2020 began with protests and government repression in Iraq and Iran, atop the many existing “forever“ wars. As the U.S. peace movement grappled with this growing number of crises, soon the events of November 10, 2019 in Bolivia and the removal of President Evo Morales from office were no longer in the headlines. But many UFPJ member organizations have raised concerns about Bolivia. They have promoted discussion, provided analysis, and issued important statements. We share them here in order to encourage sustained attention to the struggles of the Bolivian people.
Most recently, Brooklyn For Peace held a special forum “What Is Happening In Bolivia” with two speakers Zeeshan Aleem (freelance journalist) and Pamela Calla (Clinical Associate Professor at the NYU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies) and many people who have been personally affected by the still-unfolding events. Following the forum, the Brooklyn for Peace Board of Directors issued the following statement.
“We demand that the US cease all forms of intervention in the internal affairs of the sovereign nation of Bolivia. Such intervention violates international law: the UN Charter, UN resolutions, the OAS Charter. We call for a public condemnation of the violence committed by agents of the self-proclaimed Bolivian government, a restoration of the Bolivian Constitution and the human rights of all Bolivians which it guarantees, and free and fair elections that include all political parties.”
CODEPINK’s Medea Benjamin issued a very early statement from Bolivia, where she had traveled at the request of local activists, calling on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to come and personally witness the ongoing protests of Morales’ removal. CODEPINK also organized a webinar, “Deconstructing the Bolivia Coup.” CODEPINK later shared analysis from the Center for Economic and Policy Research at MIT that found, contrary to assertions by the Organization of American States (OAS), that there was no fraud in Bolivia’s 2019 presidential election. CODEPINK is circulating a petition, calling on Congress to investigate the role of the OAS in the Bolivian coup and to demand that the UN, not the OAS, monitors the elections on May 3.
Veterans For Peace spoke out a few days after Morales’ removal, condemning the events as a “racist coup”. Their statement stressed that the removal of Morales, the first Indigenous president of Bolivia, reversed the historic gains in political representation the 65% Indigenous majority had won.
The U.S. Peace Council urged mobilization to halt the “imperialistic coup and Intervention in Bolivia and Latin America” and called for an end to NATO presence and closure of all U.S. military bases in Latin America.
