Bolivia Failed right-wing coup attempt
03/07/2024
Tony Saunois, CWI secretary
Bolivia has once again been thrust into a political crisis with an attempted coup on 26 June. Reflecting powerful revolutionary traditions, the main trade union confederation COB rapidly declared an indefinite general strike. The attempted coup appeared to collapse after only three hours as workers and others took to the streets in protest. Bolivia’s turbulent convulsive history is reflected in 190 military coups or revolutionary uprisings since independence in 1825.
However, what forces were actually involved seems unclear. The government of President Luis Arce of the left-wing MAS party has swung further to the right since it eventually replaced the MAS government led by Evo Morales, after it was itself overthrown by a US-backed coup in 2019. Morales fled the country rather than lead a mass struggle against the white, mestizo racist elite regime which ousted him. Luis Arce took office on 8 November 2020 having defeated the right-wing backed regime which ousted Morales. Arce, an economist educated in Oxford, only returned to the country in 2020.
Now both Morales and Arce have been locked into a struggle as both have declared their intention to stand for the Presidency in 2025 as the MAS candidate.
. . .
Zuniga appears to have been sacked by the government a day earlier, which he reportedly readily accepted as a ‘loyal soldier of the homeland’. Supporters of Morales and the right-wing opposition have since alleged the coup was instigated with the support of Arce in an attempted ‘autogolpe’, a self-coup, to consolidate his regime in power. Such allegations in the past would have seemed fanciful, but in the current era of instability and polarisation such a claim cannot simply be discounted.
More:
https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/127025/03-07-2024/bolivia-failed-right-wing-coup-attempt/