Letter to the Editor: U.S. wrongly interferes in key Bolivian election

(This was a letter to the editor published in November of 2019. The right wing coup I address in this letter was successfully reversed by indigenous activists over the course of 2020. The nation held elections and Evo Morales’ party, MAS or Movement Towards Socialism, won in a landslide.)

The United States just executed a military coup in Bolivia. Evo Morales was elected with 47 percent of the vote, while an opposition candidate won 37 percent percent of the vote and third-party candidates won 16 percent of the vote. Instead of respecting the democratic election of Morales, the Organization of American States (which gets 60 percent of its funding from the United States) announced the Bolivian election to be fraudulent without any evidence. The organization then threw all of its media power behind right-wing opposition leader Jeanine Áñez. With this support, a right-wing military junta forced the democratically elected Morales to resign. Suspiciously, most leaders of the junta were trained by the United States.

The Trump administration, as well as Republican and Democratic politicians, applauded this military junta as “a restoration of democracy.” These politicians seem willing to support new elections — if a right-wing leader is elected.

Why are even left-wing U.S. politicians so eager to overthrow President Morales? Manufacturing. Morales decreased poverty in Bolivia from 60 percent to under 40 percent and doubled economic growth. However, his policies also decreased the profits of foreign companies in Bolivia substantially, some of which were American. This made him a target of U.S. politicians.

Do not take this information from me, take it from the 850 academics and experts who signed an open letter in The Guardian demanding the U.S. allow democracy in Bolivia. Take it from experts at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. The U.S. just destroyed Bolivian democracy.

– Siegrid Tuttle, Erie