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Clashes in Bolivia as Morales supporters challenge interim president's legitimacy
Fresh clashes have broken out in Bolivia’s main city as the newly declared interim president Jeanine Añez faced challenges to her leadership in the Senate and the streets from supporters of the exiled leader Evo Morales.
Running battles broke out in La Paz as Morales supporters, throwing rocks and wielding wooden planks, squared off against riot police who set off teargas into the crowds of demonstrators. Huge crowds also mobilised in the adjacent city of El Alto, demanding his return.
Emboldened Movement For Socialism (MAS) lawmakers and senators, who hold a two-thirds majority, tried to hold sessions to declare Añez’s claim to the presidency illegal and block Morales’s resignation.
But the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, congratulated Añez on claiming the country’s top job: “The United States applauds Bolivian Senator Jeanine Añez for stepping up as interim president of state to lead her nation through this democratic transition, under the constitution of Bolivia and in accordance with the principles of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.”
Morales dismissed an Organisation of American States report that found there had been “clear manipulations” of the vote which would have handed him his fourth term in office. He said his rightwing opponents had plotted the coup from the night of the vote.
“The OAS is not at the service of the people of Latin America. It is at the service of the USA,” he said. “We built a lot with so much sacrifice and now this coup is destroying Bolivia.”
As Morales spoke in exile, Añez pledged to hold a new election as soon as possible, calling for a peaceful transition from what she described as a “totalitarian regime”
The senate vice-president and a conservative Christian, Añez declared herself the country’s interim president late on Tuesday with outsized Bible in her hand – despite a boycott of the legislative session by lawmakers from Morales’s party.
Even as she assumed the role, angry Morales supporters decried her as a racist usurper who had seized power illegally.
in the streets of La Paz, hundreds of Morales supporters waved the multi-coloured Wiphala, the flag of native people of the Andes associated with Morales’ government, shouting: “She must quit!”
“She’s declared herself president without having a quorum in the parliament,” said one protester, Julio Chipana. “She doesn’t represent us.”
Others swore their enduring loyalty to Morales, the country’s first indigenous leader in modern times.
Entering the parliament building on Tuesday night, Añez brandished an outsized bible, in an explicit rebuke to Morales, who banned the Christian holy book from the presidential palace when he reformed the constitution in 2009 to recognize Pachamama, the Andean Mother Earth deity, instead of the Catholic church.
Her sudden move to the political centre stage prompted a closer look at racist remarks towards Bolivia’s indigenous majority on her social media accounts.
One tweet from 2013 – later deleted – describes indigenous Aymara new year’s celebrations as “satanic” and concludes: “Nobody can replace God!” In another post, she questioned whether a group of indigenous people were genuine because they were wearing shoes.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/13/jeanine-anez-bolivia-president-promises-new-elections
Fresh clashes have broken out in Bolivia’s main city as the newly declared interim president Jeanine Añez faced challenges to her leadership in the Senate and the streets from supporters of the exiled leader Evo Morales.
Running battles broke out in La Paz as Morales supporters, throwing rocks and wielding wooden planks, squared off against riot police who set off teargas into the crowds of demonstrators. Huge crowds also mobilised in the adjacent city of El Alto, demanding his return.
Emboldened Movement For Socialism (MAS) lawmakers and senators, who hold a two-thirds majority, tried to hold sessions to declare Añez’s claim to the presidency illegal and block Morales’s resignation.
But the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, congratulated Añez on claiming the country’s top job: “The United States applauds Bolivian Senator Jeanine Añez for stepping up as interim president of state to lead her nation through this democratic transition, under the constitution of Bolivia and in accordance with the principles of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.”
Morales dismissed an Organisation of American States report that found there had been “clear manipulations” of the vote which would have handed him his fourth term in office. He said his rightwing opponents had plotted the coup from the night of the vote.
“The OAS is not at the service of the people of Latin America. It is at the service of the USA,” he said. “We built a lot with so much sacrifice and now this coup is destroying Bolivia.”
As Morales spoke in exile, Añez pledged to hold a new election as soon as possible, calling for a peaceful transition from what she described as a “totalitarian regime”
The senate vice-president and a conservative Christian, Añez declared herself the country’s interim president late on Tuesday with outsized Bible in her hand – despite a boycott of the legislative session by lawmakers from Morales’s party.
Even as she assumed the role, angry Morales supporters decried her as a racist usurper who had seized power illegally.
in the streets of La Paz, hundreds of Morales supporters waved the multi-coloured Wiphala, the flag of native people of the Andes associated with Morales’ government, shouting: “She must quit!”
“She’s declared herself president without having a quorum in the parliament,” said one protester, Julio Chipana. “She doesn’t represent us.”
Others swore their enduring loyalty to Morales, the country’s first indigenous leader in modern times.
Entering the parliament building on Tuesday night, Añez brandished an outsized bible, in an explicit rebuke to Morales, who banned the Christian holy book from the presidential palace when he reformed the constitution in 2009 to recognize Pachamama, the Andean Mother Earth deity, instead of the Catholic church.
Her sudden move to the political centre stage prompted a closer look at racist remarks towards Bolivia’s indigenous majority on her social media accounts.
One tweet from 2013 – later deleted – describes indigenous Aymara new year’s celebrations as “satanic” and concludes: “Nobody can replace God!” In another post, she questioned whether a group of indigenous people were genuine because they were wearing shoes.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/13/jeanine-anez-bolivia-president-promises-new-elections
