International leftist leaders and workers' parties honour the historic triumph of the Bolivian people against imperialism and the coup.
Luis Arce at a pre-election rally.
Sunday, October 18 saw the stunning landslide victory of Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) presidential candidate Luis Arce in Bolivia. In spite of months of repression and intimidation by the coup government his victory was so large that the Bolivian right wing has been forced to concede defeat even before the release of the official results. MAS and its allies also appear to have won the legislative elections.
The premises that the coup were based on have been completely debunked and dismantled leaving the OAS -- whose claims of "election irregularities" had precipitated the coup -- and its other western backers looking rather badly.
In the wake of the victory international messages of support and celebration have been issued honouring the incredible bravery and triumph of the Bolivian people.
Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, whose people are resisting the ongoing effects of the illegal American economic blockade, tweeted:
The Communist Party of Chile issued a statement that included:
We congratulate the President-elect of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Luis Arce, and Vice President David Choquehuanca; We especially salute comrade Evo Morales Ayma, who had to face the imperialist attack that during the last twelve months focused on him, despite which he held high the flags of the historic process he led.
This victory reaffirms and gives new impetus to the struggle of the Bolivian people to retake the path of democracy and social justice, only temporarily interrupted by the coup; ratifies the majority will in defense of the sovereignty of Bolivia, and stands as a symbol of the struggle of the peoples of all Latin America and the Caribbean to break blockades, destabilization, dependency and all forms of siege neoliberal imperialism.
For the Chilean people, who will also face decisive democratic battles in the coming days, this new victory of Bolivian brothers and sisters constitutes an incentive and a victory that we celebrate as part of our common struggle.
From the Paraguayan Communist Party we salute the Bolivian working people for the enormous step taken with the overwhelming electoral triumph of Luis Arce and the MAS - IPSP, against the political alternatives representative of the dictatorship heir to last year's coup.
This electoral victory, which represents a reason for celebration for the workers of the world, is a first great step around the fight against the imperial and fascist sectors that promoted the civic military coup of November 2019, establishing a racist and dictatorial regime that plunged our sister Nation in one of the worst crisis in its history...
Justice for the blood spilled in the dark hours of the Añez dictatorship, with the imperial complicity of the OAS, in addition to the freedom of political prisoners like Facundo Molares, must be an imperative task of this new hour of the Bolivian people.
In a truly stirring statement the National Executive Committee, Communist Party of Uruguay said:
The Communist Party of Uruguay salutes the impressive triumph of the Bolivian people, its indigenous movement, social organizations and political parties that overcame the fear and oppression of the dictatorship imposed by the Bolivian oligarchy with the mandate of North American imperialism.
This victory is Bolivian and it is also a Latin American victory, so we greet with joy and feel as our own the triumph of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) and its allies, led by Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca.
It is also a confirmation that when a people and their social and political organizations want freedom, and unite and organize to win it, there is no economic or military power to stop them.
It is a victory for the indigenous and popular organizations, the MAS and the unity in the diversity of the Bolivian revolutionary process, accumulated in centuries of struggle and in the long decade of popular governments. It is a victory for dignity, resistance and courage, which faced brutal repression, illustrated in the infamies of the Sacaba massacres in Cochabamba and Senkata in El Alto. With their dignity, their organization and the size of the vote, which also implies a majority in both houses of Parliament, they won.
And it is a defeat for American imperialism, which with Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo and the OAS Ministry of Colonies and their boss Luis Almagro, armed the coup and supported the coup government. It is a defeat for the right wing and the oligarchies of the continent that refused to condemn the coup d'état and supported the coup plotters. And also from the racist and elitist oligarchy of Bolivia, from the military and fascist sectors, who thought that with their hatred they could subdue an entire people.
There is no end of the cycle, imperialism and the oligarchies display all their power, but the peoples fight, build unity, resist and advance. In this disputed continent, the cry for dignity and freedom of the Bolivian people demonstrates this and marks the way.
Among so many others are:
Tweets from the CIA, Lima Group, Elon Musk, Chrystia Freeland and Marco Rubio are unavailable at this time.
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