Evo Morales Is Safely in Mexico; State Department Imposes ‘Democracy’ via Terror in Bolivia

Nov. 12, 2019 (EIRNS)—Deposed Bolivian President Evo Morales arrived in Mexico City this morning aboard a Mexican Air Force plane. As he disembarked, he was warmly welcomed and embraced by Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who said that “this is a happy day, because the asylum offered to Evo Morales is now in effect, and he is here on Mexican soil where he will enjoy freedom, security, integrity and protection.”

A visibly tired Morales thanked Mexico for “saving my life,” and vowed that “as long as I have life, I will continue in politics ... continue the fight.” Addressing his supporters in Bolivia he said: “I will never abandon you.” He reiterated he had been the victim of a coup, and detailed the terror attacks, house burnings and physical violence to which his own family, trade unionists, indigenous populations, government employees and members of his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) had been subjected to—and is still ongoing. He also reported, according to the Bolivian Information Agency (ABI), that one day prior to his Nov. 10 resignation, he had been told by a member of his Army security staff that there was a $50,000 bounty on his head, for anyone willing to “hand him over.”

In briefing reporters this morning, Ebrard’s report on the difficulties of getting Morales safely out of Bolivia to arrive in Mexico, confirmed that the Bolivian leader’s life had been in danger. It was, Ebrard said, “like taking a trip through Latin American politics,” where U.S. State Department pressures are clearly at work and required tremendous patience and perseverance on the part of Mexican diplomats. Peru and Ecuador, and whatever “authorities” existed at the time in Bolivia, did everything possible to make the Mexican Air Force plane’s return trip to Mexico as difficult and dangerous as possible, denying Mexico use of landing rights for refueling and even their airspace, and delaying Morales’s departure from an airport in Cochabamba, where there was a very tense standoff between the Army and Morales’s supporters.

The White House unfortunately issued a statement yesterday in President Donald Trump’s name, backing the coup, charging that Morales had tried to “override the Bolivian Constitution” and that his departure “preserves democracy and paves the way for the Bolivian people to have their voices heard.... We are now one step closer to a completely democratic, prosperous and free Western Hemisphere.” At a special session of the Organization of American States today, U.S. Ambassador Carlos Trujillo peddled a similar line, claiming that Morales had “tried to subvert the Bolivian people’s will,” by committing fraud.