"This Is Not What America Stands for" -- except, uh, in Latin America

[Judi Lynn]

Post on: January 8, 2021 Nathaniel Flakin

The United States has long supported right-wing protests to subvert elections. This is so common that there’s a joke about it: Why has there never been a military coup in the U.S.? Because there is no U.S. embassy there.



Military police celebrating the ouster of Bolivian President Evo Morales in 2019. Photo: Daniel Walker

This is not what America stands for.” That’s what Thom Thillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina, wrote on Twitter while a right-wing mob was marauding through the Capitol. This sentiment was echoed throughout the liberal media and by members of both the Republican and Democratic Parties, who repeated the refrain that “America is better than this.” The right-wing riot was clearly not a “fascist coup attempt” by any stretch. But the images coming out of the Capitol looked eerily similar to actions that the U.S. regime regularly supports in other countries, especially in Latin America.

Racist fanatics forcing their way into a government building, with the tacit support of the police, in order to overturn the results of an election in which Black and Brown people played an important role — that may sound like an apt description of what happened in D.C. yesterday. But it is also what happened in La Paz on November 9, 2019, when proto-fascists stormed Bolivia’s presidential palace in order to stop the reelection of Evo Morales. Just like at the Capitol building, the police stood down and let the racists rampage.

Those protesters installed a coup regime run by the racist religious fundamentalist Jeanine Áñez. Resistance by indigenous people and unions to the coup was repressed with brutal violence. Despite this, the coup government was recognized by the U.S. just days later — and also by the UK, the EU, and right-wing governments in Latin America.

Behind the scenes, the U.S. government — via both diplomatic and clandestine channels — had long supported right-wing forces in Bolivia’s eastern provinces in their attempts to topple Morales center-left government. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been very open about his support for efforts by the U.S.-controlled Organization of American States to subvert the election results.

More:
https://www.leftvoice.org/this-is-not-what-america-stands-for-except-uh-in-latin-america