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.
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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