September 11th is an anniversary that resonates with all Americans, of course. This is to be expected, because there was a horrific event that took place on that date, over 18 years ago now.
But something else happened on that date as well, many years before. In fact, decades before.
Yes, it was in 1973 that the United States assisted with a coup d'état in Chile, ultimately removing a democratically elected leader and then installing an anti-democratic dictatorship that stayed in power for the better part of two decades afterward.
Of course, officially, the United States denied it. Then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had dismissed the idea that the United States was getting involved in the affairs of Chile, suggesting that it was so far away as to be remote. He specifically referred to Chile as "a dagger pointed at the heart of Antarctica."
Yet, the military coup could not have been successful, and perhaps could not even have happened at all, without American support. This is known, and it is known that, regardless of repeated official American denial, the Nixon administration was determined to get rid of the left-leaning Allende government in Santiago. And it did. The irony of it happening on September 11th, on a date that would resonate with Americans decades later for very different reasons, is not lost on people who are aware of this history. After all, it could be argued that it was American involvement in another nation's affairs - Afghanistan, this time - that ultimately led to the rise of the Taliban in that country. And the Taliban, of course, harbored terrorists, who viewed the United States as an enemy and a target. In time, Al Qaeda launched the September 11th attacks at the behest of Osama Bin Laden, who was hiding in the caves of Afghanistan, before crossing over into neighboring Pakistan, where he eventually was killed by American forces.
One could argue, with considerable legitimacy, that American intervention in the affairs of other countries has rarely led to anything good. This is particularly true when it was unwelcome, as it was in Chile. Ironically, it was welcomed in Afghanistan, even though Americans quickly abandoned the Afghans after the specific American objective of kicking out the invading Soviets was accomplished. This helped to set up a very unstable situation in the war torn country that was starving for some order and an end to chaos. The Taliban helped to establish some kind of stability, and thus, it took over the country in time. This, in time, allowed all of the other circumstances that led to the September 11th attacks in the United States years later.
Have we learned our lesson?
It seems that we have not.
We need to return to South America, although a different country this time. Very recently, there was yet another coup d'état. This time, it happened in Bolivia. Once again, however, it replaced a left-leaning government that the United States government surely was desperate to be rid of.
Now, the newly installed government of self-declared Interim President Jeanine Añez is cracking down on journalists who are critical of the new government. She is also moving to arrest lawmakers from the formerly ruling Movement for Socialism party.
How did she obtain power? Well, to understand that, we need to look at how unpopular former President Evo Morales was, and how he was effectively forced out. Here, according to Gabriel Hetland of the Guardian (see link below) is a very brief summary of how this came about:
On Sunday, the head of Bolivia’s military called on Evo Morales to resign from the presidency. Minutes later, Morales was on a plane to Cochabamba where he did just that. These facts leave little doubt that what happened in Bolivia this weekend was a military coup, the first such event in Latin America since the 2009 military coup against the Honduran president Manuel Zelaya. (The 2012 and 2016 impeachments of Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo and Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff are widely viewed as “parliamentary coups”.)
Here are some more specifics regarding the latest news from Bolivia from a recent article by Jake Johnson, staff writer for Commondreams.orgnews (see link below) :
The Bolivian newspaper Los Tiempos reported that government minister Arturo Murillo announced plans Sunday to publish a "list" of leftist lawmakers he said are guilty of "subversion." Last week, Murillo vowed to "go hunting" for Morales' former top minister Juan Ramón Quintana, who has been forced into hiding.
In response, journalist Ben Norton said the Bolivian government is behaving like a "Pinochet-style dictatorship."
"Bolivia's far-right coup regime is become more authoritarian and murderous by the day," Norton tweeted Sunday.
Murillo's announcement came just days after the coup government's communications minister, Roxana Lizárraga, threatened to arrest journalists and members of the media "involved in sedition."
Wonderful, right?
There's more, though.
Like her neighbor Jair Bolsonaro to the east in Brazil, Jeanine Añez, the newly installed leader of Bolivia, has a history of racism, and a strong desire to move her country far to the right. Unlike Bolsonaro, however, Añez did not even bother trying to obtain power legally or democratically.
Now, she is implementing reactionary changes in her country, and again, without anything resembling a democratic mandate.
As the New York Times reported:
Añez's revival of Catholic rituals in public events has caused more than a little discomfort because the Constitution defines Bolivia as a secular state. Her religious zeal has also caused concern among some Indigenous groups who associate Catholicism in politics with the former conservative governments that had long treated them as second-class citizens.
In a further shift from Mr. Morales' focus on Indigenous rights, Ms. Añez has filled her cabinet with politicians from the country's eastern lowlands, which are dominated by Bolivians of mixed or European descent. Many of her ministers have been staunch opponents of Mr. Morales' socialist policies or have served in previous conservative administrations.
The most radical changes have come from the Foreign Ministry. In just a few days, Ms. Añez, has cut Mr. Morales' alliances with leftist governments in the region. She broke off relations with President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and kicked out hundreds of Cuban doctors working in the country.
Additionally, the Times noted, Añez "issued a presidential decree exempting the military from criminal prosecution when maintaining public order." A day later, Bolivian security forces opened fire on indigenous anti-coup protestors in the city of Cochabamba, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens more.
It is hard to dismiss the idea that, somehow or other, on some level or other, the American government had some involvement. At the very least, they had some strong influence that likely gave the tacit green light for the anti-democratic coup in Bolivia to take place. If that were not the case, surely lawmakers in the United States - for now, still a democratic country - might speak up a bit more about it.
Yet, most American government officials have remained silent on this obviously huge news story. In this case, their silence speaks volumes. And in this age, when Donald Trump already has irreparably damaged the reputation of the United States around the entire world, is yet another coup d'état establishing a banana republic really going to help America's image, or do yet still more damage?
That, however, I leave to the reader.
Many wanted Morales out. But what happened in Bolivia was a military coup by Gabriel Hetland, November 13, 2019:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/13/morales-bolivia-military-coup
'Pinochet-Style Dictatorship': Bolivia's Coup Government Threatens to Arrest Leftist Lawmakers and Journalists "Bolivia is living through a violent, regressive, completely undemocratic power grab. All governments must sever relations with this illegal regime." by Jake Johnson, staff writer, November 18, 2019:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/18/pinochet-style-dictatorship-bolivias-coup-government-threatens-arrest-leftist?utm_campaign=shareaholic&fbclid=IwAR3lI2aorL1byCjakVTQpNLkf_rn-afr2HF4XYv2jyRf0MslUKTznblkj1c
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