Above photo: Bolivians protest the postponement of the election.
Áñez Out is the main demand of the current popular protest mobilization in Bolivia. Barely a week ago the demand was: Elections, now! That was calling for September 6, agreed date by the political organizations and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), for the elections to be held. That was at the time against the new postponement of the elections for October 18 adopted by the TSE, which was the third one, with the excuse of protecting the population against the coronavirus, without having carried out any consultation with the political forces and the popular movement.
Since I wrote in La Jornada on July 30 against the postponement of the election act, a mobilization and open town hall was called in the city of El Alto by the Bolivian Workers’ Central (COB) and the Unity Pact (which brings together the peasant and indigenous social movements), which gave the TSE 72 hours to reopen the election on September 6 or else a general strike and road blockades would be declared until their request was granted.
On July 3, the measures announced by the COB and the social movements were implemented, and despite having met for hours with the electoral body, they have not managed to get the latter to advance the date of the elections. The president of the TSE has so far obeyed Áñez’s orders. The bases of the COB, the Unity Pact and other social forces feel ignored by the Áñez government, which is infuriating them because of the evident intention of the self-proclaimed to perpetuate herself in power, having dismantled and plundered the public companies, arbitrarily closing the school year and for its disastrous handling of the pandemic by disregarding the advice of the Medical Association, including a shortage of basic medicines and scandalous corruption in health purchases, such as 500 ventilators that no one seems to know where they are.
It should be recalled that Áñez proclaimed herself “interim” president, in violation of constitutional law, on November 12, 2019, but later agreed to pursue a peace agenda and call for elections on May 5, 2020. Let’s remember since then there have been three postponements on the pretext of the pandemic.
How was the coup d’état that enthroned Áñez forged? The United States and the local right-wing carried out a series of actions, before and after the October 2019 elections, to make a part of the urban population believe, through a delirious national and international media campaign, that the elections would be fraudulent and to encourage anti-indigenous racism in the urban middle classes and, consequently, demonize the leadership of Evo Morales.
Later on, they allowed Luis Almagro, OAS Secretary General, to throw a veil of doubt over the transparency of the electoral process and to demand that new elections be held. Accepted by Evo, despite knowing that it was an action of the empire to bring down his process of change, but in an attempt to cut the spiral of savage violence that the right had launched against officials of his government and their families. But the coup d’état was already unstoppable, organized by powerful local economic and geopolitical interests and the empire of the north eager to end an independent, prosperous and socially just Bolivia and to take over its natural resources, including its coveted lithium. They had the support of the police and especially the army, whose chiefs literally bought them with a million dollars. This ensured violent repression by the military of the indigenous and peasant opposition to the coup and led to the bloody massacres in Senkata and Sacaba.
The current situation is very explosive as the Áñez regime is extremely weakened by all that has already been said. So much so, that the lady has not yet signed the decree that the commander of the armed forces is demanding in order to act against the protests. On Wednesday it was announced that the political forces, including the majority MAS of Evo Morales, had agreed to approve a law in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies fixing the elections until October 18, at the latest, as the only and definitive date, with the participation of observers from the UN, the European Union, the Ombudsman’s Office and other national organizations. If this were to be approved, it would be necessary to know the opinion of the COB and of the forces that are in the blockades, with which this solution would have to be negotiated, since up to now many people are still demanding Áñez’s resignation.
Isolated and delegitimized, she does not control the situation. The problem for Washington and the Bolivian right is that, according to the polls, Luis Arce, the MAS candidate, would win the election in the first round, unless he is invalidated to compete. A waiting period has begun where the possibility of a civil-military self-coup is not excluded, as Evo Morales has warned.
Translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau.