Bolivia Withdrew From Bolivarian Alliance Day After Organization Condemned Coup
Jeanine Áñez, the opposition senator who has claimed Bolivia’s interim presidency, arrives at the government palace in La Paz. Photograph: Juan Karita/AP
Bolivian Foreign Minister Karen Longaric announced the country’s withdrawal from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), a day after the organization condemned of the coup in the country.
On November 15, the post-coup regime announced that Bolivia leaves the ALBA and intends to withdraw from the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). The announcement was made by Karen Longaric, Bolivian Minister of Foreign Affairs appointed by the new Acting President, Jeanine Anez.
“We have withdrawn from alba and are planning to leave unasur,” Longaric said.
The new government also removed the Bolivian representative to the United Nations Sacha Llorenti, ambassador to Cuba Ariana Campero, and 80% of Bolivia’s ambassadors appointed at the time of Evo Morales. Longaric claimed that the appointed persons are not career diplomats, but political agents of Evo Morales and the Movement to Socialism. This is a common rhetoric for all regimes that took power during some kind of a coup.
On November 14, the Foreign Ministers and Heads of Delegation of the ALBA member countries met in Nicaragua’s Managua for an extraordinary meeting of the political council during which they condemned the “coup d’etat against the legitimate President of Bolivia, Evo Morales”. Diego Pary, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Evo Morales, who refused to resign after the coup, participated in the meeting.
At the same time, 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.The head of the lower house declared 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.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, along with his vice-president and leaders of both houses of parliament, announced their resignation on November 10 as a result of the violent coup staged by the opposition backed by the US and its regional allies.
Riots began after the October 20 presidential election won by Morales under a pretext that Morales achieved his victory using the fraud. No evidence was provided, but the Western propaganda machine and local radicals turned the country into a state of chaos.
The former President left for Mexico, which granted him political asylum. On November 13, Second Deputy Speaker Jeanine Anez declared herself the acting President. Supporters of Morales took the streets to defend the democratically-elected president. However, the new government immediately used the army to suppress them.
Additionally, the new government started a quick review of the country’s priorities in the foreign and domestic policies. The opposition, backed by the global capital is aiming to reverse the gains of the socialist government of Morales that has achieved an economic breakthrough and overcome poverty over the past years. One of the main goals is to drop low taxes imposed on large companies, first of all the gas industry, and go forward with the lithium deposits developing project rejected by Morales (The region has 50% to 70% of the world’s lithium reserves in the Salar de Uyuni salt flats).
The post-coup government is racing to rescue interests of international corporations in Bolivia and defend interests of its new best friend, the United States.
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