“The New Bolivian Democracy”. Click to see full-size image
UPDATE: A spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, clarified the position of Russia towards the crisis:
It is true that Sergey Ryabkov said when answering questions from journalists that Russia will treat Jeanine Anez as “Bolivia’s leader,” but he went on to add that this will last “until the election takes place.” There has to be clarity on this point in terms of the words we use. We are not talking about recognising what happened in Bolivia as a legitimate process. This is not something we are dealing with here.
We have already shared our perspective with the international community. Let me remind you that Russia expressed its concern with what had happened in Bolivia. In the course of a domestic political crisis in the country the government’s determination to find constructive dialogue-based solutions was wiped out by developments typical of a well-orchestrated government coup. We have not changed our perspective since.
We also took note of the subsequent developments when, unfortunately, senior government officials were removed from office and left the country. You are also aware of the fact that Russia called on all political forces in Bolivia to use their best judgement and show responsibility in order to find a constitutional way out of this situation in the interests of peace and calm, putting government institutions back in control, ensuring the rights of all citizens and promoting the country’s socioeconomic development.
It is against this backdrop that the statement by Sergey Ryabkov must be interpreted.
***
On November 14th, protests and clashes in Bolivia continued, both in support of self-proclaimed interim president Jeanine Anez and in support of former President Evo Morales.
Continuing from the previous days, the indigenous people, as Evo Morales was also one, didn’t stop their protests.
A user on Twitter used the chance to remind an old tweet by Jeanine Anez, from 2013:
The new President of Bolivia: "I dream of a Bolivia free of satanic indigenous rites, the city is not for the Indians who should stay in the highlands or the Chaco". pic.twitter.com/nMwKx21nKp
— dont_panic (@dont_panic) November 13, 2019
To further exacerbate the situation, the Bolivian Parliament, by a majority vote, and with a quorum, elected the new head of the lower house, Sergio Choke. Like Morales, Choke is a representative of the indigenous peoples of Bolivia, who make up the majority of the population.
Click to see full-size image
Click to see full-size image
Click to see full-size image
He said that Evo Morales is the constitutional president of the country, after which he issued a decree requiring the army to leave the streets of Bolivian cities and return to the barracks.
De jure a dual power was formed – a parliament that supported Morales and the coup organizers led by Anez. In the coming days, the parties will obviously consolidate their forces for the subsequent struggle for power.
There are videos circulating on Twitter showing Evo Morales supporters gathering to fight against the opposition that seized power. It is notable that these videos were published by the official Twitter account of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Сторонники Эво Моралеса захватили шоссе, ведущее от Ла-Паса к городу Альто-Бени и обратились к гражданам Боливии с обращением:
"Товарищи! Спящий лев проснулся! Время боя пришло! Да здравствует Эво Моралес! Да здравствует Вифала!"#боливия #bolivia pic.twitter.com/r1v2YaGXuR— Донецкая Республика (@dnrpress) November 14, 2019
The first tweet translates to:
“Supporters of Evo Morales seized the highway leading from La Paz to the city of Alto Beni and appealed to the citizens of Bolivia with the appeal: “Comrades! The sleeping lion has woken up! The battle has come! Long live Evo Morales! Long live Bethal!””
And the second one translates to:
“Several thousand supporters of Evo Morales arrived in the city of El Alto, where they will unite with local self-defense forces to “stop the racist coup d’etat carried out by the United States and the oligarchs with the complicity of the army and police …”
At the same time, the opposition, following the coup is struggling with consolidating power.
Following the appointment of Sergio Choke, parliament also refused to acknowledge Anez as the legitimate president of Bolivia, since she assumed the interim-president post against the constitution without a vote from the parliament.
Against the backdrop of large-scale protests of the indigenous population and peasants, as well as some trade unions, which stated that they did not recognize the coup’s seizure of power, the Chamber of Deputies of the Bolivian Parliament announced that the deputies did not recognize the coup and considered Evo Morales the legitimate president of the country.
At the same time, only Morales’ party has a quorum to take decisions, but the coup-organizers are clearly not interesting in taking such decisions and are attempting to make unilaterally.
In the context of the complete collapse of the highest executive power, the supreme legislative body of Bolivia, in fact, declared its non-recognition of the coup. Morales supporters have a majority there and have virtually blocked attempts to pass a resolution that would legitimize Morales’s resignation.
Essentially, the coup-plotters can now only resign to force to impose their rule and push Morales’ resignation through.
Evo Morales also announced that he considers himself the president of Bolivia, until Parliament resigns. And since the resignation was not accepted, then Morales is still the president legally, and the coup-plotters could not legally legitimize the seizure of power.
Meanwhile, more than 1000 supporters of Morales were arrested per day, the scope of repression against opponents of the coup is progressively escalating. A civil war nears dangerously close.
At the same time, Venezuelan President Maduro called on the armed forces to fulfill their duty to the people and restore Morales back to his position.
The Parliament of Argentina condemned the military coup in Bolivia and the attack on Bolivian democracy.
Cuba, Mexico, and Nicaragua also described the events in Bolivia, accompanied by violent rallies, attacks on officials, arson incidents, and occupation of buildings, as a coup.
At the same time, both the US and Russia recognized Jeanine Anez’ coup government.
The US’ support was expressed by Acting Assistant Secretary for US Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Michael Kozak.
El presidente interino del Senado, Añez, asumió las responsabilidades del presidente interino de #Bolivia. Esperamos con interés trabajar con ella y otras autoridades civiles del país mientras organizan elecciones libres y justas lo antes posible de acuerdo con la constitución.
— Michael G. Kozak (@WHAAsstSecty) November 13, 2019
“Acting Senate President Anez has assumed responsibilities of Interim Constitutional President of Bolivia. We look forward to working with her [Anez] and Bolivia’s other civilian authorities as they arrange free and fair elections as soon as possible, in accordance with Bolivia’s Constitution”, Kozak wrote.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow recognizes the acting president of Bolivia, Senator Janine Agnes as head of state, but only until an election is organized.
This decision was made due to the fact that it was she who was to take the place of the interim head of the republic in accordance with the law after the resignation of the leadership. At the same time, the events preceding the change of power in the country, the Russian side regards as a coup.
The new authorities in Bolivia recognized the opposition politician Juan Guaido as the president of Venezuela, while Russia continues to consider the legitimate president of Nicolas Maduro.
Russia’s attempts to be neutral in its international relations is somewhat commendable, since it would like to show that it is prepared to partner with any side in order to avoid any escalations. This is obvious even in its international policy towards the US and its agressive proxies – diplomatic channels are always the go-to response, prior to any other actions.
The decision to recognize Bolivia’s coup government, even in such a “conditional” manner is questionable and it may lead to Russia losing an ally in Latin America.
Events in Venezuela were a very obvious example that the US’ competitors in the face of China, Russia and Cuba could foil regime change attempts, at the detriment of some diplomatic relations.
It is questionable whether losing the country with the biggest lithium reserves as an ally is the wisest move in hindsight.
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Another proof that christianity is one of the most evil religions and the USA is the most evil empire humanity ever created….
Scratch this surface a little bit and you will find something even more evil
Russia hastily recognized the opposition leader. Or Bolivia’s parliament was slow to act. lol Who will win will now be determined by the military
…and it’s the rank and file military who have the power and duty to turn on their traitorous general officer corps, and any otherwise racist military leadership.
The hegemon thinks it has finally secured a regime-change victory in Bolivia but I believe it’s interference will rebound to bite their exceptional backsides …. the momentum to return true democracy in Bolivia will spread elsewhere in Latin America and beyond, and the empire’s days of ruling a unipolar world by force are well and truly numbered.
My sentiments exactly.
The AngloZioNazi-Parasites are desperately searching for a new Host to prey upon….They need New Blood…
I think this Russian decision to recognize Anez is the first foreign policy gaff that I have seen Russia make, but even it is qualified support, that is, temporary. Instead of recognition, in view of the fact that Russia considers this a coup, Russia should have held to the high road on principal, instead of hedging their bets…that or remained silent in being neutral. Regardless, Russia will repair this damage much easier than the US will be able to do when this coup fails. It appears as though the indigenous are not backing down and realize all too well what the consequences of losing will be. Anez made her opinion of them well known years before. The support of her puppets and their support of Guano was to be expected as they are the same, backed by the same. But this also showed Bolivians that this was indeed a coup and that they were being led by the US, just as in Venezuela. Then there is Camacho, who is waiting in the wings for Anez to hand him the reins. He showed his face too soon and this was probably an impetus for Bolivians to realize just where the Zionists intended to take Bolivia. If this coup fails and it looks as though it will, the stage will be set for the expulsion of US and Israeli influence sooner than later. When this is all said and done, Morales will need to weed out the traitors from the military and security forces. At least he will know who is for Bolivia and who are for sale. I hope this is an indication of the US going too far, too fast and that it exposes the US agents in all SA.
I think that in this case Russian commitment to law (case that ” it was she who was to take the place of the interim head of the republic in accordance with the law”) went a bit too far. But lets see how it unfolds.
I doubt this is going to really hurt Russian relations in the long run. Russia has earned some very strong support in SA due to it’s support of Maduro. That will not be lost on the people there. Yes, they might have stepped on a toe or two, but I imagine that those in politics fully understand why. Should Morales be returned to office in the near future, Russia will fully back him. Russia’s stance on supporting ‘the law” is to be understood as that, regardless that it put them in agreement with the US for the moment (GAG). I seriously doubt that Morales will be ill disposed towards Russia in the future and will cultivate an even stronger relationship, if for no other reason than to block US efforts to destabilize Bolivia. Russia has developed economic resistance avenues that many more countries are going to find valuable in surviving the Zionist onslaught. Bolivia is going to become the next US target for destruction and solutions to US sanctions, that WILL be forthcoming if the coup fails, will be necessary.
I would suggest that we wait and see how it unfolds. Russia is not current US establishment with “2 moves combinations” (at best) habbit. While I don’t like this move in itself I prefer to give it time and see what comes next.
The Self Declared government with military traitor support are now in an awkward position. If they use lethal force to subjugate the majority of Chileans there will be a backlash from those who favour real democracy
The US coup plotters can no longer play the innocent victim strategy.
If Bolivia’s army shoves the re-elected president out the door, I don’t think you can hide behind the law if you play along with that. Maybe Russia and China can’t be everywhere at once, at least not without spending as much money as Uncle Sam does to be everywhere at once. But if you didn’t foresee a “Whom else can we overthrow” reaction after the regime-change troubles in Venezuela, you aren’t learning quickly enough. Weak, weak, all around.
Learning quickly enough? During past 5 years I’ve seen lots of your “smart” comments regarding Russia doesn’t do this and that. I’ve also seen many prediction from your side. 99% of those turned out to be false. As a result I think that you’re in a very “Weak, weak, all around.”(c) position to say anything meaningful regarding Russia’s foreign politics. More than that, you proved that you’re not in a position to comprehend how and why Russia is doing this or that. When results on the ground prove your predictions to fail once again than you’re nowhere to be seen :)
Yes, I agree with you. Ma_Laoshi has always been disingenuous.
Glad to disagree. He is one of my favorites.
We debate, therefore we can disagree without having a hissy fit :)
I was “nowhere to be seen” because I took up an actual laoshi job in China, which means that one has to do some homework before one can once more log in and disagree with one’s SouthFront buddies.:-) No surprise you’re still a good patriot; but when I talk about “learning quickly” and write “weak, weak”, I was first of all referring to the Morales government; it would not be right for Russia to barge into this mess uninvited. Still, had Russian intelligence been as good as it is claimed to be, they could have made a phone call “Hey Evo, they’re coming for you” at a time when this still could’ve made a difference.
If I’m wrong now and then, then at least I’m making falsifiable predictions–but isn’t that how the game should be played. But please be more specific. As for now, if we look past the day-to-day drama, the Syrian stalemate continues; the Americans like it there because nobody is bothering them, unlike in Afghanistan. Let me immediately make another prediction for your amusement when it fails: the Dark Throne will destroy the oil wells before letting Syria have them–that resource is gone. Commanders who win wars would’ve acted fast, fast, fast to take such a key objective.
Indeed I sometimes don’t understand what Russia is doing. If John Helmer’s reporting is to be believed, top security officials in Moscow also have doubts about the extent to which the Putin-Peskov tandem is using Syrians land (which is not theirs to give) to appease Turkey. And just this week George Galloway wrote a piece “Who will want to be China’s friend if China can’t protect them from Uncle Sam’s fury?” None of these prove anything, except that these are opinions which reasonable people can have. On the other hand at least Nord Stream II is going ahead for now, so we’ll see how it’ll all play out.
My own expectations have been confounded most strongly in Hong Kong. I have reasons to care about that place, and it’s a bit shocking to see the great and good over there do nothing to protect their city. But I haven’t written that much about Hong Kong here.
Russia shouldn’t rush anyway
imagine the supporters of Morales keep resisting, witch is their right to do, and the military and police start to push them violently and we have casualties, whom we will blame?
drumpf interprets the Monroe doctrine as condoning ‘all means possible’ interventions throughout the hemisphere to keep raw materials flowing northward no matter what the consequences for peoples living near the lithium, petroleum & precious minerals. The American parasites must fail…
The real indigenous Bolivians had better secure the Lithium mines, else a US base will be placed there to protect them. As for Russia have they not learn’t the lesson from Ukraine.
Russia is a big business venture, for the most part, and while it gives a lot of good lip service to international law etc, it’s policies and announcements regarding Bolivia are reprehensible – I have no faith in them as far as south america goes.
fact is too, they have little to no leverage across most of the south american continent, in spite of their BRICS things, another business venture