What happened in Bolivia, Was there a Coup?

Who is Evo Morales

Evo Morales became Bolivia’s first indigenous president in 2006 and has since gained popularity from his socialist ideas, working to empower Bolivia’s indigenous people and using the commodity boom of the 2000s and the redistribution of the natural gas wealth in Bolivia to create infrastructure for Bolivia’s poorer communities. Since 2006, Morales won two more presidential elections, reaching nearly 14 years in office and holds the record for the longest-serving president in Bolivia. Morales’s recent attempt for an unprecedented 4th consecutive term as president proved to be his undoing. Despite Morales's economic success, some think he has grown increasingly authoritarian in his leadership. Despite winning this past election, which many claimed was tampered with, Morales recently resigned as president and fled Bolivia for sanctuary in Mexico. The rest of the world is debating if Morales was forced out by a military coup or left in response to popular revolt.

Where it all went wrong

Morales’s attempt to defy the constitution and run for an unprecedented 4th consecutive presidential term proved to be the tipping point for the Bolivian people. In 2016, Morales held a referendum that would have allowed him to stay in office indefinitely but was defeated by a majority vote by the Bolivian people. The people’s voice was later undermined in 2017 when Bolivia's highest courts ruled in favor of abolishing term limits, allowing Morales to run for his 4th term. Election time rolled around and on October 20th the Bolivian people went to the polls. As the night progressed the numbers were not looking good for Morales, but in a turn of events updates on the vote count froze and never resumed. Then 24 hours later an official announcement was made that Morales won 47% of the votes winning the election outright. Strong circumstantial evidence of vote tampering inspired millions of Bolivians to take to the streets to demand a fair election. The circumstantial evidence was backed by an audit performed by the Organization of American States stated they found evidence of manipulations in the votes. There have been weeks of unrest in Bolivia until eventually both the police and the military turned on Morales withdrawing their support for him and leading to his resignation and departure from Bolivia.

Coup or Revolt

There has been a divide among international observes if Morales’s departure was caused by popular unrest or if it was a military coup. It seems Morales’s resignation was a combined effort of both civil revolt and military defection. The people of Bolivia took to the street to demand the resignation of a leader who refused to respect term limits and demanded free and fair elections. At the same time eventually in line with what the people wanted the military called on the president to step down and he did. In this case, it is hard to make the distinction between coup or revolt and reality the distinction only matters because of the connotation of a coup vs a revolt. If it is called a revolt, it creates the narrative that the people of Bolivia heroically rose up to save the democracy of their country and if it is called a coup, it can be framed as military elites betraying democracy and forcing out the president. It remains to be seen if the choice between the two words will matter only for historical significance or if it will impact how the country moves forward.