Socialism will never survive if it is forced to live side by side
with Capitalism.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/6/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Bolivia December 5, 2019
How middle class Bolivia learned to stop worrying and love the coup
In and around La Paz, middle class Bolivians have fallen under the spell of
the junta’s propaganda campaign against Evo and his supporters. And with a
presidential election looming, the country’s elites are battling for power.
By Wyatt Reed
La Paz, Bolivia – As a US-backed military coup seized power from Bolivia’s
first indigenous president, Bolivia appeared set for a prolonged political
struggle between outraged citizens and the putschists. But just weeks
later,
the seemingly non-stop violence unleashed by the military has given way to
an uneasy calm, with the new regime having largely achieved its goal of
pacifying the country through a combination of iron-fisted political
repression and co-optation of former MAS leaders and the heads of the
strongest opposition social movements.
Gas is once again being pumped out from Senkata, where the military
massacred almost a dozen residents of El Alto two weeks ago. Basic goods
which has doubled or tripled in price have returned to normal, to the
delight of business owners throughout La Paz–and the working class
stronghold of El Alto, the epicenter of anti-coup protests around the
capital.
“Peace,” declared self-proclaimed Bolivian Pres. Jeanine Añez on Nov. 30th,
“has returned to Bolivia.”
But just what kind of peace, exactly, and for whom?
There has been little peace for the families of the dead, many of whom are
too fearful of state-sanctioned retribution to denounce their loved ones’
killers. Those slayings, which took place mere weeks ago, are now old
wounds, and anyone accused of reopening them them – like the delegation of
Argentine human rights specialists who came to record victims’ testimonies
–
is subject to arbitrary detention, harassment, and threats.
The most notable threat so far came from Interior Minister Arturo Murillo,
who issued a mafia-style warning to the group of “foreigners” whom he
accused of “coming to try to set the country ablaze”: “We’re watching you,
and we’re following you… The first false step you take trying to cause
terrorism or sedition, you’ll be seeing the police.”
“Pacification” is the word on everybody’s lips. Opponents of the coup
regime
are forced to balance their calls for restoring Morales to power with the
desire for stability that most Bolivians now express. Paradoxically, the
poor and working class citizens most likely to have blockaded La Paz and El
Alto are also those most susceptible to the economic consequences of
countrywide disruption.
Even within the working class stronghold of El Alto, there’s a surprisingly
strong contingent of rising middle class residents who were easily taken in
by government propaganda warning them that impoverished Morales supporters
were coming to assault residents and invade their homes. Throughout the
less-impoverished neighborhoods, effigies of thieves hang scarecrow-style
from lampposts and the walls are littered with warnings to would-be
aggressors.
Graffiti in El Alto reads: “This neighborhood is organized. Thieves who are
caught will be lynched!!! Suspicious vehicles will be burned!!!”
“I can’t go out at night because of all these thieves and rapists lurking
about,” one panicked middle class woman from a relatively well-to-do
section
of El Alto, remarked to me. She had spent days glued to the national news,
where every channel has been melded together by the junta into a unitary
propaganda mechanism injecting terror into the minds of its viewers at all
hours. Older Bolivians who do not seek alternative sources of news on
social
media have proven particularly susceptible to the fear-mongering.
One of the many scarecrows hanging in middle class El Alto neighborhoods as
a warning to potential thieves
While the coup’s ruling-class financiers and its middle class supporters
were holed up in their compounds, their much more numerous victims have
borne the brunt of the consequences of the battle to restore the
democratically elected Morales govt, whose term doesn’t expire until
January
22, 2020.
Ironically, these elements are relying on weapons purchased by the
government of Morales to finish their dirty job, and they themselves were,
in many ways, the product of the prosperity that the dreaded former
president brought to the country.
Grown under Evo, the middle class revolts against him
After three successive terms in office, that government has left the
putschists who seized power with poverty and debt-to-GDP halved, and a
series of popular social programs and business initiatives for which the
Añez regime has wasted no time in taking credit.
These plans–mass electrification campaigns, airport renovations, and the
creation of Latin America’s first electric car–are emblematic of the vision
and strategy which even the staunchly anti-communist Washington Post
admitted just weeks before the coup had created an “emerging middle class
of
Bolivians” who “beg to differ” that socialism doesn’t work.
Source: Macrotrends
But in many ways, the creation of this middle-class – and what many MAS
members now lament as a failure to simultaneously mitigate the increasing
self-interestedness of one-time ‘have-nots’ who became ‘haves’ with
educational or cultural reforms – eventually led to the circumstances that
enabled the ruling class to undo it.
People who had nothing now have something to lose. The miners who largely
control the Central Obrera de Bolivia – likely the strongest union in the
country – were among the most militant activists during the 2003 ‘Gas Wars’
in Bolivia, known for their propensity for using their supplies of dynamite
for political ends.
Thanks to massive wage hikes resulting from both the union’s strength and
the sympathy of the Morales-led government, many formerly-impoverished
miners in Bolivia now more closely resemble their US counterparts, driving
around in lifted trucks, purchasing luxury goods and guzzling expensive
alcohol. With the class character of once-revolutionary movements changing,
their class interests shifted as well.
The Bolivian military, whose technological capacities were seriously
strengthened under the administration of Evo Morales, has since used the
hardware purchased by that government to strengthen its grip on power after
overthrowing him on November 10th. The Hercules military transport plane
used to transport beef, chicken, and eggs and mitigate the effects of the
blockades? Purchased by Morales’ government. Helicopters which the Bolivian
Air Forces used to rain down death on activists blocking access to the
Senkata gas plant? 31 of the 39 in their fleet were bought under Morales’
watch. In a cruel irony, the most powerful weapons used to ensure the
overthrow of Morales were in fact purchased by Morales.
Add to all of this a shocking level of unity among the ruling class, and
you
get the perfect recipe for a successful coup. But fractures are once again
appearing as they vie for power in a post-Morales Bolivia, with high-level
functionaries bitterly and publicly denouncing the “transitional
government”
after being fired or resigning.
Just days after his appointment, Viceminister of Political Communications
Danilo Romano renounced the position, stating on Facebook that he was
unwilling to issue draconian layoffs of his staff.
The temporary unity of the Bolivian elite is rapidly becoming a circular
firing line, as power brokers jostle for leadership positions in the next
government – and for the presidency. In paving the way for her own run for
the office she currently occupies illegitimately, Jeanine Áñez fired one of
her top ministers, Minister Jerjes Justiniano, apparently because he was
insufficiently loyal.
The far-right paramilitary organizer and leader of the coup, Luis Fernando
Camacho, has also thrown his hat into the race, securing alliances with at
least five parties. However, Camacho’s fellow right-wing powerbroker, Marco
Pumari of the Potosi Civic Committee, has so far resisted joining his
campaign.
For its part, MAS has yet to decide who or how it will vie for the
presidency. Though the party’s ranks have winnowed out since the post-coup
purge, its most ideologically dedicated adherents remain in the fight.
From his exile in Mexico, Bolivia’s most popular politician, Evo Morales,
is
vowing to return home to oversee a campaign in which he is forbidden from
running. Wanted for unspecified “crimes against humanity,” the ousted
leader
has been defiant:
“Am I more useful in exile in Mexico or jailed in Bolivia? I will be where
I’m most useful…” Morales stated. “I was imprisoned and that doesn’t scare
me.”
Wyatt Reed
Wyatt Reed is a Virginia-based activist and journalist who covers climate
and racial justice movements and foreign policy issues. Follow him on
