Canada must recognize MAS government & give explanation for its support of 2019 Bolivia coup | Op-Ed
Written by: Canadian Latin American Alliance
Saying that the results of Bolivia’s general elections is monumental is by no means an overstatement.
Despite the barring of some of its candidates, state and paramilitary harassment and attacks against activists and office as well as a short campaign period, Luis Arce of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) won a landslide victory, beating the consolidated right-wing candidate Carlos Mesa by over 20 points.
In addition to handing Arce a first-round victory with over 53 per cent of the vote, Bolivians also appear to have given the left-wing MAS a majority of the country’s legislature.
This might surprise any who followed the dominant narratives coming from media and Canadian officials a little over a year ago, when Bolivian military and police officials forced MAS leader and then president, Evo Morales to leave the country in fear for his life. At that time, Bolivians had also just gone to the polls and Morales won a much more narrow victory over Mesa, though the opposition candidate and observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) claimed that fraud had been committed. To allay these concerns, Morales called for new elections, but this did not satisfy his long-time detractors, both internal and external.
At least 33 people were killed, 700 injured and dozens exiled in the violence and state repression that followed the consolidation of an unelected “care-taker” government under Jeanine Añez. In just a few months, the right-wing politician from a fringe party attempted to undo many of the policies and projects undertaken under more than a decade of elected MAS governments, and subsequently plunged the country and economy into disarray.
At the time, the Canadian Government failed to condemn what was an obviously violent, undemocratic overthrow of an elected government, and instead, pledged to support the Añez regime. The Trudeau Liberal’s ignored a detailed debunking by the Center of Economic and Policy Research of the fraud allegations, which the New York Times and Washington Post later confirmed themselves.
The October 18th results not only confirm that the claims of electoral fraud were not only false, but that they could have been deliberately concocted so as to set off a rupture in democratic rule in the country. The OAS and all countries who signed off on this, need to explain themselves and those involved need to be held accountable for the human cost of these actions.
Moreover, this case illustrates what many have been saying around the alarming direction of Canada’s foreign policy.
Pierre Trudeau’s Foreign Policy for Canadians attempted to place Canada as a country that would not contribute to hostilities in the world, and in particular, distance itself from the foreign policy of Washington. It was during Trudeau’s government that Canadians forced a change to the country’s anti-socialist immigration policies, and many in Latin America began arriving in Canada, fleeing the very type of state violence and instability that Bolivia has been subjected to for almost a year.
Since the 1970’s there have been many questionable positions and actions by Canada on the international stage, but under the current Trudeau government, Canada has begun to play an increasingly active and bellicose role internationally, as evidenced by its leading role in attempts to remove the Maduro government in Venezuela.
As of the submission of this article, neither the Prime Minister nor the Minister for Foreign Affairs, François-Philippe Champagne, have acknowledged Arce’s victory, in stark contrast to the quick recognition of Jacinda Ardern victory in New Zealand.
Canada owes an apology to the people of Bolivia for its role in the rupture of the rule of law, and an explanation to the Canadian people for why it supported the destabilization of a democracy in our hemisphere.
People in Canada are starting to demand more accountability from our government about its role on the international stage. For our part, Canadians of Latin American descent want our government cease its ideologically motivated positions vis a vis the hemisphere, and commit to respect the sovereignty and democratic will of people in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Writers included: Matias de Dovitiis, Ornella Roman Millor, Pablo Vivanco and CLAA Board Members
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