Bolivian president orchestrated a 'self-coup,' political rival Evo Morales claims
apnews.com
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales is accusing his political ally-turned-rival President Luis Arce of deceiving the Bolivian people by staging a “self-coup” last week.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Former President Evo Morales on Sunday accused his political ally-turned-rival President Luis Arce of deceiving Bolivians by staging a “self-coup” last week to earn political points among the electorate, marking a sharp downturn in an already fraught relationship.

Morales was initially among the country’s most powerful voices to say the approximately 200 members of the military who marched on Bolivia’s government palace alongside armored vehicles Wednesday had attempted a “coup d’état.” He called for “all those involved in this riot to be arrested and tried.”

But on Sunday, Morales joined others who contend Arce himself orchestrated the incident in an attempt to win the sympathy of Bolivians at a time when his popularity is extremely low

Weird stuff is happening in Bolivia, folks

  • CCCP Enjoyer@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    24·
    4 months ago

    I mean…

    1. Bolivia denounced Israeli war crimes and severed their diplomatic connections
    2. Bolivia is not on Team Ukraine
    3. Bolivia is friendly and doing good trade with Russia and China
    4. Bolivia is sitting on a LOT of lithium, which is basically the new oil
    5. Bolivia is the coup capital of the modern world
    6. AMLO, Putin and a number of others have called it an attempted coup

    Getting couped seems like the most likely thing to happen. Weird stuff indeed.

    • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
      8·
      4 months ago

      All good points. Plus there is precedent, as there has already been a coup against a MAS party government in Bolivia once, so at first glance another coup happening seems very plausible. They (reactionaries, three letter agencies, etc.) have plenty of motive to do one.

  • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
    15·
    4 months ago

    I’m not going to take a position on this yet, as i feel like we don’t really have enough information to make an informed judgement.

    Until we know more, which hopefully will happen once there is a proper investigation and trial, there are four main possibilities:

    1. Evo Morales is correct and this was a political gambit by Arce to shore up his own position
    2. He is half right in that it was planned but as a ploy to get traitors inside the military to expose themselves and give the government excuse to purge them (i rate this as unlikely - Arce doesn’t seem like the type for this kind of thing; no one in MAS does)
    3. He is wrong but he was misinformed by forces either domestic or foreign trying to drive a further wedge in the party
    4. He is wrong and is himself trying to politically maneuver against Arce to make a return as president and leader of the party

    Whatever the case may be, this is not a good look to have a figure as respected as Morales make such accusations against a government of his own party. I have to question his strategic judgement on this.

    And either way, those in the military who participated, at least at the officer level and above, need to be purged, along with serious prison time for the top brass involved. Because even if it was orchestrated by Arce it is unacceptable that they went along with it.