

11 November 2019

11 November 2019

For Workers Resistance Against Rightist Bolivian Coup



Police in rightist bastion of Santa Cruz celebrate coup d'état against government of Evo Morales, November 10. (Photo: AFP) Police in rightist bastion of Santa Cruz celebrate coup d'état against government of Evo Morales, November 10.

Yesterday, Sunday, November 10, a coup d’état was carried out in Bolivia that has been in the works since the elections of last October 20, and in reality long before that. The trigger for the overthrow of the government was the sinister mutiny of the police, followed by the declaration of the heads of the armed forces calling on President Evo Morales to step down. The “civic-police-military” coup has a pronounced rightist and racist character, directed against the indigenous population which has been the main political base of Morales’ Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS). A key role has been played by fascistic elements sponsored by the ultra-racist Santa Cruz elite. All those who seek to defend the basic rights of working people and the oppressed are now in danger in the face of this reactionary onslaught.

Around Latin America, “center-left” politicians (like Lula in Brazil) are praising Morales, whom the coup plotters want to eliminate. The Mexican government has granted asylum to various members of the deposed government. The capitulation to the coup of the Bolivian president and his vice president, Álvaro García Linera, who resigned along with various officials of the MAS, is an expression of the bourgeois character of this party and its submission to the dictates of the Organization of American States (OAS), the infamous “Yankee Ministry of Colonies.” Once again, as in Chile in 1973, we see the mortal danger of illusions spread by populist and reformist leaderships in the “unity of the people” with the armed forces and the police.



Internationalists at protest outside Trump Tower in New York City against coup in Bolivia, November 11. (Internationalist photo) Internationalists at protest outside Trump Tower in New York City against coup in Bolivia, November 11.

We of the League for the Fourth International categorically oppose the rightist coup, fighting for the full political independence of the proletariat from all bourgeois parties and politicians, including the MAS, which has coopted the worker and peasant leaderships and repressed workers who fight back. Against the Bolivian coup, we insist on the need for a revolutionary proletarian policy, fighting for a workers, peasants and Indian government.

At the same time, we call to organize the self-defense of organizations and communities of urban and rural workers, and the indigenous peoples, against the attacks of the rightist coup organizers, which have already begun. Above all, we fight to drive the main authors of coups throughout the continent, the Yankee imperialists, out of Bolivia and out of Latin America.

It is urgently necessary to draw the lessons of this entire experience. To do so, it is necessary to forge a genuinely Leninist-Trotskyist vanguard party. Sections and locals of the LFI, its supporters and sympathizers are participating with the following slogans in emergency protests being organized for today:

Against Bolivia Coup

Fight for a

Revolutionary

Workers, Peasants &

Indians Government

Bolivian Workers:

Smash the Coup!

Yankee Imperialism

Out of Bolivia

And Latin America

Against Bolivia Coup

For Revolutionary

Class Politics

No Political Support

to the MAS

For Worker-

Peasant-Indian

Self-Defense

Against Racist

Rightist Attacks