“What’s happening right now in Bolivia isn’t democracy,” she said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaks during a meeting of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform June 12, 2019 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday became the second U.S. lawmaker to join the growing chorus of voices across the globe who are condemning the resignation of Bolivia’s socialist President Evo Morales as a “coup.”
As Common Dreams reported earlier Monday, “Morales was forced to resign Sunday under threat from the nation’s military, police forces, and violent right-wing protestors.” The resignation followed Morales’ announcement that he would hold new elections after the U.S.-dominated Organization of American States (OAS) questioned his October victory.
Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman Democrat from New York, tweeted in both Spanish and English Monday afternoon, “What’s happening right now in Bolivia isn’t democracy, it’s a coup.”
What’s happening right now in Bolivia isn’t democracy, it’s a coup.
The people of Bolivia deserve free, fair, and peaceful elections – not violent seizures of power.69.5K7:26 PM – Nov 11, 2019
The democratic socialist’s comment echoed that of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a fellow Squad member who had weighed in on Twitter late Sunday.
Progressives thanked Ocasio-Cortez “for breaking the deafening silence” and encouraged Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—whom both Omar and Ocasio-Cortez have endorsed for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination—to issue a similar statement on the recent developments in Bolivia.
Within two hours of Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet, Sanders took to Twitter to express his concern “about what appears to be a coup in Bolivia.”
I am very concerned about what appears to be a coup in Bolivia, where the military, after weeks of political unrest, intervened to remove President Evo Morales. The U.S. must call for an end to violence and support Bolivia’s democratic institutions.76K9:16 PM – Nov 11, 2019
The Washington, D.C.-based independent membership organization Just Foreign Policy responded by thanking Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and Omar “for standing up for Bolivian democracy.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted Sunday that he “fully support[s] the findings of the [OAS] report recommending new elections” in the South American country, and President Donald Trump on Monday called Morales’ resignation “a significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere.”
Throughout Monday, progressive journalists and advocacy groups continued to condemn the coup and U.S. media outlets reporting on it:
There’s literally not a single thing about the violence and military rule taking place in Bolivia that is about restoration of democracy.
Everything that’s happening is about an end to democracy there: a classic coup.
It’s astonishing US media outlets won’t call it that:
Naomi Klein✔@NaomiAKlein
Exactly 10 years ago, Evo Morales’s negotiators went to a U.N. climate summit and called for a “Marshall Plan for Planet Earth” and “rights for Mother Earth.”
The idea was what is now being called a #GreenNewDeal.
If we had listened then, the world might not be in flames.