On 22 January, hundreds of thousands of Bolivians flooded streets across the country in a show of support for the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) of Evo Morales, and against the coup government of self-proclaimed president Jeanine Anez. The working class and peasantry continue to mobilise against the viciously right-wing coup forces, the persecution of activists, journalists and doctors, and sweeping privatisation. The coup regime is determined to suppress the popular movements ahead of new parliamentary and presidential elections called for 3 May. CASSANDRA HOWARTH reports.
Repression and privatisation
Since seizing power in October, the Anez regime has instigated a programme of mass privatisation, in what has been dubbed a ‘fire sale of the country’s considerable natural resources’ (MintPress News, 21 January 2020). Under Morales, huge swathes of the economy were nationalised, generating $31.5bn over a decade, which was invested in social programmes and infrastructure, making Bolivia the fastest growing economy in the region. The US and its proxies in the Anez government are working overtime to reprivatise Bolivia’s industry and resources. In addition to selling off strategic sectors of the economy, the government has embarked on a programme of ‘restructuring’ state-owned companies such as Entel – a communication company that provides coverage in rural areas. The company’s pre-coup director is facing criminal charges. He is just one of many. The regime has cracked down on most state-owned companies. National media stations have been shut down and the international anti-imperialist TeleSUR channel has been forced off air. Journalists have been arrested, disappeared or killed. A secret police force, masked, armed and SWAT-like, has been set up to suppress ‘subversive voices’ and an Al-Jazeera journalist was teargassed at point-blank range live on air.
Social leaders have been attacked by fascist mobs. Doctors who worked with internationalist medical teams sent, pre-coup, by socialist Cuba and now expelled, are being rounded up and paraded around in vests marked ‘arrested’ by masked armed police; a hospital administrator who treated some of those injured by government forces hasn’t been heard from since her arrest. New ‘anti-terror’ squads recently arrested 14 human rights delegates from Argentina. A fascist group surrounded the home of former Interior Minister Carlos Romero for over 48 hours, shutting off his water supply and refusing to allow food in, causing him to be hospitalised. The regime then arrested him on fake charges.
In the run-up to the 22 January protests, 70,000 security forces were mobilised in La Paz and Cochabamba to crack down on ‘dissent’. Parades of armed tanks and soldiers took place in busy areas of the cities. MintPress’s Ollie Vargas explained: ‘The purpose … is to intimidate people ahead of possible protests on 22 January… The military is preparing for war-style operations if marches do arrive in the city. It was there to show what repression could come.’
Resistance
These fascist forces know that the movement of the working class and indigenous people poses a real threat to their plans to restructure Bolivia in the interests of imperialism. In some areas such as Plan 3000, the largest working-class and indigenous area in Santa Cruz, and Chapare, a MAS stronghold, the military and police have been forced out. An agglomeration of leading workers’ organisations based in Cochabamba has brought together transport workers, women’s federations, students, small traders, unions and indigenous organisations which led the march on 22 January. Immediately following the coup in October, a two-week blockade of La Paz and of major oil refineries forced the coup government to make concessions (see FRFI 273).
The upcoming elections: neither free nor fair
In November the coup regime had to concede that MAS would be allowed to stand in the new elections, albeit without Morales as a candidate. Many MAS ministers and potential candidates have been arrested, forced to flee or had false criminal charges brought against them to prevent them standing. In mid-January the MAS announced that its presidential candidate for the May election will be Luis Arce Catacora, former Minister of Finance, with former Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca as vice-president. Within 24 hours of Catacora’s candidacy being announced, the coup regime announced criminal charges against him, and there are fears he could be jailed before the election. Supporters of MAS from the social movements feel that the lack of senior ministers from the indigenous movements weakened Morales, and they hope that Choquehuanca, who is from the campesino movement, will change that. Andronico Rodriguez, a hugely popular indigenous union organiser supported by Morales was prevented by travel restrictions from attending a selection meeting in Argentina at the beginning of the year. Many in the progressive movement are disappointed that Rodriguez didn’t make the ticket, seeing him as far more radical than Catacora. However, Rodriguez is urging his supporters to unite behind Catacora and Choquehuanca.
Although there are clearly tensions within MAS, the left understands the need to unite against the coup regime. In the reactionary camp, however, the thieves have already begun to fall out. The main presidential candidates for the right are coup president Anez, fascist Luis Camacho and US-proxy Carlos Mesa. Many who supported the coup, including regime change operative Jhanisse Vaca Daza and other young right-wing activists, are expressing discomfort with Anez standing for President. Mesa has historically received a large majority of the Santa Cruz vote, and the middle class sees him as a safe pair of hands. However, he could find himself side-lined by Camacho, a leader of the fascist Pro Santa Cruz Committee and a key architect of the coup. Although they’re divided, their interests have a powerful backer in US imperialism and it is clear that there will be no limit to the repression meted out and the dirty tricks employed to undermine MAS’s electoral chances.
The regime has already threatened to disenfranchise the Chapare region, and Bolivians living in Argentina, 82% of whom vote MAS, are facing unexplained bureaucratic obstacles when trying to register to vote. The technical aspects of the election are being organised by the reactionary Organisation of American States and USAID, both of which were involved in stealing the election in October. The regime’s imperialist backers no doubt calculate that a campaign of terror on the one hand, and fraud on the other, will ensure that its proxies in one form or another scrape through the election and provide a façade of legitimacy for their plans to control and restructure Bolivia. The working class and indigenous movements are organising to prevent them; the only chance for any justice is continued class struggle until the election and beyond.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 274, February/March 2020
