Fifteen year ago, Bolivia elected their first indigenous president, Evo Morales. Morales belongs to the MAS party (Movimiento a Socialismo/Move toward Socialism). Over the past years, he’s used Bolivia’s natural resources (oil, metals, rare metals, etc) to finance his socialist policies. This made him very popular with the extremely poor, who received some benefits from his movement. Since then, however, he’s promoted corrupt people and they have squandered a lot of money on themselves and to remain in power.
China is deeply involved in the country. It maintains and runs all the resource extraction, enriching themselves and Evo Morales, with pennies going to the poor in Bolivia. This raping of the nation includes massive wildfires in the Amazon jungles in Bolivia. destroying 3 million acres of forest, which Morales started to clear land for farming and mining, and then neglected to seriously fight the fires.
He has attempted on many occasions to undermine basic rights of free speech and protest. Recently, he has arrested many people that oppose him.
According to the Bolivian constitution, a person could only be president for two consecutive terms. Morales set up a secondary court that judged this portion of the constitution to be unconstitutional, allowing him to run a third and (now) fourth terms.
Under the constitution, a person must win by at least 10 percent of the vote, otherwise there is a runoff between the two top contenders.
This past Sunday, Oct 20, 2019, was their election. With 83 percent of the vote electronically counted, Evo Morales was leading Carlos Mesa by less than 10 percent. This would have required a run off in December. Then, suddenly, the count stopped. For almost a day, there was no news on the count. When information finally began to come out, several differing stories came out to explain what happened. Then, the announcement that the country of 10 million suddenly had 12 million people, of which there were hundreds of thousands more voters, who just happened to vote for Evo Morales. The “official” tally gave him an 11 percent lead, and he declared himself president for a fourth term.
I have lots of friends in Bolivia, having served my mission there 40 years ago. Not a single one of them voted for Morales, and have for months predicted he would cheat if necessary to remain in office.
As it is, his actions are on par with the dictators of Venezuela. It is likely that Bolivia will be bankrupt and destroyed within the next few years under continued socialism.
The brave people of Bolivia are protesting in many cities, trying to oust the dictator and his goons. My friends are asking for our prayers. They do not want to become another Venezuela. They want to be free, with honest leaders and elections.
%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestar.com%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fthestar%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Famericas%2F2019%2F10%2F25%2Fbolivia-reveals-final-vote-results-but-no-winner-declared%2FXJK106-1025_2019_010958.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
Sadly, most American news is focused on the battle between President Trump and the Democrats. Tragedies throughout the world are basically ignored because of the Beltway Sideshow made Main Attraction. Meanwhile, much of South and Central America are in turmoil.
Will you join me in prayers, and this coming Fast Sunday to fast for those in Bolivia and other nations under the harsh hand of socialist, fascist, and other evil dictators, so that they may enjoy the personal freedoms, peace and liberty they seek and desire?
Thank you!
New York Times articlehttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/world/americas/boliva-election-protests.html
Washington Post article https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/unrest-erupts-in-bolivia-as-opponents-accuse-evo-morales-of-trying-to-steal-election/2019/10/22/214d85f2-f4d4-11e9-b2d2-1f37c9d82dbb_story.html’
The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/21/bolivia-confusion-over-election-results-sparks-fear-and-protests
I will pray for Bolivia, Brother Ram. I am so sorry to hear this. I usually keep up on all that, but you are right, the news about impeachment, Syria, and Turkey is much louder. All of South America needs our prayers. Who would have thought the situation would last this long in Venezuela. Very few stable, non-corrupt governments south of the US. Corruption and moral bankruptcy in many places in the so-called “West”… Latter Days…
Interesting how China and Iran are involved in Central and South America.
https://audioboom.com/posts/6495550-iran-establishes-hezbollah-like-militias-in-iraq-syria-bahrain-afghanistan-venezuela-mohsen
https://audioboom.com/posts/6995523-it-s-not-just-the-sanctions-it-s-domestic-issues-wheel-barrels-of-rials-as-iran-slips-to
A couple more podcasts about Iran’s influence in Venezuela:
https://audioboom.com/posts/7154050-cuba-is-the-killer-enforcer-to-intimidate-the-venezuela-military-joseph-humire-malcolm-hoenlein
https://audioboom.com/posts/7153983-venezuela-in-revolution-joseph-humire-malcolm-hoenlein
—
Iran has had destabilizing influence in Argentina too. Iran has admitted it is intent on building hundreds of mosques throughout Latin America,
—
Riots going on in Ecuador too. I don’t know what that’s about, just saw the headlines.
Reasons for us to return to the Monroe Doctrine: America focus on our hemisphere, and let the Old World take care of itself. Had we been focused on our own area, instead of the Middle East, China and Iran would not have made such a giant foothold for themselves here.
Very sad to read this update about Bolivia, a country I have visited and know fairly well. Once again we see the evils of socialism and how it hurts the poor most of all.
Pray Bolivia and for Venezuela as well, too many people have died trying to oust Maduro and his band of thugs from government, but it has been unfruitful so far, more than 5 million Venezuelans have migrated and many more expected to leave the country. Hunger, lack of medication, no water, no electricity is killing the ones left there. Bolivia is following this path right behind Venezuela.
The Sao Paulo Forum (A conference of leftist political parties and other organizations from Latin America and the Caribbean headed by Cuba) recently met in Caracas, Venezuela and all of a sudden there is political unrest in most of South America. They use the democratic channels to get to power, but once there, they won’t let go. They will cheat and kill to keep themselves in power. At this point they want to destabilized the region and get rid of the few democracies left, like Chile. They lost in Brazil and Argentina and Bolivia is trying to get their democracy back, but I doubt they will be able to get rid of Evo Morales. Like the Book Mormon warns: “And behold, now I say unto you, ye cannot dethrone an iniquitous king save it be through much contention, and the shedding of much blood.
For behold, he has his friends in iniquity, and he keepeth his guards about him; and he teareth up the laws of those who have reigned in righteousness before him; and he trampleth under his feet the commandments of God;
And he enacteth laws, and sendeth them forth among his people, yea, laws after the manner of his own wickedness; and whosoever doth not obey his laws he causeth to be destroyed; and whosoever doth rebel against him he will send his armies against them to war, and if he can he will destroy them; and thus an unrighteous king doth pervert the ways of all righteousness.” Mosiah 29:21-23. This is exactly what’s happening in those countries.
They couldn’t take over Colombia where Ivan Duque won against socialist Gustavo Petro and lost Argentina to Mauricio Macri, but they took over Mexico (our next door neighbors) with AMLO, but they are not defeated by any means. They are actively agitating the region to return to power, like they did recently in Chile over a raise in the price of the subway fare which was to be used to be able to keep the subway running, which the protesters now destroyed and will cost even more now to put back into service..
In Argentina, it looks they are bound to win again in the coming elections with the corrupt ex-president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner running on the socialist ticket as Vice-President, which means she would really be running the country once again.
The Sao Paulo Forum has a very smart strategy and the USA is sleeping while they are taking over the region and allowing all kind of bad actors like Rusia, China, Turkey, Hamas, the Colombian Guerrilla to take over. Our back yard is contaminated with all kinds of trash. They are using cultural hegemony by brain washing heads from an early age. What communists do is to infiltrate the education system and brainwash the kids from an early age. The start in elementary school and graduate them in College where the leftist professor instill all sorts of socialist doctrine in their brains. They make them think and feel like victims of democracy and capitalism and pour populism and demagogy all over them – ” we will give you and give you because you are entitled”. They teach them political correctness and gender ideology (sound familiar?) and destroy the family because the government is the BIG DADDY.
They make them believe that inequality it’s a disease of capitalism, that everybody should have their fair share of wealth without working for it, and that the existing wealth should be redistributed. They make them think that a centralized all mighty government that controls and regulates everything is the solution. That the bureaucrats in government are so smart that they should control the whole economy and expropriate companies at will from people who actually know how to run them, and put them in the hands of inept government officials and their families and friend (Nepotism) who then run them into the ground, like they did in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.
In the mean time, the USA elected Donald Trump who knows zip about Foreign Affairs and who is willing to break the laws for personal political gain. He has no strategy for what’s going in the region, let alone the world, and doesn’t have the desire or the ability to understand how this will affect us in the future. The socialist and Islam (no hating, just facts) are taking over and we do nothing. From what I have read and seen on the trusted media about the impeachment, I think he should be impeached and removed from office for ineptitude, corruption and abuse of power, as well as obstruction of congress and justice.
While i am no fan of Dona Trump, this post is Not about him. Not since Reagan have we had good foreign policy. We don’t impeach inept president, and it is tough to prove “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
that said, we need to focus on what is within our power and that is prayer, as well as being a voice of warning against evil dictators and socialism. The Gadianton robbers are here, and we can see who many of them are.
if the price to get handouts from the government who do not entirely get rid of poverty is to lose my freedom. I don’t think so. Socialists are known for spreading the propaganda of all the good they are doing when in reality it’s all a smokescreen. Bolivia has become a second Venezuela, where all the powers are subject to the dictator and respond only to him. Where the TSE (The Supreme Electoral Tribunal) cheats during elections to get Evo re-elected, trample the constitution and even ignore the results of a plebiscite where Evo asked if he should be re-elected and people overwhelmingly voted NO, NO, NO, but he went ahead and run again illegally anyway. I don’t have an American imperialist mindset as I was not even born in this country. I’m from South America and lived that reality. If I were the US president, first I will invade Cuba and get rid of that dictatorship. Put Diaz Canel, Raúl Castro and his cronies in jail or hell, whichever comes first, all of whom have their hands all over the region, Next, I’ll go for Maduro and his drug-trafficking cartel. The same with Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega, Cristina Kirchner and Fernández and all the demons of socialism in the region. Then I’ll make sure those countries have enough resources to keep the democracies running and ban socialism from the entire region. Believe or not the whole world is so much better off and the poverty rate has gone down greatly thanks to capitalism that allows people to use their minds and ideas to start a business that provides goods, services, and jobs that otherwise cannot be done, but in order for that to happen, people need to live in freedom and democracy. Venezuela is a good example of this. So much a better country before socialist put their thieving hands of it.
Kareem
You are so right! I live in Brazil and The São Paulo Forum is the root of all that is going on in South America.
They use democratic ways to take the government, once there they refuse to let go. There is an strategy behind it.
They promote all kind of measures against religions. They create difficulties for missionaries from the US to come. They want to tax our church buildings and tithes. Their ideias divide the people of the country and put them against each other.
Argentina is back in their hands with Cristina Kirchner this week.
The problems and corruption they bring to the government are so profound that it would take a long time to repair, but people want a solution now and the socialists uses the opportunity to take back the power.
I don’t see a way out of it. And I fear for our religious freedom.
Regine, the socialists kicked the American missionaries from Venezuela too when Chevez was still alive. They expropriated some of our Church buildings and turned them into government offices or something else and the church had to let them. I fear for our freedom of religion there also.
Good comments from Kareen and Regina. Thank you.
Gerald, hilarious typo on “Dona Trump.” Or maybe not a typo? (Dona with a tilde is an honorific for an elegant woman).
Didn’t Hillary and the DNC adopt similar tactics when they obtained false, salacious Russian “dirt” on Donald Trump? And Democrats practice “vote harvesting” and allowing illegals to vote (primarily in California and New York). When will the Mainstream Media report on this perfidy?
B.Bowles,
Except this one isn’t about American politics. This isn’t about the MSM. Besides Fox News covers Hillary all the time.
This one is about Bolivia, Venezuela and several other countries currently in bondage to socialist dictators.
Geoff, you are over reaching on my typo. The subject is a serious one, your comment is not. Just flippant as you seem to be over exuberant for Donald Trump being a woman or something.
Well, Evo’s gone, there is hope! Glad we had a tiny part in asking Heavenly Father to pray for the Bolivians.