Unifor strongly condemns the military coup in Bolivia that saw the recent ousting of democratically elected President Evo Morales.
We are dismayed that the Canadian Federal government has chosen to support the interim leadership of Jeanine Áñez Chávez – a representative from a party that received only 4% of the vote in the latest October elections, and whose support is derived largely from the backing of the Bolivian police and military. We are also troubled given Áñez’s hostile and discriminatory antiIndigenous remarks, especially in a country where more than half the population is Indigenous.
As Bolivia’s first Indigenous President, Morales made significant progressive economic and social policy changes that have resulted in strong economic growth, drastic reduction in rates of poverty and overall improvements of human rights. However, we have seen how actions of independent states with socialist policies often provoke the ire of corporate interests and Western countries such as the United States, which has a long history of Latin and South American government intervention and ousting democratically elected leaders by way of violent military coups.
We are now once again witnessing waves of violence and atrocities rock Bolivia, along with deaths of protesters who are resisting the usurpation of their democratic process. With Áñez recently making changes to allow security forces to be protected from prosecution in order to quell protests, we will only see a further escalation of state violence and repression. By not condemning these actions as a coup – actions contrary to the fundamental principles of democracy – Canada is complicit in these human rights violations. (more...)
H/T to Arnold August
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