FORMER Bolivian President Evo Morales has said that the Bolivian nation will continue its fight against an American and Israeli-backed ‘coup’ in the country and ultimately prevail.
The coup government, ‘assisted by Israel and the US, will prepare itself (to stifle resistance), but when a nation rises, no system can stop it, like the Bolivian nation which has risen in quest for truth, unity and freedom,’ Morales said during an exclusive interview with Iran’s Spanish-language television channel HispanTV on Thursday.
Morales was forced to resign on November 10 under pressure from the country’s armed forces after the US-backed opposition there rejected the October election results. He was granted asylum in Mexico.
Morales has described his ouster as a ‘coup’ and said there is evidence that Washington orchestrated it.
Former Bolivian president Evo Morales, who has travelled to Mexico since his forced resignation, says the United States opposes his return to Bolivia.
Earlier this week, Bolivia’s self-proclaimed interim president, Jeanine Anez, signed a law preventing Morales from participating in a new election, which is expected to be held in the upcoming months.
Interior Minister Arturo Murillo has hinted that the self-appointed government may seek to imprison Morales, accusing him of terrorism and sedition.
‘Any terrorist should spend the rest of their life in prison,’ he said in an interview with the leading British daily, The Guardian, on Sunday.
Speaking to HispanTV, however, Morales explained that his ‘biggest crime was returning hope to the Bolivian people,’ as his economic policies had benefited the Bolivian people to the detriment of certain political and business figures.
‘Be sure that under the orders of Washington, the right-wing party will not allow me to return,’ he said, adding that ‘my crime is defending the oppressed, the workers and the natives’.
‘This is why I fear nothing and if anything happens to me or if I am arrested while returning (to Bolivia), the main culprit is the fascist right which carried out the coup, and secondly the US,’ he said.
Promising a strong movement against the ‘coup’ and stressing his right to participate in a new election, Morales did not specify if he would ultimately run in elections or return to Bolivia in the near future.
‘With Evo or without Evo, we will guarantee the freedom of the Bolivian people,’ he said, calling on all ‘natives, workers and everyone to be alert and try to regain political power’ in order to protect the ‘interests of the nation’.
Morales vowed that the Bolivian nation will unite almost unanimously against the ‘self-appointed government’ in the near future once it starts implementing its ‘neoliberal’ economic policies which are ‘dictated from abroad’.
During the interview, the former president also sent his ‘regards to all truth seekers within the international community’ and ‘compatriots who are fighting for democracy’.
The former president was known internationally for his strong anti-imperialist and pro-Palestine positions during his tenure.
Morales cut relations with Tel Aviv in 2009 shortly after Israel carried out a deadly three-week incursion into Gaza, which led to the death of over 1,200 Palestinians.
On Thursday, however, Bolivian Foreign Minister Karen Longaric said that the country plans to renew ties with Israel.
- The interim government, which gained power following what ousted Bolivian President Evo Morales has denounced as a ‘coup’, has announced plans to renew ties with Israel.
Speaking with international media on Thursday, Bolivian Foreign Minister Karen Longaric said the country plans ‘to restore relations with Israel’, but did not give a date for the planned measure or elaborate on any other related details.
Morales had cut relations with Tel Aviv in 2009 shortly after Israel carried out a deadly three-week incursion into Gaza, killing 1,282 Palestinians, 333 of whom were children.
‘Bolivia had diplomatic relations with Israel. (But) considering these grave attacks against…humanity, Bolivia will stop having diplomatic relations with Israel,’ Morales said at the time in a speech addressing diplomats in his government palace.
Morales also said that he was seeking to ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) to charge Israeli officials for the killings.
In 2010, Morales also formally recognised Palestine as a sovereign and independent state within the 1967-defined borders.
La Paz’s change in policy towards the Israeli regime comes after Morales was forced to resign on November 10 under pressure from armed forces after the country’s US-backed opposition rejected the country’s October election results.
Former Bolivian president Evo Morales, who has travelled to Mexico since his forced resignation, says the United States opposes his return to Bolivia.
Speaking on Thursday, Longaric said the Morales government’s move to cut ties with Israel ‘did not take into effect the collateral effects, such as economic and trade issues’.
Longaric added that she hoped ‘renewed relations could lead to positive aspects for both sides and contribute to Bolivian tourism’.
In a statement later on Thursday, Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, welcomed the measure.
He said his ministry had ‘actively worked for a long period of time to promote the renewal of the relationship also with the help of the Brazilian president and minister of foreign affairs’.
‘The departure of President Morales, who was hostile to Israel, and his replacement by a government friendly to Israel, allows the fruition of the process,’ he added.
The power shift in La Paz and the country’s renewed interest in relations with Israel, comes as a number of Central and South American countries, notably Brazil, have adopted increasingly pro-Israel positions in line with policies of US President Donald Trump.
Guatemala opened a new embassy in Jerusalem al-Quds in occupied Palestine shortly after the US formally transferred its embassy from Tel Aviv to the city in May 2018, which prompted worldwide condemnation and anger among Palestinians.
In August, Honduras also recognised Jerusalem al-Quds as the so-called capital of Israel and announced that it sought to open a diplomatic office there.
- Mexico says it bluntly objects to any potential cross-border armed operations targeting the country’s soil by the United States after the latter vows to blacklist the Mexican drug cartels.
‘Armed foreigners cannot intervene in our territory. We will not allow that,’ said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday, AFP reported.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump pledged to put the cartels on the US’ so-called Foreign Terrorist Organisations’ list. ‘They will be designated,’ Trump said in a radio interview.
US President Donald Trump has expressed Washington’s willingness to help Mexico ‘wage war’ on the drug cartels in the country.
Trump’s remarks came after the cartels allegedly slew nine members of the Mexico-based American-Mexican Mormon community on November 4th.
His remarks, however, conjured up resentment among both Mexican nationals and politicians due to their bringing back memories of the US’s long history of territorial aggression against their country, including an 1848 war, during which the US appropriated half of Mexico’s expanse.
‘Since 1914 there hasn’t been a foreign intervention in Mexico and we cannot permit that,’ Lopez Obrador said, referring to the US occupation of the port of Veracruz over a century ago.