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Bolivia's US-backed armed forces have coerced President Evo Morales to resign. Vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera also been forced to resign.

We join progressive voices across the world who say: THIS IS A COUP!

This comes after the democratic re-election of Morales on 20 October, reaffirming the popular endorsement of the ruling party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).

The opposition would not accept this defeat. The weak accusations of elections fraud and rigging came from the delusions of a defeated opposition, but were elevated by the Organisation of American States (a tool of US imperialism) and other US-aligned media outlets. This is a classic move of a desperate right-wing coup.

In their dissatisfaction with the election results, the opposition turned to violent thuggery, attacking ordinary citizens, supporters and elected officials of MAS. The Venezuelan, Cuban and Mexican embassies in the capital of Bolivia have also been under attack.

As is the case where struggles for power are ignited from desperation and not from popular support, women are particularly brutalised in the most disturbing ways. Patricia Arce, the mayor of the Vinto municipality, was kidnapped by an opposition group, forced to walk barefoot for several kilometres, had her hair brutally cut off and had red paint poured on her.

Amidst these attacks, in an attempt to end the violence and extend an olive branch in good faith, Morales called for fresh elections and dialogue to take place between opposition political parties and leaders.

Since the elections, the masses of Bolivia have taken to the streets, media and public platforms to show their belief in their democratic processes and president elect. They reject the fans accusations, unbridled violence and imperialist infiltration that is leading this attempted overthrow of their political power.

We condemn the coup d’état against the people’s government of MAS and President Evo Morales. As the social and political movements of the world, we declare openly our solidarity with the people of Bolivia who have made their democratic choice and who fight for peace and the preservation of the lives of the Bolivian indigenous, working class and historically exploited people.

In Latin America, like the world over, there is an economic elite that has no interest in lives of the working class masses and shows no inclination towards upholding democratic processes that aim to give all power to the popular masses.

Under the Morales administration the economy began to grow (experiencing its fastest growth in decades); Bolivia increased its sovereignty over economic policy; social spending increased by 45 percent from 2005-2012 and poverty was reduced by 25 percent from 2005-2011. 

In order to achieve these results, President Morales nationalized the hydrocarbons sector by decree early during his first year in office, allowing his government to engage in effective redistribution and macroeconomic policies that benefited the poorest segments of society. 

As the continental platform Social Movements of ALBA stated: "The government of Evo Morales always defended its sovereignty and its democratic process and that is why it was overthrown, for Donald Trump there cannot be a president who is a coca farmer, worker and Indigenous person that guarantees the well-being of his people. For him, Bolivia should be a country controlled by a white, fascist and racist minority willing to impose the neoliberal agenda under the designs of the IMF.”

From the 1960s DRC to 1987 Burkina Faso to Chile in 1973, we have seen how the ordinary, working masses were the ultimate victims of socio-economic devastation, horror and injustice at hands of imperialist-led, capitalist, military coups. 

We reject all imperialist interventionism in Bolivia! We support the Bolivian people’s political powers! We are with Morales and with the popular masses in their struggles for self-determination and freedom! 

#TheWorldIsWithEvo #ElMundoConEvo

Issued by The Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party