I admit that this part gave me pause:
However, the Cuban and Venezuelan leaders - who had previously voiced their support for Mr Morales - condemned the events as a "coup".I guess they'd know one when they see it. It wasn't a coup earlier, though, when Morales got a friendly court to throw out term limits.
I'd sure rather see political change happen without the intervention of the military. I'll be watching nervously to see whether Bolivia can get its civil act together. It will be good to see the military refuse to support a sham election, but this is playing with fire: undermining faith in elections to the point where violent uprisings seem like the only answer. Note to future tyrants: if you can't get the real consent of the people, at least remember to corrupt the military.
Blessings of the day to our own uncorrupted military. Too often we take their honor for granted.
In other news, progressives cheer as more Americans are taught to cower at the sound of gunfire. Way to keep those tyrants in check, unarmed protesters!
7 comments:
I guess they'd know one when they see it. It wasn't a coup earlier, though, when Morales got a friendly court to throw out term limits.
Exactly. As they say in Spanish, dale clavo. Hammer meets nail.
A further irony about Venezuela and Cuba crying "coup" is that for years the Chavista regime has celebrated Hugo Chávez's unsuccessful 1992 coup. There are good coups, and there are bad coups, doncha' know. When Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was impeached- an impeachment process which adhered to the laws and Constitution of Brazil- Venezuela's Maduro Raúl Castro called her impeachment a coup. Guess who else called Dilma's impeachment a coup? Bernie Sanders. Though Bernie did so in a mealy-mouthed say: "Some people say it's a coup," which would give him plausible deniability if he were accused of calling her impeachment a coup.
In 2007, Evo got the required two-thirds vote for draft for a new Constitution - by locking the opposition out of the hall. This is the way Evo operates.
Nor does Evo play by the rules when he plays soccer. Here is a video of Evo playing soccer- kneeing an opponent in the groin. Bolivian President's Low Blow.
This is a very dicey situation. If a two-way election were held today, Evo might well win in a fair election. After all, he was leading by 7% before vote-counting was suspended in the multi-candidate first round. Though Evo apparently thought that he might not win in the two-way, if he stuffed the ballot boxes. After all, he lost the Constitutional Referendum which would have overturned term limits.
As ballot boxes were stuffed in the recent election, the integrity of the system is at doubt. One would think the fair solution would be to have another election but not to have Evo run, but to not have Evo run will be problematic. Evo may or may not have a support of the majority, but he has at least close to a majority of supporters
Bolivian politics has always been turbulent. One reason that Che failed in bringing revo to Bolivia was that Bolivia had its own revo 15 years before which nationalized the tin mines (then the primary export revenue) and gave land to the poor.
Lynching a political official, as what recently happened to the Evo-supporting mayor, is far from unknown in Bolivian history. In 2004, a mayor was hung from a lamppost for corruption, in the Aymara town of Avo Avo. As Evo is Aymara, it is safe to conclude that future Evo supporters did the lynching and hanging. (Evo was elected President in 2005.) Bolivia is rough country when it comes to politics. A President suffered the lamppost treatment in 1945.
My guess is that having one of the Morales friendly mayors seized by an angry mob, head-shaved and then smeared with red paint, that experience may have been enlightening to many. Maybe even to Morales himself, but certainly to the military who'd have to go out and confront those angry mobs.
Cowering at UVA - they believe that guns make people more violent, whether swiftly or gradually. They don't get that this is projection, and that they are telling us about themselves.
My couple of cents on the UVA--core school of a State that just went full-on Progressive-Democrat in last week's elections.
Ryan's rationalization (as opposed to rationale) was two-fold.
[F]irst, to minimize disruptions to classes, given that this event is located at the juncture of four primary academic buildings and is held at a time that classes are in session….
Surprisingly (or perhaps not), it seems never to have occurred to him that classes could have been not in session on this day, or during this hour, or that students could have been allowed excused absences on this day, or during this hour.
His other rationalization:
second, recognizing concerns related to firing weapons on the Grounds in light of gun violence that has happened across our nation, especially on school and university campuses.
Because, apparently, Ryan has no confidence in his professors' ability to teach UVA pupils enough capacity for critical thought that they cannot distinguish between real gun violence (a rarity) and a celebratory firing, annually, to honor those who fought, were killed, or were maimed in defense of the right to be snowflakes.
Consistent with the foregoing, though, Ryan chose to duck his role in this business, blaming it on his Provost and the ROTC commander. He doesn't even have the courage of his own convictions.
Eric Hines
The Left knows this, and Hussein was ordered to purge the US military officer cadre of flag rank.
That's only the first stage. That doesn't include the various "accidents" and "deaths".
The Venezuelan oppo blog, Caracas Chronicles, had the first article on Evo's resignation which made the point that the political division in Bolivia is, for the most part, a geographical divide: the Collas of the western highlands versus the Cambas of the eastern lowlands.
Of Course Bolivia Is Not Venezuela
Bolivia is like two countries for the price of one: the Andean plateau—very populated, predominantly indigenous, left-leaning, highly organized in unions—and the media luna, or crescent of the lowlands—less populated, culturally and economically closer to Brazil and Argentina, and under the influence of the agro-industry barons represented by the Comité Cívico Pro Santa Cruz. The two halves of the country will compete for control of what will happen next, while MAS tries to recover from this fall and prepare for a return to power (with the predictable assistance of the Venezuelan and Cuban regimes).
What the article didn't point out is that for decades there has been a migration of the eastern highland Collas to the more prosperous eastern lowlands. The population of Santa Cruz Department, the heart of the eastern lowlands, has gone from 15.4% of Bolivia's population in 1976 to 24.5% in 2001 to 28.7% in 2019. As Collas move to the eastern lowlands,their ethnic identification has gone down: the proportion of Bolivians self-identifying as indigenous has gone down in recent years. Bolivian population by Department.
Correction:
What the article didn't point out is that for decades there has been a migration of the western highland Collas to the more prosperous eastern lowlands
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