Update: Bolivian right wing ex-president sentenced to ten years in prison for orchestrating a coup

[Signifyin(g)Monkey]

Good.

 

Morales definitely hurt his reputation with the last election, but unlike real autocrats like Chavez—or Pinochet and all the dictators propped up by the Chicago School—he stepped down when the people objected.

 

In any case, he showed that a smart and moderate mode of socialism that utilizes the best aspects of capitalism and market systems *is* capable of  producing broad-based prosperity, and provided an example of a good alternative to either the Chicago School’s right-wing ‘sell off the commons to multinationals, establish plutocracy and call it ‘the Free Market’’ prescription for Latin America, or Chavismo’s radical, empty-headed excesses:

 

“Strong economic growth has allowed Bolivia to reduce poverty by 42 percent and extreme poverty by 60 percent since President Evo Morales took office in 2006.“

http://cepr.net/press-cente...

 

Hopefully his successors don’t blow it by bowing once again to the IMF’s predatory and destructive policies, or go the way of Venezuela and fail to retain the  moderation and adept use of  market structures that kept Morales’s version of socialism viable.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

 

[GeneticBlueprint]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/11/10/americas/bolivia-new-election-audit/index.html

 

 

Quote

A series of alleged irregularities -- including failures in the chain of custody for ballots, alteration and forgery of electoral material, redirection of data to unauthorized servers and data manipulation -- impacted the official vote count, the OAS said.

 

In the hours after polls closed, preliminary results showed Morales slightly ahead of his opponent, former President Carlos Mesa. The tight margin would have prompted a runoff vote in December.

 

But the opposition and international observers became suspicious after election officials stopped the count for about 24 hours without an explanation. When the count resumed, Morales' lead had jumped significantly.

 

[Signifyin(g)Monkey]

15 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

 

The OAS audited the last election and determined there was pervasive fraud; you could also call an election like that a ‘soft’ coup.  Let’s not forget the mass protests against the outcome by ordinary people all over the country, too.

 

Stepping down after the audit was the right thing to do.  It might just save Morales from going down as just another democracy-trashing Latin American strongman like Chavez, who gets elected initially through democratic institutions and then corrupts and destroys them to hold onto power.

[Jason]

 

[RedSoxFan9]

 

Trump is bad but I love his foreign policy 

[RedSoxFan9]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8047960.stm

 

bring 👏 slavery 👏 back 👏 

[mclumber1]

Hong Kong protests yay Bolivia protests boo

 

Is that right?

[SilentWorld]

 

 

[SilentWorld]

7 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

Hong Kong protests yay Bolivia protests boo

 

Is that right?

 

The tea party had protests too...

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

37 minutes ago, Signifyin(g)Monkey said:

The OAS audited the last election and determined there was pervasive fraud; you could also call an election like that a ‘soft’ coup.  Let’s not forget the mass protests against the outcome by ordinary people all over the country, too.

 

Stepping down after the audit was the right thing to do.  It might just save Morales from going down as just another democracy-trashing Latin American strongman like Chavez, who gets elected initially through democratic institutions and then corrupts and destroys them to hold onto power.

It would never be beyond the American government to weaponize an NGO to bring about the coup of a leftist south American leader, so pardon me for not taking their word for it in light of what appears to be yet another right wing coup.

[RedSoxFan9]

 

[RedSoxFan9]

 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

 

I'm ripping this stuff straight from the discord and there's nothing you can do to stop me

[SilentWorld]

This is the one thing I didn’t want to happen.

[RedSoxFan9]

 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

 

[Signifyin(g)Monkey]

Arresting him now would be stupid.  The army should just focus on properly administering the next election and follow the order of succession to determine whose in charge in the interim.  Come on guys—handle this like grownups.

 

It would be a shame if this blows up Bolivia’s democracy, just as the country is developing a middle class—the keystone to well-functioning liberal democracies.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

 

[Massdriver]

I see we have resorted to posting tweets from Glenn Greenwald. 
 

Anyway, as predictable as it can be, the socialists are only focusing on the military’s action, not the fact that there was election fraud. Also, as will probably be the case, the military won’t handle this in a professional manner. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

I only posted greenwald because I don't speak Spanish and he's the only source I could find

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

So anyway, read this before you did knee deep into the OAS story

 

And let's not forget, this would not have happened without the EXPLICIT support of the US government

[Joe]

 Not saying I agree, but still lol

[RedSoxFan9]

 

[Joe]

Aww why the edit papito.

[RedSoxFan9]

Apparently telling awful people to fuck off is against the rules

[RedSoxFan9]

 

[Massdriver]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/world/americas/evo-morales-bolivia.html

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

8 hours ago, RedSoxFan9 said:

Apparently telling awful people to fuck off is against the rules

See the PM I sent you.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Yeah I bet we get right back to democracy here

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

This is a coup.

 

Let's not pretend that it's not.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

But the OAS report!!!!

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

10 hours ago, Massdriver said:

I see we have resorted to posting tweets from Glenn Greenwald. 
 

Anyway, as predictable as it can be, the socialists are only focusing on the military’s action, not the fact that there was election fraud. Also, as will probably be the case, the military won’t handle this in a professional manner. 

Considering the work that Greenwald is doing in Brazil to oppose the fascist Bolsonaro regime at great personal risk, I see no reason to not "resort" to posting tweets from him.

[Massdriver]

13 minutes ago, SFLUFAN said:

Considering the work that Greenwald is doing in Brazil to oppose the fascist Bolsonaro regime at great personal risk, we're going to "resort" to posting tweets from him as often as possible.

Fair enough. I stopped thinking of him as credible from some of his over the top rhetoric against the US years ago, but I haven’t followed him recently.  

[mclumber1]

31 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

But the OAS report!!!!

 

 

Well from what I've read, the president has ruffled some feathers by running for additional terms that is otherwise prohibited in Bolivia. Regardless if he's been good for that nation, he should have stepped down when he was term limited.