basquebromance
Diamond Member
- Nov 26, 2015
- 109,396
- 27,110
- 2,220
- Banned
- #1
For Democrats, taking a stand for democracy requires prosecuting coup plotters wherever and whenever they show their seditious faces. This rule holds fast except for in Bolivia, where prosecuting coup plotters apparently amounts to authoritarianism.
Pop quiz: Was the kind of thing that took place on January 6, 2021 an attempt to overturn democracy, and should those who planned and directed it be prosecuted?
If you’re a Democratic politician, the answer is apparently: “It depends on who does it, and where.”
It turns out there’s a pretty simple litmus test to follow. See, if it’s Donald Trump and the Republicans trying to do this in the United States, it’s a coup. Their claims about election fraud are obviously bunk, and both the high-level officials who planned the attempt and the random, low-level riffraff who they manipulated into assisting them should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law (though only the latter group will actually have the book thrown at them, of course).
If it’s Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters in Brazil, then it’s also a coup. Their claims about election fraud are also clearly bunk, and prosecuting Bolsonaro and his high-level accomplices is clearly the right thing to do — so clear that even centrist Democrats like Tim Kaine have preemptively called for the Biden administration to extradite Bolsonaro from Florida, if and when the request from Brazil ever comes.
But if it’s Bolivia? Well, there might be something to those election fraud claims coming from the country’s far right. The violent protests targeting the country’s politicians and institutions that led the winning candidate to flee for his life? Why that’s a grassroots revolt in defense of democracy that, if anything, shows how outdated these silly distinctions between uprisings and coups are these days. And attempts by the government to hold those responsible accountable? That’s yet another tragic example of the unacceptable authoritarianism that justified the coup — er, revolution in the first place.
The double standards of establishment discourse surrounding the Bolivian coup and its later copycats have been pretty well covered. But the latest addition to this record of incoherence is so glaring, it must be commented on.
The rank double standards here are simply off the charts. The day after casting shade at Arce, Durbin sent a letter to president Joe Biden urging him to revoke Bolsonaro’s visa, noting he was “the subject of multiple criminal probes in Brazil,” and affirming that “the Brazilian people deserve an opportunity” to investigate Bolsonaro “and to hold him accountable for any crimes he may have committed.”
A particularly notable name on this farcical statement is Tim Kaine, the same Democratic senator on the foreign relations committee who was quick to suggest that the United States should agree to extradite Bolsonaro. Kaine had, to his credit, cosponsored Bernie Sanders’s resolution last year on the eve of the Brazilian election, warning about Bolsonaro’s attempts to “question or subvert the democratic and electoral institutions of Brazil,” and urging the US government to “speak out against efforts to incite political violence and undermine the electoral process.” So why is Kaine now going to bat for those in Bolivia who tried to question or subvert its democratic and electoral institutions?
Let’s be really clear: There’s basically no difference between what happened in Bolivia in 2019 and in Brazil this past Sunday, other than that in Bolivia it actually worked, in no small part because of steadfast US support for the coup. When Bolivian president Evo Morales won the election fair and square, the far right baselessly alleged election fraud (subsequently disproven by multiple studies). They then organized days’ worth of violent protests, and Morales took political refuge in Mexico after the leader of the military suggested he step down. The only thing that remotely lends credence to the idea that Morales was some kind of autocrat in the middle of a power grab is that he relied on a court decision to let him run for a previously barred fourth term — a thin reed little different from Bolsonaro supporters’ claims that Lula’s win is illegitimate because he should be in jail.
Despite the hypocrisy at play here, Democrats’ widespread support for Lula and opposition to his rival is an important development that signals some encouraging shifts in both US domestic politics and in global power relations more generally. Even so, US officials would be wise to treat Bolivia with the same respect for democratic institutions that they afford to Brazil. Double standards like these don’t go unnoticed on the world stage and undermine US rhetoric about democracy in ways that could affect its own struggles with homegrown antidemocratic forces. Better to build a coalition in favor of democracy in the “USA’s backyard,” than to embark on a path of needless antagonism.
MEANWHILE IN PERU
Protests in Peru following the impeachment of Pedro Castillo show no signs of letting up. In the face of lethal repression, protesters are no longer just demanding elections but the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and a new constitution.
Though Congress approved moving elections up to 2024, that date remained far from the demand for immediate elections, and the protest wave grew stronger still. The police and government reaction was disproportionate and violent. By December 21, the number of dead had reached twenty-seven, many the result of gunshot wounds to the head and body.
But police operations wouldn’t remain limited to the protests. Social leaders and members of the political opposition became targets of police persecution, with raids in various locales involving arrests without the presence of a representative of the district attorney. They even carried out a threatening visit to the home of a congressmember.
The violent repression of demonstrations in Puno, in southeast Peru, carried a death toll of eighteen. Among those killed was a doctor who wasn’t even participating. Videos confirmed the brutality of the police response in what became the second massacre — following that of Ayacucho, where ten were killed in a single day — perpetrated by the current government.
Boluarte appears ignorant of the fact that the pain for those killed — and the desire for justice it produces — has become another reason to mobilize. The protests are no longer just about demanding elections but about people demanding her immediate resignation and a new Peruvian constitution. The very conditions of Peru seem to scream, to paraphrase Emiliano Zapata, that if the people don’t get justice, Boluarte’s government won’t get the peace it’s asking for.
thehill.com
www.theguardian.com
Pop quiz: Was the kind of thing that took place on January 6, 2021 an attempt to overturn democracy, and should those who planned and directed it be prosecuted?
If you’re a Democratic politician, the answer is apparently: “It depends on who does it, and where.”
It turns out there’s a pretty simple litmus test to follow. See, if it’s Donald Trump and the Republicans trying to do this in the United States, it’s a coup. Their claims about election fraud are obviously bunk, and both the high-level officials who planned the attempt and the random, low-level riffraff who they manipulated into assisting them should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law (though only the latter group will actually have the book thrown at them, of course).
If it’s Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters in Brazil, then it’s also a coup. Their claims about election fraud are also clearly bunk, and prosecuting Bolsonaro and his high-level accomplices is clearly the right thing to do — so clear that even centrist Democrats like Tim Kaine have preemptively called for the Biden administration to extradite Bolsonaro from Florida, if and when the request from Brazil ever comes.
But if it’s Bolivia? Well, there might be something to those election fraud claims coming from the country’s far right. The violent protests targeting the country’s politicians and institutions that led the winning candidate to flee for his life? Why that’s a grassroots revolt in defense of democracy that, if anything, shows how outdated these silly distinctions between uprisings and coups are these days. And attempts by the government to hold those responsible accountable? That’s yet another tragic example of the unacceptable authoritarianism that justified the coup — er, revolution in the first place.
The double standards of establishment discourse surrounding the Bolivian coup and its later copycats have been pretty well covered. But the latest addition to this record of incoherence is so glaring, it must be commented on.
The rank double standards here are simply off the charts. The day after casting shade at Arce, Durbin sent a letter to president Joe Biden urging him to revoke Bolsonaro’s visa, noting he was “the subject of multiple criminal probes in Brazil,” and affirming that “the Brazilian people deserve an opportunity” to investigate Bolsonaro “and to hold him accountable for any crimes he may have committed.”
A particularly notable name on this farcical statement is Tim Kaine, the same Democratic senator on the foreign relations committee who was quick to suggest that the United States should agree to extradite Bolsonaro. Kaine had, to his credit, cosponsored Bernie Sanders’s resolution last year on the eve of the Brazilian election, warning about Bolsonaro’s attempts to “question or subvert the democratic and electoral institutions of Brazil,” and urging the US government to “speak out against efforts to incite political violence and undermine the electoral process.” So why is Kaine now going to bat for those in Bolivia who tried to question or subvert its democratic and electoral institutions?
Let’s be really clear: There’s basically no difference between what happened in Bolivia in 2019 and in Brazil this past Sunday, other than that in Bolivia it actually worked, in no small part because of steadfast US support for the coup. When Bolivian president Evo Morales won the election fair and square, the far right baselessly alleged election fraud (subsequently disproven by multiple studies). They then organized days’ worth of violent protests, and Morales took political refuge in Mexico after the leader of the military suggested he step down. The only thing that remotely lends credence to the idea that Morales was some kind of autocrat in the middle of a power grab is that he relied on a court decision to let him run for a previously barred fourth term — a thin reed little different from Bolsonaro supporters’ claims that Lula’s win is illegitimate because he should be in jail.
Despite the hypocrisy at play here, Democrats’ widespread support for Lula and opposition to his rival is an important development that signals some encouraging shifts in both US domestic politics and in global power relations more generally. Even so, US officials would be wise to treat Bolivia with the same respect for democratic institutions that they afford to Brazil. Double standards like these don’t go unnoticed on the world stage and undermine US rhetoric about democracy in ways that could affect its own struggles with homegrown antidemocratic forces. Better to build a coalition in favor of democracy in the “USA’s backyard,” than to embark on a path of needless antagonism.
MEANWHILE IN PERU
Protests in Peru following the impeachment of Pedro Castillo show no signs of letting up. In the face of lethal repression, protesters are no longer just demanding elections but the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and a new constitution.
Though Congress approved moving elections up to 2024, that date remained far from the demand for immediate elections, and the protest wave grew stronger still. The police and government reaction was disproportionate and violent. By December 21, the number of dead had reached twenty-seven, many the result of gunshot wounds to the head and body.
But police operations wouldn’t remain limited to the protests. Social leaders and members of the political opposition became targets of police persecution, with raids in various locales involving arrests without the presence of a representative of the district attorney. They even carried out a threatening visit to the home of a congressmember.
The violent repression of demonstrations in Puno, in southeast Peru, carried a death toll of eighteen. Among those killed was a doctor who wasn’t even participating. Videos confirmed the brutality of the police response in what became the second massacre — following that of Ayacucho, where ten were killed in a single day — perpetrated by the current government.
Boluarte appears ignorant of the fact that the pain for those killed — and the desire for justice it produces — has become another reason to mobilize. The protests are no longer just about demanding elections but about people demanding her immediate resignation and a new Peruvian constitution. The very conditions of Peru seem to scream, to paraphrase Emiliano Zapata, that if the people don’t get justice, Boluarte’s government won’t get the peace it’s asking for.
Durbin, Bipartisan Colleagues Joint Statement on Further Democratic Backsliding in Bolivia | U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois
The Official U.S. Senate website of Dick Durbin
www.durbin.senate.gov
Trump celebrates resignation of Bolivia’s president
President Trump on Monday hailed the ouster of Bolivian President Evo Morales as a “significant moment for democracy” even as Morales’s supporters and some U.S. lawmakers lik…
thehill.com
The Guardian view on Peru’s political violence: stop the killings | Editorial
Editorial: Long-term solutions to the country’s crisis are required – but the priority must be to rein in brutal security forces
www.theguardian.com
