It’s been a very good decade for American Marxists who are poised to get a presidential nominee and perhaps even a president in the homeland of the Great Capitalist Satan, but it’s been a very bad decade for their former inspirations in Latin America.
Now another one of their heroes bites the dust. Goodbye Evo Morales, go collectivize yourself.
The resignation of Bolivian President Evo Morales, the last serving member of the ‘pink tide’ of leftist leaders that swept Latin America two decades ago, polarized governments across the region on Sunday, with presidents from Venezuela to Argentina denouncing a “coup” and others cheering his exit.
Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous leader, ended his 14-year rule after allies deserted him following weeks of protests over a disputed Oct. 20 election that has roiled the Andean nation. On Sunday, the Bolivian military and key political backers called on him to step down.
Right-leaning governments in Latin America, among them Colombia and Peru, called on the Bolivian state to ensure new elections would be lawful. Brazil, under far-right nationalist Jair Bolsonaro, went further and welcomed Morales’ fall.
Meanwhile, embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose socialist predecessor Hugo Chavez served as a sometime mentor to Morales, told allies to mobilize in support of Morales.
“We have to take care of our brother Evo Morales,” Maduro said in a recording broadcast on Venezuelan state television. “We must declare a vigil in solidarity to protect him.”
Apparently Bolivia and most of the region didn’t want to end up starving, powerless and waterless, like Venezuela.
But the Reuters slant is lovely. Right-wingers in Colombia, Peru and Brazil want Morales out. While Veneuzela’s “embattled” president, a dictator hardly anyone in the region even recognized as legitimate, is in the media’s soft focus.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, another longtime Morales ally, tweeted his “solidarity” and said: “The world must be mobilized for the life and freedom of Evo.”
Mexico’s government rejected what it called a military operation under way in Bolivia, adding that there must be “no coup.” Mexico could offer asylum to Morales if he sought it, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter, though there was no immediate claim.
When you’re already a sanctuary nation for drug cartels, why not?
But forget Reuters. Here’s how to best remember Commandante Morales.
Evo Morales, the President-elect of Bolivia, today called American President George W. Bush a terrorist, and said that he would coordinate his policies with those of Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela.
“Bush is the only terrorist, because he is the only one who intervenes militarily in the affairs of other countries. This is State terrorism, but those who demand their rights, those people are not terrorists,” Morales stated during an interview aired by the news organization Al-Jazeera.
Maybe Morales can convert and become the new head of ISIS.
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