{"id":10073,"date":"2021-04-12T09:07:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T13:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=10073"},"modified":"2021-04-12T09:55:51","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T13:55:51","slug":"albert-bender-indigenous-justice-is-now-at-hand-in-bolivia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/04\/12\/albert-bender-indigenous-justice-is-now-at-hand-in-bolivia\/","title":{"rendered":"Albert Bender: Indigenous justice is now at hand in Bolivia"},"content":{"rendered":"\"protestbolivia\"\r\n
A protest against the ouster of Evo Morales, who was the first Native president of Bolivia, in 2019. Photo: Santiago Sito<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Bolivia jails its coup president, why haven\u2019t we jailed ours?<\/div>\r\n
Monday, April 12, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Albert Bender<\/div>\r\n
People's World<\/div>\r\n
peoplesworld.org<\/A><\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThis is a tale of two countries\u2014Bolivia and the United States\u2014both beset by fascist lies triggering the loss of life to right-wing violence. For one nation, it is the time of pursuing justice. For the other, it is a time of waiting for such a pursuit to begin.

<\/p>\r\nBetween these two nations, there are great similarities and of course great differences. As of late, the actions of Bolivia have marked the most glaring difference\u2014the willingness to go after those who have committed crimes against the country.

<\/p>\r\nMoreover, Bolivia\u00a0is a majority Indigenous country with an Indigenous government marked by a legal system that knows how to deal with political criminals. In that country, Indigenous justice is now at hand.

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Evo Morales in 2008. Morales was the first Indigenous president of Bolivia. He served from 2006 to 2019. Photo: Joel Alvarez<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBut let\u2019s\u00a0first give an overview of the similarities. In November 2019, the Indigenous president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, was overthrown in a U.S.-backed coup and\u00a0had to flee the country.\u00a0Jeanine\u00a0\u00c1\u00f1ez a right-wing Senate politician, illegally took power with the support of the country\u2019s security forces, the military, and the police. She proclaimed herself \u201cinterim president.\u201d

<\/p>\r\nThe coup was triggered by allegations of fraud following Morales winning a fourth term in elections. These allegations were found to be baseless by multiple investigations, including one by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s Election and Science Lab.

<\/p>\r\nIn the U.S., on January 6, 2021, former President Donald Trump gave a speech inciting a\u00a0racist,\u00a0fascist\u00a0mob carrying weaponry and Confederate flags to storm the U.S. Capitol in\u00a0Washington. Six people died, including a Capitol Police officer, in Trump\u2019s insurrection. The\u00a0objective of the insurrectionists was to stop the certification of\u00a0Joe Biden\u2019s victory as president. The whole affair was triggered by Trump\u2019s\u00a0non-stop allegations of fraud following his losing the election to Biden. These allegations were, like those against Morales in Bolivia, found to be baseless. The Trump-inspired insurrection in January was nothing less than an attempted coup.

<\/p>\r\nBoth politicians, \u00c1\u00f1ez and Trump, are fascists who hold extreme racist, anti-Indigenous sentiments\u2014\u00c1\u00f1ez perhaps more openly and rabidly so, as indicated by her medieval pronouncements. Long before becoming the figurehead of the coup regime, she was already making the vilest pronouncements against Indigenous people. In a tweet of June 20, 2013, the future interim president railed\u00a0with a post against Native culture on the eve of an annual Aymara celebration with the following rant: \u201cHow dare they celebrate Aymara New Year? You Satanists, nobody replaces God!\u201d

<\/p>\r\nThe Aymara are the descendants of one of the brilliant classical Indigenous civilizations of antiquity with a long history of resistance to the 16th-century Spanish invasion, which continued with rebellions into the 19th century. Ousted president Morales is Aymara.

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\n\t\t\n\t\t\tReuters (@Reuters) on X\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
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Bolivia political tensions reignite with arrest of ex-President Anez https:\/\/t.co\/nBlguPt7pk<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\"X\t\tX (formerly Twitter)\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nOn October 5, 2019, just days before the coup was unleashed,\u00a0\u00c1\u00f1ez referred to Morales as \u201ca pathetic Native person who is clinging to power.\u201d

<\/p>\r\nHere is the\u00a0paramount difference between the two coup leaders, though: \u00c1\u00f1ez has been arrested\u00a0and is in jail under preventative custody, but Trump is still free.

<\/p>\r\n\u00c1\u00f1ez was arrested\u00a0along with\u00a0a number of her\u00a0government ministers on March 13 and charged with terrorism, sedition, and conspiracy in relation to the coup as she replaced Morales.\u00a0She has been jailed on six-months pretrial detention\u00a0as the prosecutor\u00a0said \u00c1\u00f1ez\u00a0posed a flight risk. The court agreed.

<\/p>\r\nSince her arrest, four new charges have been filed by the justice ministry. \u00c1\u00f1ez is\u00a0now charged with issuing unconstitutional presidential decrees, failing to fulfill her duties, crimes against public health, and discrimination.

<\/p>\r\nThese same charges would fit Trump hand-in-glove, in particular the crimes against public health, given the blatant lies he told in reference to the pandemic which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands. With Trump, there could also be added crimes against humanity in regard to the inhuman treatment of migrants (they were held in concentration camps), at the southern border, particularly the\u00a0atrocious holding of children in cages.

<\/p>\r\n\"boliviaprotest\"\r\n

A protest in support of Evo Morales, who was the first Native president of Bolivia, in 2019. Photo: Steve Eason <\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
U.S. sets stage for imperialist criticism<\/div>\r\nThe Western press has for the most part portrayed the detention\u00a0of \u00c1\u00f1ez\u00a0as a violation of the judicial process. But as an attorney, I can say it is perfectly reasonable to incarcerate an accused defendant who poses a flight risk pending an investigation. Some of the other ministers for whom arrest warrants have been issued for their involvement in the coup have already fled to the U.S., Colombia, or Brazil.

<\/p>\r\nThe U.S. government, up to its old dirty tricks, recently issued a statement by way of Biden\u2019s Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who jabbered, \u201cThe Bolivian government should release detained former officials.\u201d Blinken says Washington is \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by what he called \u201cgrowing signs of anti-democratic behavior\u201d and politicization of the legal system of Bolivia.

<\/p>\r\nThe U.S. made no mention of \u201canti-democratic behavior\u201d when the Bolivian coup was launched in 2019 and dozens of Indigenous citizens were slaughtered by the military and police under \u00c1\u00f1ez\u2019s control. She even issued a directive granting impunity for the use of force by the security troops tasked with dealing with political protesters. Still, the U.S. was silent.

<\/p>\r\nThe arrests and detentions now taking place are not revenge, but the pursuit of justice. But the U.S wants to criticize the Bolivian people\u2019s government for taking action against the coup outlaws.\u00a0This is indicative of the usual imperialist intervention that takes as its first step an attempt to distort the facts and, in this instance, the legal process. This is a typical disinformation campaign, but the world has changed from the days of \u201cgunboat diplomacy\u201d and brazen invasions.

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