A year after coup, Evo Morales' party returns to power in Bolivia elections

[anon73430903]

@liquidus

There was a referendum to allow Morales to run for a third term, which was rejected and then overturned by Bolivia’s highest court citing the human right to participate in government. After the election that involved a period where vote counts stopped being reported and then Morales won by just enough to not go to a runoff, there were weeks of demonstrations that got violent and were suppressed by military and police. Once an independent audit, fully supported by the Bolivian government, revealed some weird election chicanery, the military and police said, the demonstrators have a political solution and we’re not going to act against them anymore and maybe you should step aside because this situation has gotten too intense and volatile.

Nothing you said there rules out a coup.

A 2016 study categorizes coups into four possible outcomes:[18]

• Failed coup
• No regime change, such as when a leader is illegally shuffled out of power without changing the identity of the group in power or the rules for governing
• Replacement of incumbent dictatorship with another
• Ouster of the dictatorship followed by democratization (also called “democratic coups”)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053168016630837

This looks like a type 4 coup from that list, but it could have easily been type 3.

@liquidus

But maybe you’re of the opinion that Morales should have ordered the military to suppress the demonstrators even more forcefully?

If you believe that I think that then you don’t know the first thing about me.

@liquidus

Maybe Hosni Mubarak was also overthrown in a coup because the military said, “please step aside these political demonstrations are getting too violent”?

Going by the above definition of outcomes, yes. I don’t have to like the guy or his leadership to think it was a coup.

[liquidus]

Mostly I don’t think it’s a coup because it was violent demonstrations by popular opposition that convinced Morales to resign. The final stroke was the military and national police telling him that they wouldn’t suppress demonstrations anymore after electoral shenanigans were revealed and that a peaceful solution would be better.

If you believe that I think that then you don’t know the first thing about me.

I didn’t actually think you believed that. But in this case, I’m genuinely curious what you think Morales’ options were given his situation.

[anon73430903]

@liquidus

Mostly I don’t think it’s a coup because it was violent demonstrations by popular opposition that convinced Morales to resign. The final stroke was the military and national police telling him that they wouldn’t suppress demonstrations anymore after electoral shenanigans were revealed and that a peaceful solution would be better.

That rules out a lot of de facto and de jure coups.

@liquidus

But in this case, I’m genuinely curious what you think Morales’ options were given his situation.

I’m an anarcho-communist, or close to one. I actively try to avoid ending up in his situation, whether it be in 2006 or 2019. If I were in Bolivia my political allegiance would be with Fejuve.

Following principles of counterpower/dual power, the least dangerous option was Evo Morales. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous, just that the alternative was more damaging to Fejuve, and our shared goals.

FEJUVE

tl;dr version: I wouldn’t have been elected in the first place, by my own choice.

[anon73430903]

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