BRICS Nations to Expand Their Development Bank in Asia, Latin America, Africa

EFE. November 14, 2019

BRASILIA – The leaders of the BRICS group of five leading emerging market economies pledged Thursday to strengthen that bloc’s multilateral development bank so it can finance a greater number of projects in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

At the close of a two-day summit in Brasilia, the presidents of Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa and India’s prime minister agreed to expand the activities of the New Development Bank and increase the number of member countries.

The expanded membership of the NDB will strengthen the bank as a “global development finance institution,” one of the 73 points of the 11th BRICS Summit – Brasilia Declaration reads.

Founded with a subscribed capital base of $50 billion, the total value of projects financed by the NBD only amounts to $10 billion.

Around 500 BRICS business leaders who had gathered on the first day of the Brasilia forum on Wednesday demanded greater NDB financing, especially for infrastructure and renewable energy projects.

The pledge to strengthen that institution will “further contribute to the mobilization of resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS” and other emerging markets and developing countries, the declaration read.

Official sources told EFE that efforts will be made to expand the NBD in Africa, Latin America and Asia, adding that it will be a gradual process and that not many new developments should be expected in the short term.

The NBD is headquartered in Shanghai, while regional offices are being opened in Russia, India and Brazil to coordinate projects in the different regions.

The summit’s host, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, said at the close of the gathering that the bank “is one of the most visible outcomes of the BRICS bloc” and must be consolidated as an infrastructure financing institution.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian head of state Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi echoed that sentiment.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said for his part that the countries are ready for the development bank to extend beyond BRICS and become a global institution.

He added that expanded NDB activities in Africa would help overcome that continent’s enormous infrastructure financing deficit, which he sees as a major barrier to its development.

Summit attendees also called for greater cooperation within the bloc on technology and innovation to further consolidate BRICS’s share of global trade, which already stands at roughly 40 percent.

“It’s essential to place more emphasis on science, technology and innovation,” Bolsonaro said.

“Innovation today is the only path to development” in a world undergoing an “unprecedented technological revolution,” Xi said.

Putin said cooperation was particularly important in the energy sector and in the renewable and clean energy area in particular.

Ramaphosa asked the other partners in the bloc to help promote a friendlier business environment to ensure economic growth with social inclusion, while also adding that South Africa, mainly a raw material exporter, needs to transition to higher value-added trade.

In their joint declaration, the BRICS nations again insisted on the need to reform the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and other international organizations and make them “more inclusive, democratic and representative” by giving emerging markets and developing countries a greater role in international decision-making.

In the document, China and Russia also expressed support for the aspirations of Brazil, India and South Africa to play more significant roles at the United Nations.

With respect to the WTO, the group of major emerging market economies stressed the essential importance of rules-based, transparent, non-discriminatory, open, free and inclusive international trade and expressed their commitment to preserving and strengthening the multilateral trading system.

In that regard, the declaration said it is essential that all WTO members avoid unilateral and protectionist measures that are contrary to the spirit and rules of that organization.

They also called on developed countries to “scale up the provision of financial, technological and capacity-building assistance” to developing countries with a view to supporting actions aimed at mitigating and adapting to climate change.

The five BRICS countries, which are among the world’s biggest polluters, reaffirmed their commitment to sustainable development in a “balanced and integrated” manner.

The declaration added that “all our citizens, in all parts of our respective territories, including remote areas, deserve to fully enjoy the benefits of sustainable development.”

Haiti is awash in illegal guns. Could U.S. policy be to blame?

TAYLOR DOLVEN AND JACQUELINE CHARLES. Miami Herald. November 14, 2019

As the mystery surrounding an American Airlines passenger arrested in a Haiti airport with an arsenal of weapons continues, both the airline and U.S. security agencies say it’s not their responsibility to police where weapons ultimately end up.

Nor is it their role, they say, to determine whether a passenger, after signing a firearms declaration form before boarding a flight, has the proper authorization from the country to which they are traveling.

“Our mission is to screen every bag for explosives or other elements that could cause catastrophic damage to an aircraft,” said Sari Koshetz, a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security agency that has authority over security at U.S. airports. “TSA’s mission does not include opening bags that do not alarm for explosives or other hazardous chemicals.”

American Airlines said it is not the carrier’s responsibility to inspect the weapons in checked luggage nor to prevent passengers from taking firearms to countries where they are banned. Jacques Yves Sebastien, 33, was arrested in Haiti Tuesday by Haitian police and remains in custody, after arriving on an American Airlines flight in Port-au-Prince with an arsenal of weapons and ammunition.

“We do not physically inspect firearms. However, we require the customer to sign the form stating they are unloaded and then they are transferred to TSA for screening,” said AA spokeswoman Martha Pantin.

That lack of inspection of firearms on flights coming from the U.S., isn’t going over well in Haiti, where an estimated 500,000 illegal guns are in circulation despite a U.S. arms embargo, and heavily armed criminal gangs are exacerbating a political and economic crisis by barricading streets, hijacking vehicles and holding entire communities hostage.

U.S. agencies “have a responsibility to make sure that the person has the proper authorization,” said Samuel Madistin, an attorney and chairman of the board of directors of Fondation Je Klere, a Port-au-Prince based human-rights group.

Madistin said individuals arrested for illegally transporting arms in Haiti face up to 15 years in prison. But that is if they are caught —and often they are not.

The TSA said it is only responsible for screening luggage for things that would affect the safety of the aircraft, like explosives. Customs and Border Protection said passengers planning to take their guns and ammunition to another country should check with that country’s embassy to see what arms are legal to take. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it only investigates after getting a tip, and it does not have an open investigation into this incident.

The U.S. State Department referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of TSA and CBP.

On Tuesday, Duroseau, 33, a former U.S. Marine who boarded American Airlines Flight 949 from Miami International Airport into Port-au-Prince, was arrested in Haiti after customs agents and police found the weapons in some of his six pieces of checked luggage.

A Haitian customs agent told the Miami Herald that Duroseau was sent to a secondary security check after agents noticed his gun cases. In total, a police source said, Duroseau had seven firearms — five handguns and two long guns. Haiti police have not made any public statements about the incident.

A Haitian police official did confirm, however, that among the guns were rifles that are banned in Haiti. The official, baffled by the fact that Duroseau was allowed to travel with the firearms, said Duroseau did not have the required authorization from the Haiti National Police to import firearms.

According to American Airlines, Duroseau arrived at the New Bern, North Carolina, airport on Monday, filled out a firearm declaration form to check his luggage, and continued his travels to Charlotte, Miami and then to Port-au-Prince on Tuesday afternoon.. The airline said an initial review shows that the North Carolina agent who checked in Duroseau may not have realized he was traveling to Haiti, where the U.S. government has had a ban on weapons imports from the U.S. for the past 28 years.

Under the 1991 U.S. arms embargo, the export of weapons and ammunition to Haiti requires permission from the Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and the U.S. Department of Commerce, which regulates shotguns. Requests are dealt on a case-by-case basis, and mostly authorization is given in support of the Haiti National Police.

On the same night that Duroseau was arrested, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, hosting a dinner for about 10 individuals from Haiti’s private sector, said that the U.S. was lifting the arms embargo, two business leaders told the Herald. “It’s what he was saying. He said he would have more support,” Rene Max Auguste said.

Auguste said Moïse, who has been engulfed with calls for his resignation, said as a result of the U.S. move, the police would soon be buying more ammunition and he planned to purchase about a dozen armored vehicles for their use. The State Department did not respond to a Herald request on whether the U.S. planned to lift the embargo.

Auguste said if the U.S. were to allow Haiti’s police to get more access to ammunition and weapons, “it would be a good thing.” Gangs, he said, are making an already difficult economic crisis by hijacking shipping containers and holding others hostage.

“I have a store in Cap-Haitien and have been unable to send supplies because I have a couple of trucks that have been stuck in Mirebalais for four days. A country cannot function like that,” Auguste said. “At one point, the police will have to be more powerful and aggressive. It’s a mess.”

The U.S., through the United Nations peacekeeping missions that left the country last month after 15 years, has spent millions of dollars over the years in trying to disarm gangs and control the importation of weapons. But the weapons are still getting through undetected, not just at the airport, but through the seaports and porous land border with the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Just how easy they are getting in was demonstrated earlier this year when two federal juries in Fort Lauderdale convicted two Haitian-American brothers, Junior and Jimy Joseph, on illegal arms trafficking to Haiti.

Federal authorities in the U.S. had accused the Joseph brothers of conspiring with a Haiti senator and others to ship firearms and ammunition from the U.S. without a license after their white Mitsubishi Fuso commercial work truck arrived at a port in St. Marc from Palm Beach County on Aug. 30, 2016. The truck was loaded with semi-automatic rifles, shotguns assault rifles and semi-automatic pistols.

During Junior Joseph’s trial, a representative of the shipping lines, Monarch Shipping, testified that while there are signs at the freight company warning customers not to ship weapons, the company does not inspect vehicles to ensure none have been loaded.

“The delinquents enter with guns easier than the government can,” said Madistin, the human rights activist and lawyer.

Jean Rebel Dorcenat, the head of a recently revived National Disarmament Commission — the third since 2006 — said the commission has been asking Haitian customs and police to step up enforcement at the country’s ports and airports to better control the importation of arms and ammunition. So far, however, it hasn’t been done. And the Parliament has not approved new legislation on arms control.

While Haiti police estimated that there were about 291,000 firearms in circulation in Haiti in 2017, with only 20,300 registered, Docenat said that number is far more today. “The estimate is between 400,000 and 500,000,” he said.

“Haiti doesn’t make guns. Haiti doesn’t make ammunition,” he said. “So how do they end up here?”

Noting that presence of U.S. embassy officials at the airport shortly after Tuesday’s arrest, Dorcenat said everyone involved “owes the country an explanation on what happened.”

AP Interview: Evo Morales wants UN mediation in Bolivia

E. Eduardo Castillo. AP. November 14, 2019

MEXICO CITY — Bolivia’s Evo Morales called for the United Nations, and possibly Pope Francis, to mediate in the Andean nation’s political crisis following his ouster as president in what he called a coup d’etat that forced him into exile in Mexico.

In an interview with The Associated Press Thursday in Mexico City, Morales said he is in fact still the president of Bolivia since the country’s Legislative Assembly has not yet accepted his resignation, which he presented Sunday at the urging of military leaders following weeks of protests against a re-election that his opponents called fraudulent.

“The assembly has to reject or approve the resignation” which it has not done, said the man who ruled Bolivia for almost 14 years as its first indigenous president. “If they don’t approve or reject it I can say that I am still president.”

Morales said he would return to Bolivia from Mexico, which has granted him political asylum, if that would contribute to his country’s pacification.

Political analyst Kathryn Ledebur of the nonprofit Andean Information Network in Bolivia, who has lived in the country for nearly 30 years, said Morales could have a case.

“A resignation letter has to be presented and considered, and accepted in the plenary before it goes into effect,” she said. “Do I think that Evo wants to return and be president - I don’t see that. But does he want to mess with them? Yes. He wants to keep them guessing.”

Two days after arriving in Mexico, Morales told the AP he has received information that some Bolivian army troops are planning to “rebel” against the officers who urged him to resign. But he gave no further specifics on how many were in on the plan, or how they would rebel.

Morales said he was “surprised by the betrayal of the commander in chief of the armed forces,” Williams Kaliman.

He called for calm and dialogue in Bolivia. “I want to tell them (his supporters) that we will have to recover democracy, but with a lot of patience and peaceful struggle.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday he is sending Jean Arnault, a personal envoy, to Bolivia to support efforts to find a peaceful solution to the nation’s crisis.

“I have a lot of confidence in the U.N.,” Morales said. But he noted he wants the world body “to be a mediator, not just a facilitator, perhaps accompanied by the Catholic church and if Pope Francis is needed, we should add him.”

He said the United States was the “great conspirator” behind the “coup d’etat” that forced him from Bolivia. Morales has long had a tense relationship with Washington and in 2008 expelled U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials from Bolivia.

Bolivia’s interim leader Jeanine Añez has been recognized by some countries, but faces an uphill battle in organizing new elections.

According to the constitution, an interim president has 90 days to organize an election. The disputed accession of Añez, who until Tuesday was second vice president of the Senate, was an example of the long list of obstacles she faces. Morales’ backers, who hold a two-thirds majority in Congress, boycotted the session she called Tuesday night to formalize her claim to the presidency, preventing a quorum.

Late Thursday, legislators with Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, and Añez were working on an agreement for new elections that would help resolve the crisis. The deal would make Eva Copa Murga Senate president with the backing of legislators from Añez’s Democratic Unity party.

“It’s a historic agreement to pacify the country,” Copa Murga said. But other legislators said a deal had not yet been reached.

Meanwhile Thursday, Morales’ backers demonstrated for his return from asylum in Mexico.

They had come overnight from Chapare, a coca-growing region where Morales became a prominent union leader before he became president. Soldiers blocked them from reaching the nearby city of Cochabamba, where Morales’ supporters and foes have clashed for weeks.

Morales’ resignation followed nationwide protests over suspected vote-rigging in an Oct. 20 election in which he claimed to have won a fourth term in office. An Organization of American States audit of the vote found widespread irregularities. Morales denies there was fraud.

Much of the opposition to Morales sprang from his refusal to accept a referendum that would have forbidden him from running for a new term.

In the wake of Morales’ resignation, it was unclear whether Bolivian election officials would have to formally bar him from running in a new election.

Añez, who claimed the interim presidency, was moving to establish authority in the turbulent country. She announced that Morales could not participate in elections again but his MAS party could.

Morales upended politics in this nation long ruled by light-skinned descendants of Europeans by reversing deep-rooted inequality. The economy benefited from a boom in prices of commodities and he ushered through a new constitution that created a new Congress with seats reserved for Bolivia’s smaller indigenous groups while also allowing self-rule for all indigenous communities.

Although some supporters became disenchanted by his insistence on holding on to power, Morales remains popular, especially among other members of his native Aymara ethnic group.

Bolivian interim leader says Morales can’t run in new vote

LUIS ANDRES HENAO. AP. November 14, 2019

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales cannot run as a candidate in any new elections, the country’s interim leader said Thursday, as supporters of the ousted president demonstrated for his return from asylum in Mexico.

“Evo: Friend, the people are with you!” shouted protesters in the city of Sacaba. They had come overnight from Chapare, a coca-growing region where Morales became a prominent union leader before his rise to the presidency.

In the capital of La Paz, some gasoline stations ran out of supply because of street blockades in the nearby city of El Alto, a pro-Morales stronghold that is a major distribution point for fuel.

Jeanine Añez, a Senate deputy leader who claimed the interim presidency, was struggling to establish authority in the turbulent country. She announced that Morales, who resigned Sunday after allegations of election fraud, could not participate in elections again and criticized Mexico’s government for allowing Morales to rally support from Mexico City.

“We have to let the Mexican government know that cannot be happening,” said Añez, who says she wants to restore stability in Bolivia but has been accused of a power grab by Morales supporters.

It was unclear whether election officials would have to formally bar Morales from running in a new election.

Bolivia’s first indigenous president resigned on Sunday at military prompting, following massive nationwide protests over suspected vote-rigging in an Oct. 20 election in which he claimed to have won a fourth term in office. An Organization of American States audit of the vote found widespread irregularities.

Much of the opposition to Morales sprang from his refusal to accept a referendum that would have forbidden him from running for a new term.

The pro-Morales Movement Toward Socialism party “has all the right to participate in elections, they can look for candidates,” Añez said.

Bolivia’s new interim government has begun winning some international recognition but faced challenges to its legitimacy at home.

Mexico welcomed Morales this week after he resigned. Mexico’s government referred to the ouster as a coup d’etat, as have other left-leaning administrations in Latin America. But Añez has gained recognition from other regional governments, including Brazil, Guatemala and Colombia, as well as Britain and the United States.

Añez also announced she would recognize Venezuela’s U.S.-backed opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, as that country’s legitimate leader, joining the U.S. and 50 other countries in repudiating socialist President Nicolás Maduro, an ally of Morales.

But the new Bolivian leadership was focused on challenges at home.

Members of the Movement Toward Socialism party, who dominate both houses of Congress, held legislative sessions aimed at questioning the legitimacy of Añez, who had been no higher than fifth in the line of succession before Morales resigned. She won recognition because those above her, all Morales backers, also resigned — though some later tried to recant their resignations.

In addition to accusing Morales of inciting violent dissent, the new government took aim at some of his allies at home.

Añez’s new interior minister, Arturo Murillo, said Wednesday that he had spoken with police and ordered a hunt for his predecessor, Juan Ramón Quintana — using the Spanish word for hunt that applies to chasing an animal.

“Why is it a hunt? Because he is an animal who is killing people,” Murillo said. Quintana apparently had vanished from sight.

“Those who deal in sedition, as of tomorrow, take care,” he warned.

Añez needs to win recognition from more Bolivians, stabilize the nation and organize new elections within 90 days, rebuilding after weeks of violent protests against Morales following the disputed election.

“If this is seen by the indigenous social movement as an effort by the old elite to restore the old order in Bolivian society, I think that is a recipe for tremendous political conflict,” said Kenneth Roberts, professor of government at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is sending a personal envoy to Bolivia to support efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

The new envoy, Jean Arnault, was traveling to Bolivia on Thursday, according to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

In Brazil, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the BRICS group of emerging economies that the situation in Bolivia is alarming.

“They have no leadership at all. It’s similar to the situation in Libya, though there is no direct armed intervention. However, the country is close to chaos,” Putin said.

The interim government on Thursday gave journalists a tour of a modern 29-story presidential office building with a heliport built by Morales and that his foes had criticized as one of his excesses. The empty presidential suite on the 24th floor contained a wall painting showing leaders including Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro; a reading room with several biographies about Morales; a few items of clothing in the main bedroom; and a jacuzzi.

Morales upended politics in this nation long ruled by light-skinned descendants of Europeans by reversing deep-rooted inequality. The economy benefited from a boom in prices of commodities and he ushered through a new constitution that created a new Congress with seats reserved for Bolivia’s smaller indigenous groups while also allowing self-rule for all indigenous communities.


Although some supporters became disenchanted by his insistence on holding on to power, Morales remains popular, especially among other members of his native Aymara ethnic group.

Morales’ backers, who hold a two-thirds majority in Congress, boycotted the session that Añez called Tuesday night to formalize her claim to the presidency, preventing a quorum.

She claimed power anyway and swore in a Cabinet, saying the constitution did not require congressional approval. The military, police and opposition parties accepted her. Bolivia’s top constitutional court laid out the legal justification for Añez taking the presidency, without mentioning her by name.

But other legal experts questioned her claim, saying at least some of her steps required a session of Congress.

Bolivia's interim president's indigenous-free cabinet heightens polarization

Dan Collyns. The Guardian. November 14, 2019

Bolivia’s controversial new interim president has unveiled a new cabinet which critics say could further increase polarization in the country still deeply split over the ousting of her predecessor, Evo Morales.

To the applause of military top brass, lawmakers and senators, Jeanine Áñez vowed to “reconstruct democracy” and “pacify the country” at a late-night ceremony in the “Palacio Quemado” (Burnt Palace) presidential building.

“We want to be a democratic tool of inclusion and unity,” said the 52-year-old religious conservative, sitting at a table bearing a huge open Bible and crucifix.

But the transitional cabinet sworn into office on Wednesday night did not include a single indigenous person, in a country where at least 40% of the population belongs to one of 36 indigenous groups.

“Bolivia cannot continue revolving around a tyrant,” Áñez added, in a remark directed at her predecessor, who flew into exile in Mexico on Monday and has since questioned the legitimacy of his temporary successor.

Morales resigned under pressure on Sunday after a tumultuous 48 hours in which police officers mutinied, a damning audit by the Organization of American States found electoral irregularities and the military command urged him him to quit.

Áñez has called for fresh elections but has not yet set the date for the vote, which under the constitution she must do within 90 days.

Speaking in Mexico City on Wednesday, Morales hinted that he might return to Bolivia, but Áñez made clear that he would not be allowed to run again.

“Evo Morales does not qualify to run for a fourth term. It’s because [he did] that we’ve had all this convulsion, and because of this that so many Bolivians have been demonstrating in the streets,” she said.

The former leader’s supporters have decried heavy-handed policing in street protests and say they are being targeted for being indigenous in appearance or dress. On Wednesday, the former senate head Adriana Salvatierra, a Morales loyalist who resigned just after he did, was prevented from entering the parliament building by police who scuffled with her supporters.

Áñez’s choice of cabinet showed no signs that she intended to reach across the country’s deep political and ethnic divide. Her senior ministers includes prominent members of the business elite from Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s most populous city and a bastion of opposition to Evo Morales.

Speaking to journalists, Áñez’s new interior minister, Arturo Murillo, vowed to “hunt down” his predecessor Juan Ramón Quintana, a prominent Morales ally, stoking fears of a witch-hunt against members the previous administration.

Marking distance from Morales’s “21st-century socialism”, the newly appointed foreign minister, Karen Longaric, said: “We leave behind those times in which ethnic and class resentments which divide Bolivians are used as an instrument of political control.”

Such comments were an implicit attack on Bolivia’s first president from its indigenous population, who changed the constitution in 2009 to redefine the country as a “plurinational” state which enshrined the expanded territorial rights of indigenous people.

The perceived disrespect of indigenous symbols has also whipped up outrage among Morales supporters in Bolivia and across Latin America. Social media videos showing the burning of the Wiphala – the multi-coloured flag of native people of the Andes closely associated with Morales’s legacy – has brought thousands on to the streets waving the banner.

One police chief made a public apology after another video showed officers cutting the flag out of their uniforms.

Áñez herself has drawn criticism after racist remarks against indigenous people were unearthed in tweets attributed to her from 2013.

“This is definitely an anti-indigenous government,” said María Galindo, founder of the Mujer Creando feminist movement. “It’s not just racism but also the issue of the plurinational state,” she said.

But Galindo, a fierce critic of Morales, was most worried by the power vacuum the leftwing icon left behind. “The right has filled the gigantic void in a chilling and dangerous way,” she said.

“Especially for me because I’m an anti-fascist fighter in this country, I’m openly lesbian and I could be targeted, threatened and murdered in this country,” she added.

Yerko Ihlik, a political commentator, said Añez would be best advised to stick to the job of creating the conditions for fresh elections. She received a fresh boost on Thursday when Russia – which had been a key ally for Morales – recognized her as interim president.

But there are signs other unelected figures are exerting influence. Luis Fernando Camacho, a self-styled civic leader who has gained increasing prominence as a Morales opponent, entered the presidential palace with followers and then emerged to declare that “the Bible has re-entered the palace”.

His right-hand man, Jerjes Justiniano, was selected as a minister of the presidency on Wednesday.

As Áñez swore in her cabinet, a heavy police presence had quelled protests in the city’s downtown. But the former president’s supporters flooded into the streets of La Paz’s sister city of El Alto, chanting, “Now, civil war!”

“Nobody elected her,” said Jim Shultz, founder and executive director of the Democracy Centre who lived in Bolivia for 19 years.

“If Bolivians who supported Evo – and there’s a lot of them – think that, somehow, without any victory in the ballot box, the right is getting back into power, then that is going to inflame divisions.”

Evo Morales ready to return to “pacify Bolivia, not as a candidate”

JAVIER LAFUENTE. El Pais. November 14, 2019

Evo Morales, 60, has only been in Mexico for 24 hours – he landed there on Tuesday after the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador granted him political asylum on humanitarian grounds – and already his agenda is packed.

Morales, who stepped down as president of Bolivia on Sunday following weeks of street violence, said in an interview with EL PAÍS conducted in Mexico City that he is the victim of a coup. He also called for an end to the violent confrontations, and refuted the claims of election fraud that triggered the violence and his own resignation.

Bolivia’s first indigenous president had been in power since 2006 after winning three elections. A senator named Jeanine Añez Chavez has declared herself interim president until new elections are held.

The people will never be silenced with weapons

Question. When did you decide to give up the presidency?

Answer. The coup began on October 21, the day after the elections, with false accusations of fraud. Now I realize that this claim constituted the real fraud. For two weeks it intensified, and the coup was consummated when the police rebelled and joined the coup. We asked for dialogue with the four parties represented in parliament. In order to avoid deaths and injuries, I said let’s not have a runoff but an election, without Evo as a candidate, with new members of the electoral tribunal. But they kept up the aggression. Until the time that I resigned, there had been no deaths by gunshot. Afterwards, there were four or five.

Q. Shortly before stepping down, the head of the army had suggested you should resign. How did you take this?

A. I can’t understand it, I had good references about General Kaliman. I had talked with the armed forces, and they’d told me they were going to stay in their place. Later, they called for my resignation. It’s further evidence of the coup. Obviously I feel betrayed, but not just that. All these years we have been investing in equipping the armed forces, but to defend the homeland, not to go against the people. I don’t know what side of history they’ll end up on, but they’re making a mistake. I urge them not to use weapons against the people. The people will never be silenced with weapons.

Q. What solution do you see for your country?

OAS chief Luis Almagro is awaiting instructions from the government of the United States

A. The first thing is to stop people getting killed and wounded. That is up to the army and the national police. With an indigenous president, they never thought about a curfew, or a state of emergency. They staged the coup to defend the wealthy people. They use airplanes and helicopters to intimidate the people. This is a class problem. I have asked for a national dialogue with the presence of civic committees, political forces, the right, the social movements, the state, the government. If Álvaro [García Linera, the vice president] and I stepped down, it was to pacify things, not to keep up the violence.

Q. Who’s the boss in Bolivia right now?

A. There is no authority; it might be that unconstitutionally self-declared president.

Q. Who do you think holds the most power in the country?

A. I don’t know, I couldn’t tell you. It’s the military command and the police command.

Q. On Monday, the second vice president of the Senate, Jeanine Áñez, declared herself president. On Tuesday the Senate president, Adriana Salvatierra, who should have assumed the presidency following your resignation, was prevented from entering parliament. Do you think that Salvatierra should declare herself president, or would that create further division?

A. The first thing that the legislature needs to do is either reject or approve my resignation. As long as it does not do this, I am still the president. Once approved, the position would go to the vice president, who has also stepped down. Constitutionally, the next person in line is the president of the Senate, Adriana Salvatierra. That alleged declaration [by Áñez] is unconstitutional. It confirms the coup.

Q. How long do you plan on remaining in Mexico?

As long as there is life, I will remain in politics

A. I’d like to leave right now. If I can contribute to a peaceful solution, after my resignation, I will.

Q. A lot of people think your return would mean a return to power. Are you ready to give that up and not run as a candidate?

A. Look, in the early hours of Sunday, the Organization of American States [OAS] already had a preliminary report ready making it look like there had been [electoral] fraud. Yet they had told us that the report would not be ready until the 12th, and later even asked us for a November 13 deadline. I asked to talk with OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro at three or four in the morning, but he refused. I spoke with his chief of staff, Gonzalo Koncke, and told him that the report was going to set the country on fire, that there were going to be deaths as a result. They [the OAS] say that I won the election but not clearly; in this case there should be a runoff. But no, they want a new election. That’s a political decision. Now they’re saying we staged a self-coup. Luis Almagro is awaiting instructions from the government of the United States, everything makes sense that way. I had some degree of hope in the OAS. We told them to audit the election, I was convinced there was no fraud. I have never in my life liked to do anything illegal. The underlying issue is that they don’t accept the indigenous vote. After the first report, the Transmission of Preliminary Electoral Results, came out, I was winning by 7%, but the rural, indigenous vote was still uncounted. I said we would win. They are rejecting the indigenous vote, and that is going back to the past, to colonial days.

Q. Let me ask you again: are you willing to return to your country and not remain in power, nor to run as a candidate, if it brings peace?

A. Of course. I have stepped down, and there is still violence.

Q. A month ago, as you were campaigning, you told me that if it were up to you, you would’ve retired already. Do you regret having run again to remain in power?

A. There’s no reason why I should have regrets. I joyfully accepted after my brothers and sisters told me: “Your life does not depend on yourself, it depends on the people.” As long as there is life, I will remain in politics.

Q. Your trip to Mexico has been a portrait of Latin American politics.

A. I respect and earnestly thank Paraguay and Brazil. Mexico obviously saved my life. I cannot understand how Peru, with whom we have such friendly relations, did not allow the plane to land in Lima.

Protests pile pressure on interim Bolivia president

Francisco JARA. AFP. November 14, 2019

Thousands of demonstrators marched through La Paz on Thursday, piling pressure on the government of interim president Jeanine Anez as she tried to consolidate power in deeply polarized Bolivia.

Columns of people streamed into the city from the neighboring town of El Alto for the second day running to decry what many said was a coup.

Waving multicolored "wiphala" indigenous flags, many of the demonstrators chanted: "The time is now, civil war" and "Come back Evo!"

Pledging early elections, Anez -- a previously obscure lawmaker -- proclaimed herself acting president on Tuesday after Evo Morales fled the country for Mexico, fearing for his safety amid deadly protests.

Unrest erupted when Morales -- Bolivia's first indigenous president -- was accused of rigging the results of October 20 polls to gain re-election for a fourth term.

Thursday's protests included Morales supporters like the "red ponchos" -- members of Morales' Aymara indigenous people -- as well as ordinary people fed up with the political events in the country.

"We are calling for the resignation of this racist president, this putschist," said Juan Gutierrez, an Aymara.

Riot police had clashed with hundreds of Morales supporters on Wednesday night during the previous demonstration against Anez, whom Morales accused of carrying out a "coup."

- Twitter attacks -

Morales has kept up attacks on the new government via Twitter from his exile in Mexico.

Anez told reporters Thursday that new Foreign Minister Karen Longari would "make representations" to Mexico to insist that Morales be held to the terms of his political asylum and prevented from interfering in Bolivia's politics.

Morales's Movement for Socialism (MAS) party on Thursday accused her of "continuing to incite violence" in the country, which has been in turmoil since Morales's contested re-election.

UN chief Antonio Guterres urged all sides to refrain from violence and said his personal envoy Jean Arnault was travelling to La Paz to engage "with all Bolivian actors and offer United Nations support to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis."

With tensions high, the government said it had opened negotiations with lawmakers from Morales' party.

"We have set up talks and we believe we can bring peace to the country," said Anez's cabinet chief Jerjes Justiniano.

The claim could not immediately be confirmed with the MAS party.

- International recognition -

Nearly a month of protests have left 10 people dead and almost 400 wounded.

Normal business has resumed in the main cities, but schools and universities remained shut due to the continued threat of demonstrations. Many gas stations remained closed because of a lack of supplies.

Buoyed by growing international recognition, Anez was expected to complete her government line-up, having named new military chiefs and half of her proposed 20-member cabinet the night before.

New Defense Minister Fernandez Lopez Julio said in a speech at the military college in La Paz that the new government would bring peace to the country.

"Above all, we will have to have faith in God," he said, highlighting the conservative Christian emphasis of Anez's government after she set the tone by brandishing a bible when assuming office on Tuesday.

Interior Minister Arturo Murillo announced the government would "hunt down" a former Morales minister, Juan Ramon Quintana, accused of masterminding opposition to his successor.

Quintana "is an animal that feeds off blood," said Murillo, while Anez has publicly insisted there would be no persecution of Morales's inner circle.

The United States, Russia and Guatemala all recognized Anez as the interim president, though Moscow said it considered Morales the victim of a coup.

"This is not about recognizing what has happened in Bolivia as a legitimate process," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

- Break with Maduro -

Anez gave the first indication of her government's foreign policy by recognizing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as his country's president -- a key shift of alliance in the volatile region.

The announcement removes one of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's main allies as he fends off efforts to oust him amid a deadly economic and political crisis. Maduro's opponents have branded him a dictator.

Anez's decision signals a significant break from socialist leader Morales's position on Maduro.

Guaido has declared himself Venezuela's rightful president. He has gained the recognition of 50 countries, including the United States, but has so far failed to dislodge Maduro.