As usual, the mass media’s reporting on this story is in full alignment with the U.S. State Department, writes Caitlin Johnstone.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
There has been a military coup in Bolivia backed by violent right-wing rioters and the U.S. government, but you’d hardly know this from any of the mainstream media headlines.
“Bolivian President Evo Morales steps down following accusations of election fraud” proclaims CNN.
“Bolivia’s Morales resigns amid scathing election report, rising protests” reports The Washington Post.
“Bolivian Leader Evo Morales Steps Down” says The New York Times.
“Bolivian President Evo Morales resigns amid fraud poll protests” declares the BBC.
“President of Bolivia steps down amid allegations of election rigging” we are informed by Telegraph.
“Bolivia’s President Morales resigns after backlash to disputed election” says the Sydney Morning Herald.
So, there you have it. The indigenous leader of a socialist South American government which has successfully lifted masses of people out of crushing poverty, which happens to control the world’s largest reserves of lithium (which may one day replace oil as a crucial energy resource due to its use in powering smartphones, laptops, hybrid and electric cars), which has an extensive and well-documented history of being targeted for regime change by the U.S. government, simply stepped down due to some sort of scandal involving a “disputed election.” Nothing to do with the fact that right-wing mobs had been terrorizing this leader’s family, or the fact that the nation’s military literally commanded him to step down and are now currently searching for him to arrest him, leading to ousted government officials being rounded up and held captive by soldiers wearing masks.
All perfectly normal and not suspicious at all.
Fully support the findings of the @OAS_official report recommending new elections in #Bolivia to ensure a truly democratic process representative of the people’s will. The credibility of the electoral system must be restored.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 10, 2019
As is usual, mass media’s reporting on this story is in full alignment with the U.S. State Department, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also advancing the “disputed election” line in a tweet shortly before the forced resignation of Morales. Pompeo cited the evidence-free and discredited allegation of suspicious vote tallies during Morales’s re-election last month from the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS). As Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic & Policy Research explains in a recent article for The Nation, the OAS receives 60 percent of its funding from Washington, which gives the U.S. tremendous leverage over the supposedly neutral and international body. This ties in interestingly with what we discussed the other day about Washington’s known history of using its disproportionate financial support for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons as leverage to force that supposedly neutral and international body to comply with U.S. agendas.
The field of narrative management keeps making more and more advances.
They never did find any evidence of fraud in the October 20th election, but the media repeated the allegation so many times that it became "true," in this post-truth world. Thread: https://t.co/8oWFNKNebT
— Mark Weisbrot (@MarkWeisbrot) November 10, 2019
The U.S.-centralized empire just keeps throwing coup attempts at unabsorbed governments until they stick. The coup in Venezuela failed in 2002 and again in 2019, but they’ll just keep attempting them until one takes hold. A kickboxer throws strikes in combinations with the understanding that most attacks will miss or do minimal damage against a trained opponent, but eventually one will get through and score the knockout blow. Imperialist regime change agendas employ the same punches-in-bunches philosophy: just keep attacking and undermining at every possible turn, and eventually something will stick.
And the empire can afford to do this. When you have all the power and resources, you can bide your time, knowing that if the current attempt at toppling the government in a sovereign nation fails, there’s always tomorrow.
At a United Nations Security Council meeting last year, Morales summed up the true nature of America’s role in the world very accurately, and, it turns out, very presciently.
“I would like to say to you, frankly and openly here, that in no way is the United States interested in upholding democracy,” Morales said. “If such were the case it would not have financed coups d’etat and supported dictators. It would not have threatened with military intervention democratically elected governments as it has done with Venezuela. The United States could not care less about human rights or justice. If this were the case, it would have signed the international conventions and treaties that have protected human rights. It would not have threatened the investigation mechanism of the International Criminal Court, nor would it promote the use of torture, nor would it have walked away from the Human Rights Council. And nor would it have separated migrant children from their families, nor put them in cages.”
“The United States is not interested in multilateralism,” Morales continued. “If it were interested in multilateralism it would not have withdrawn from the Paris Agreement or given the cold shoulder to the global compact on migration, it would not have launched unilateral attacks, nor have taken decisions such as illegally declaring Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. This contempt for multilateralism is motivated by the thirst of the United States for political control and for the seizing of natural resources.”
“Each time that the United States invades nations, launches missiles, or finances regime change, it does so behind a propaganda campaign which incessantly repeats the message that it is acting in the course of justice, freedom and democracy, in the cause of human rights or for humanitarian reasons,” Morales also said.
“The responsibility of our generation is to hand over a fairer and more secure world to the following generation,” Morales concluded. “We will only achieve this dream if we work together to consolidate a multipolar world, a world with common rules that are respected by and defended from all the threats ranged against the United Nations.”
Indeed, the only reason the U.S. is able to wage its endless campaign of regime change agendas against unabsorbed governments is because the unipolar world order it rules has allowed it the power, resources and leisure to do so. A multipolar world would enable the citizenry of this planet to have a say in what happens to them in a way that is not dictated by a few sociopaths in and around Washington, DC. A multipolar world is to democracy as a unipolar world is to monarchy. The citizens of the world should oppose this unipolarity.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter, or her website. She has a podcast and a new book “Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.”
This article was re-published with permission.
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Mao and Castro handled the elites and establishment of their respective countries properly. They eliminated them so that they would not be a forever hindrence to the advancement of their countries. The excecutions seem harsh until you see what the elites can, and will do when they are backed by the CIA and undermine the country and it`s goals.To leave the Elites their wealth and land is the same as leaving the rats that have destroyed your house in place while you try and rebuild. No one can argue that the average citizen of Cuba, China and Venezuela are not better off than they were before Chavez, Castro and Mao. The problem for Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, and Chile are that they are in the Western Hemisphere. Therefore doomed to struggle against the Tyrant in the North.Central and South America will never enter the first world so long as the USA exists in it`s present form. The USA is the cross and crown of thornes that Latin America has had to bear since the US revolution.
…the entire US Government makes me sick! …it’s Fascism with a capital ‘F”… …and the South American version has evolved into one of the most diabolical exercises ever, all manipulated from D.C., London and Rome…
USA out of everywhere, beginning with North America.
It happened in Bolivia, and so many other countries.
“It can happen here” in the U.S.
In November 2020, imagine that the Democratic Party candidate wins the
presidential election.
Imagine that the Republican Supreme Court voids the election results
because of “voting violations” cited in a lawsuit brought by the Republican
candidate. (A comparable event occurred in Florida in the 2000 election.)
Imagine right-wing mobs occupying the chambers of Congress, while
the incumbent Republican president orders the Congressional security
force to stand-down.
Imagine right-wing paramilitary militias attacking the DC homes
of the Democratic members of the House and Senate, in the name
of “freedom and democracy”.
Imagine the military intervening to restore “law and order” in the coastal
Democratic cities and states.
Imagine the Republican Attorney General convening a conference with
management boards of the major media corporations. Subsequently,
imagine silence from the broadcast and cable media.
Hysterical hyperbole? Sure.
But just to be safe, the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate
should take pre-emptive pre-cautionary action by asking the FBI
and the Justice Department to investigate and disarm any and all
non-government (corporate, etc) security/paramilitary forces.
How’s the Democrats who have done the same thing that you just stated working out for you? Mr. Miller?
You’re having a laugh, right?
We’ve been witnessing an attempted coup in the USA for the past three years now and it hasn’t been conducted by the ‘right’.
CNN is a very unfair and war monger corporation
Wasn’t ancient Rome acting in a similar and insane way before it collapsed?
How clear an well-expressed is Evo Morales’ statement, and how different from the twittering trash from the Trump Administration and the “free press” media of the USA/UK and their puppets.
As if the USA existed as a free and democratic country, with a well-housed, well- fed, safe, well-educated healthy and free population,untainted by violence, destruction and peaceful cooperation within its “society”.!!!
Fix your own multitude of problems, allow sovereignty to others, be willing to talk, to negotiate, to consider points of view of others than your rich 0.1% .
The mainstream media is subsidized and controlled by mogul owners linked to pentagon, big corporation interest, and WS, . The propaganda machine constructs the narrative to shape and influence our reasoning and emotions. Unfortunately and sadly the corporate media control the market press, the production, and dissemination of new, and its editors, journalists, reporters, and all media professional who internalize the political views of their media owners-bosses.
The Bolivian Military allied with the Outlaw US Empire betrays the people of Bolivia. The Generals have overturned the election which was free and fair. This would have happened in Venezuela if not for the fact that the Venezuelan Military supported the elected President (Maduro). Morales intended to use the countries vast lithium reserves to manufacture end products such as batteries that could be sold abroad. This could have been a significant boost to the Bolivian economy and lifted many more people out of poverty. Was this his real crime? Good article, as always Caitlin. Thank you.
Thank you so much for posting this.
A resignation under threat of violence is null and void. President Morales should form a government in exile.
Pass it on!!
Actually, the impression from the BBC’s article on its app is that it was a coup, the word is used several times, and the pivotal point was the role of the military.
The evil empire will keep inserting itself in other countries, causing chaos and death until it has it’s way, unless they are forcefully stopped.
They always use the same playbook, as you well note. ‘Tell a lie once, and it remains a lie. Tell a lie a thousand times and it becomes the truth’.
‘We will know our disinformation program has been successful when everything the American public believes is false’ (probably not a verbatim quote but very close)
All agreed, except what is wrong with monarchy?! ;)
Hearing of the coup—casually read off a smartphone by a friend yesterday a.m.—knocked my breath out.
Terrible news.
I hope new elections can be called and Morales can come out swinging again.
I loved everything Morales did for the country. ;He was great for Bolivia during his time in office.
But he served his 2 terms and should have left the office.
But his lawyers tried to subvert the constitution. He should have groomed a successor in this election.
Now he’s tainted his legacy and people won’t remember the good he did for Bolivia, only this.
If he’d done what you said, he’d still be in Mexico and his groomed successor with him.
Very surprised to hear this news of the president Morales ‘ resignation.
CIA fingerprints all over this one ,that is more than obvious. Must have been some exchanges of some serious money with the military and police as they supposedly asked for the president’s resignation. I guess Bolivia’s military is not as solid as Venezuela’s in standing beside their dully elected president. OAS being 60 % American funded ,need we say more.
Thank you Caitlin for this report as the public needs to know what has transpired and who the perps are. The usual ones.
The contorsions of Le Monde, the French paper of record, are so ridiculous they could be funny if the situation was not so dramatic.
In the article whose link I put here below, the author speaks of resigantion without ever mentioning the violent circustamces that surrounded it.
In the second paragraph the article goes:
“Mexico decided to grant political asylum to Mr. Morales considering (!!) that ” his life and physical integrity are threatened” ”
Further in the article while describing the violence that has gripped the country, the article quotes a pro coup politician and complains that his house was set on fire. There is no mention of the destruction of private property, and the abduction and the violence against supporters of Morales.
Later in the article when discussing the reaction of Trump the journalist does write the nice euphemism of “forced resignation” which he says Trump applauds.
Then in the last two and a half miserable lines, the journalist writes, without even making a new paragraph that “Cuba and Venezuela, traditionnal allies denounce for their part a coup” no more details, no more explanation, no need to add that this is the position of Argentina, Mexico, sanders, Corbyn, etc…
I feel sincerely sorry for these journaslists, I just cannot believe that they are that stupids…
The US government makes me want to vomit!
As Ms. Johnstone notes, a familiar pattern emerges. If America’s friends win an election, silence or praise. If they lose, it is fraudulent. Iran, Syria, Venezuela, always the winner got there by voter fraud and then the machinery for regime change kicks into high gear.
The effect of our policy is too often suffering, death and impoverishment. Our control over world commerce, our wealth, its use to purchase the world’s watchdog agencies and disregard of international law unless it is useful, all make for a slow burn of resentment of our victims.
The argument can be made that someday we will have our comeuppance but a more realistic goal is our own reform, that we will come to understand how corrupt we have become. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” Lord Acton.
Knowing the criminal nature of the US beast, why did the Morales government not take counter measures since it assumed power in 2005? Such as taking tight control over the police and armed forces – including recruitment and training of personnel, ideological orientation, etc. That goes also for government control of public media, central bank, and natural resources oriented to benefit all of the poorest Bolivians. A revolutionary socialist government must be prepared to meet on all fronts reactionaries bereft of moral scruples. Fire met with fire. Why did the criminal western coup in Venezuela not produce clear lessons for Bolivia? It’s sad and sickening.
You are right, Allen.
But why didn’t he? Probably he was not able to think in such evil terms as would have been necessary.
Probably he was not able to eliminate all the diplomats who were collusing with the US or the complete opposition at that. Probably he was too good?
I wonder if he will be safe living in Mexico? Perhaps he should go to Kuba or even Russia. It seems a miracle that he was able to get there at all. He should not trust any country collaborating with the US. Look what the UK is doing to Julian Assange!
Morales sealed his fate that day at the security council, and our pathetic media masks yet more evil done on our behalf.
As shown in this article, given that the United States continuously uses sanctions to punish Russia for its supposed misdeeds, it is interesting to note that Russia has recently implemented a method of working around these sanctions:
This is yet another in a long line of unintended consequences of Washington’s poorly executed foreign policies.
Sums it up nicely.
The US jackals, as John Perkins called them, continue to pin countries’ heads under their jackboots. The coups in Honduras, Egypt, Ukraine, and now Bolivia, with Venezuela, Lebanon(?) and Nicaragua in their sights, continue to ensure the right puppets are in place, so “democracy” (ie, American theft of their money and resources) can happen. Of course the alternative if these countries resist, is bombing, slaughter, maiming, destruction and displacement from their homes, with obvious examples of what can happen from Iraq, Afghanistan, genocide in Yemen, Syria, Libya and much unreported from Central Africa and Sudan and Somalia.
Morales knows what the US is capable of, the non-stop death squads and narco-states propped up throughout Latin American by the US since Reagan. He had no other choice. And by now Caitlin Johnstone should know there will be nothing on foreign policy published in MSM unless approved by the CIA, the media master. MSM still are free to publish interviews with the Royals and the Rich (excepting CIA-connected pedophiles and sex traffickers, like Epstein, NXIVM, the Finders, which are essential to their domestic policies.)
Unrest is only beginning in Bolivia after the coup led by a violent far-right white supremacist faction (supported by the US -and its lapdogs of the Organization of the American States and the EU – shame on them) against the best president Bolivia has ever known in its history. Now all the country is blocked by strikes an violence, and the people are taking to the streets to denounce the coup are met with extreme violence.
The coup plotters have, of course, no legal justification at all. The announced “interim president” (do we have to get used to it now, after so-called “interim president Juan Guaido” in Venezuela?!) is nowhere to be seen and does not at all control the power. Only violence and repression by the far-right racist plotters of the coup against the legitimate president Evo Morales (those supposed, according to the US and western media “to bring back democracy”) is omnipresent in Bolivia. As far as “democracy” is concerned, even if Evo Morales had rigged the elections (which he did not), he is still supposed, according to the Bolivian constitution, to be the president until next January. Where is the legality? The first thing the far-right coup plotters did was to sack the house the president, Evo Morales (who gladly is now in safety in Mexico), and violently attack elected members of his party. They went as far as cutting the hair of a mayor and parade her in the streets after she was soaked in red paint!! Talk of “democracy”!! These are whom the US administration supports as “legitimate democratic forces”). Many political supporters of legitimate president Morales have been killed as well!!
And the coup plotters don’t seem to have any consideration for any “democratic future” for Bolivia. The fascist and racist far-right linked to US interests in Latin America never had any consideration for democracy. The only use the term as a fig leaf and excuse for their own exactions.
The Bolivian people will no doubt now remind these violent far-right coup plotters that more than half of the country voted for Evo Morales in the recent elections (and his party is still in majority in the Bolivian Parliament) and still support Evo Morales and the change he brought to their country so that more than six million people who were refused their democratic rights, before he was elected 13 years ago, could have, after he became president, access to their basic democratic and political rights until them reserved to the privileged white class. It seems that the now usual neoliberal and neocolonial allies, the US, OAS and UE institutions (who support the racist and fascist white supremacists coup plotters of Bolivia … “in the name of democracy”) don’t approve of the real democracy and better economic and living conditions Evo Morales brought to the vast majority of the Bolivian population.
Does anyone still think that Trump is micromanipulating all of this foreign policy, including all the coups, sanctions and military threats? It is obviously the handiwork of a permanent Deep State that can obstinately never be dislodged. Everyone recruited into government, including all those purportedly “elected” into their office, becomes integrated into the Borg, whether willingly or unwillingly. It disturbs me no end that one of my senators from Florida, the despicable Marco Rubio, is at the tip of the spear in the actions emanating from Washington to “resign” Evo Morales. The other two henchmen in this effort were the megalomaniacal Ted Cruz from Texas and the sleazy Bob Menendez from New Jersey. Why them? Simply because of their Hispanic backgrounds to make it look like they are oh so sympatico with the “repressed” little people from that South American country. You know, just like all of the “Neocon expats” from the old Soviet Union are used to represent to the American people what is going on in and who needs to be overthrown in the present day Russian Federation. The Borg has created a complete Matrix which most of the American public can never penetrate, nor do they want to for the reasons that Agent K explained in the first MIB movie. Most of us are happy in our delusions while the rest of the world chokes with the American bootheel on its throat.