In November of last year, a U.S. backed right-wing coup removed Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous president in 14 years, from office and exiled him from the country. The coup was fueled by the Organization of American States (OAS), which issued a statement the day after Morales was reelected in which they made allegations of fraud regarding the election’s results without any evidence to back it up.
The IOA continued issuing reports backing up their claim of fraudulent election results even after their original statement was proven wrong. Continuing a history of US imperialistic intervention in Latin America and opposition to the continents’ emerging socialist movements, the Trump administration and multiple U.S. politicians backed the coup. Opponents said that the fraudulent election kept the Movement Towards Socialism party (MAS) in power and encouraged a new election to take place.
WaPo, CNN, BBC and the New York Times— not even a mention of Bolivia’s election results in their top stories section. These same outlets which smeared Morales as a dictator are now peculiarly silent after the landslide victory of his leftist MAS party. pic.twitter.com/J27ntq6CL0
— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) October 19, 2020
Almost a year after the coup, a new election has finally taken place and Luis Arce, the candidate for MAS, won by a landslide. MAS is a party beloved by the Bolivian people as it has reduced the country’s extreme poverty rate by 60%, the poverty rate by 40%, and has increased support for socialism in that country.
Morelos had been criticized for what many called an authoritarian ruling. Amongst changing Bolivia’s constitution once elected in order to remain in power past the two-term limit, Morales limited certain freedoms (like censoring the press) for what he said was the good of the people. Despite this, the Bolivian people democratically elected him into office in 2019.
On Monday morning, the opposing parties resigned and Arce was declared the winner of the election. Many supporters from across the world took to twitter to celebrate this historic return despite U.S. intervention.
