If Iowa was in Bolivia, the United States government would be in the process of organizing a coup. The Iowa caucuses were a mess, and much of the blame lies on an app with ties to the Democratic party establishment, including the eventual winner of the Iowa caucuses, Peter Buttigieg. If the idea of a sudden crash in a vote counting system leading to the announcement that an establishment figure was on the way to a presidency sounds familiar, it’s because it is what played out in Bolivia last year. Evo Morales, a socialist reformer, was forced out of office, despite winning an election, due to claims of election fraud tied to the temporary crash of the nation’s vote tallying system. Despite evidence to the contrary, the United States and members of its South American sphere of influence jumped at the opportunity to remove the indigenous leader who had been celebrated throughout his term for lifting a significant proportion of the country out of poverty.

Morales was the first indigenous president of Bolivia and reduced the rate of extreme poverty by more than half

Four days have passed since the Iowa caucuses concluded, and the full results still aren’t in. The fault lies at the feet of a vote counting app that was, ironically, supposed to produce faster results than the traditional method. The app was developed by a company called Shadow Incorporated, and heavily backed by a newly created Democratic establishment organization named ACRONYM. It all sounds like something out of a poorly written spy novel. If that wasn’t questionable enough, Peter Buttigieg gave Shadow Inc. a total of $42,500 earlier in July for services. On top of all this he forced the stifling of polling numbers from Iowa’s most prestigious poll the night before the caucuses, reportedly because a single supporter claimed that his name was missing from the poll. There isn’t yet clear proof of a conspiracy, but the United States has never really needed such clear evidence to justify the initiation or support of a coup.

The vote tally delay that led to Morales’s forced removal lasted 24 hours, which seems relatively inconsequential given the over 72 hour delay with the Iowa caucus results. After the delay, the votes were counted and Morales was declared the winner. Morales was already under threat for being an elected socialist in South America seeking to lift the masses from poverty at the expense of foreign and corporate interests. International forces had long began to rattle their sabers at Morales for daring to seek reelection after having transformed the country and elevating the status of the urban poor and rural indigenous communities. With the window of oppurtunity provided by the tally delay, members of the Bolivian military, with the backing of the U.S government, overthrew the democratically elected Morales. According to the coup plotters and their supporters in the United States, he was violating the constitution by running in the election in the first place and breaching presidential term limits, on top of the fraud committed during the delay. This would be a legitimate concern, if the Supreme Court of Bolivia, which has the power much like in other democracies to interpret their constitution, hadn’t already decided to allow him to run.

It is not the job of the United States to enforce the constitutions of other nations, nor should a country in which a candidate can become president despite losing the popular vote by millions be in a position to question the Supreme Court of another nation. Yet the United States proceeded to threaten and then support the coup that removed the once beloved democratically elected president of Bolivia.

The main evidence against Morales was presented by the Organization of American States, an organization that has functioned as a puppet of the United States for decades as an extension of the Monroe Doctrine era of U.S. imperialism in South America. That evidence was flimsy at best, and made even more suspicious given that Morales was in the midst of calling for another election before he was overthrown by ultra-conservative members of the Bolivian military. While the debacle in Iowa may very well not be a conspiracy, it is certainly more suspicious than what happened in Bolivia, especially given the context of the 2016 elections in which the Democratic party establishment, the Democratic National Committee in particular, fought tooth and nail to prevent the election of self-proclaimed socialist, Bernie Sanders.

The United States has orchestrated dozens of coups and political interventions in South America, including the 1973 coup of democratically elected socialist Salvador Allende

If Iowa was located in Bolivia, U.S backed military leaders would be in the process of arresting members of the Iowa Democratic Party, Buttigieg, and all others involved. Buttigieg would be forced to flee for his life after being replaced by a more suitable puppet. Yet here we are, a few op-eds here and there, but the media and most of the current political establishment remains silent on the matter. Either we need to increase our standards for what we consider a democracy, or we need to cease intervening in the political affairs of other nations. To be frank, the United States is and always has been an oligarchy, and we will remain one until we are at least as willing to fight for a democracy here as we are willing to topple democracies elsewhere.