also notable that on social media, there are many groups who are part of the protests who challenge these attacks and defend the wiphala.

both sides

The supreme court equivalent accepted that she was next in line and only gave her an interim mandate. The same dumb supreme court who judged term limits were a human rights abuse, if I understand correctly. It seems new elections will be happen in late January. This is MAS’ moment to shine and prove they are stronger than just one dude, I don’t think boycotting will resolve anything.

Genuinely hope they hold elections and that they're fair! Have right-wingers in power ever held free and fair elections after toppling a left-wing government before? (honest question, maybe they have)

Sometimes it is both sides. Don’t know how else to say it. From what I understand large swaths of indigenous people have good reasons to be pissed off at Morales but also fear Camacho/Anez/Mesa with obvious good reasons. This is how some civil wars start, with both sides making unreasonable demands

Also the whole ‘both sides’ narrative is just what is is, a narrative, and I find narratives to be unhelpful. On top of it, ‘both sides’ is lifted from a specific critic of US media in a specific political moment and I really wonder how useful it is to force it unto the present Bolivian reality.

I am going to trust Pablo Solon over many american commentators on this issue.

I guess Brazil might have elected Bolsonaro fairly, for all I know, although he benefited from massive propaganda and an arguably railroaded opposition.

I genuinely doubt the next elections will be fair and free, but I sure hope so. And I am worried neither side is going to recognize the results now that all of that happened. I do take solace in that MAS has been able to build a strong coalition in the past and people seem to genuinely love Salvatierra.

Also Canada has not recognized Añez. I think this what europeans countries should do too. Put pressure on the notion that is really just an interim moment.

This business about how Morales is the true racist for saying that the opposition is anti-indigenous rings a little false when the current president is on record as saying that the indigenous population are satanists who should leave the cities and go back into the mountains.

He doesn’t say that, and even if he did I don’t see how two instances of race fear mongering can be mutually exclusive, even when one is much more intense than the other.

when the current president is on record as saying that the indigenous population are satanists who should leave the cities and go back into the mountains.

this was from a fake tweet I believe

Bolsanaro was absolutely fairly elected. Or, that is, the whole thing was a sham meant to benefit the conservative right, but it seems to have disgusted the populace enough to go with a third choice, the fascist. So those he kinda beat fair and square. Lula, not so much.

xp oh really? Thanks for the update, sorry to spread bullshit.

Hmm https://www.truthorfiction.com/jeanine-anez-bolivia-libre-de-ritos-satanicos-indigenas

Regardless of the veracity of the tweet, we can all agree that she is a racist shit head.