Bolivia crisis : Evo Morales arrives in Mexico / Bolivian Coup Comes Less Than a Week After Morales Stopped Multinational Firm’s Lithium Deal
Jai Sen
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Bolivia in movement…, The Right in movement…
[Some ‘unrelated developments’…. :
· Bolivia crisis : Evo Morales arrives in Mexico, says he fled to Mexico as life was at risk (BBC, 25 minutes ago)
· Bolivian Coup Comes Less Than a Week After Morales Stopped Multinational Firm’s Lithium Deal (Common Dreams)
Bolivia crisis : Evo Morales arrives in Mexico, says he fled to Mexico as life was at risk
22 minutes ago
BBC
Mr Morales resigned on Sunday after weeks of protests over a disputed presidential election result.
The Mexican jet carrying him landed at an airport in Mexico City, where he gave a brief news conference.
Mr Morales said he was forced to stand down but did so willingly "so there would be no more bloodshed".
The left-wing leader said he and the Bolivian government were "very grateful" to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whom he credited with saving his life.
- Highs and lows of Evo Morales' presidency
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- Why protesters are on the streets worldwide
"While I have life I'll stay in politics, the fight continues. All the people of the world have the right to free themselves from discrimination and humiliation," he added.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Mr Morales had arrived "safely" in the country, tweeting a picture of the jet that carried him.
The plane was denied access to Peruvian airspace, forcing it to make an unscheduled stop in Paraguay to refuel. It was then denied permission to return through Bolivian airspace and had to detour through other countries to reach Mexico.
Mr Morales, a former coca farmer, was first elected in 2006.
He has won plaudits for fighting poverty and improving Bolivia's economy but drew controversy by defying constitutional limits to run for a fourth term in October's election. The poll is alleged to have been rife with irregularities.
What's the latest in Bolivia?
The deputy head of the Senate, Jeanine Áñez, has said she will take over as interim president until new elections are held.
The Senate met on Tuesday to fill the power vacuum, with lawmakers summoned to ratify Mr Morales's resignation and appoint Ms Áñez as interim leader.
She said she was confident senators would vote to appoint her in order to "end this uncertainty, vandalism and instability that we have in the country".
But Ms Áñez's plans have been thrown into doubt by Mr Morales's Movement for Socialism (MAS), which said it would boycott the vote.
Mr Morales, speaking at Mexico's international airport, vowed to continue his political "fight"As Mr Morales prepared to leave for Mexico, unrest again erupted on the streets of the Bolivian capital, La Paz, with angry supporters of the socialist leader clashing with security forces.
Bolivia's military commander ordered troops to support the police, who urged residents to stay indoors in a bid to quell the violence.
Mr Morales had urged his supporters to resist the "dark powers" that had forced him to step down.
On Tuesday, Bolivia's main federation of unions warned it would hold an indefinite strike if the country's leaders did not restore constitutional order and peace within 24 hours.
How did we get here?
Pressure had been growing on Mr Morales since his narrow victory in last month's presidential election.
The result was called into question by the Organization of American States, a regional body, which had found "clear manipulation" and called for the result to be annulled.
In response, Mr Morales agreed to hold fresh elections. But his main rival, Carlos Mesa - who came second in the vote - said Mr Morales should not stand in any new vote.
The chief of the armed forces, Gen Williams Kaliman, then urged Mr Morales to step down in the interests of peace and stability.
WATCH VIDEO AT LINK ABOVE
Bolivian Coup Comes Less Than a Week After Morales Stopped Multinational Firm’s Lithium Deal
By Eoin Higgins, staff writer – Common Dreams*
“Bolivia’s lithium belongs to the Bolivian people. Not to multinational corporate cabals.”
Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni salt flats hold the largest reserves of lithium in the world.
The Sunday military coup in Bolivia has put in place a government which appears likely to reverse a decision by just-resigned President Evo Morales to cancel an agreement with a German company for developing lithium deposits in the Latin American country for batteries like those in electric cars.
“Bolivia’s lithium belongs to the Bolivian people,” tweeted Washington Monthly contributor David Atkins. “Not to multinational corporate cabals.”
The coup, which on Sunday resulted in Morales resigning and going into hiding, was the result of days of protests from right-wing elements angry at the leftist Morales government. Sen. Jeanine Añez, of the center-right party Democratic Unity, is currently the interim president in the unstable post-coup government in advance of elections.
Investment analyst publisher Argus urged investors to keep an eye on the developing situation and noted that gas and oil production from foreign companies in Bolivia had remained steady.
The Morales move on Nov. 4 to cancel the December 2018 agreement with Germany’s ACI Systems Alemania (ACISA) came after weeks of protests from residents of the Potosí area. The region has 50% to 70% of the world’s lithium reserves in the Salar de Uyuni salt flats.
Among other clients, ACISA provides batteries to Tesla; Tesla’s stock rose Monday after the weekend.
As Bloomberg News noted in 2018, that has set the country up to be incredibly important in the next decade:
Demand for lithium is expected to more than double by 2025. The soft, light mineral is mined mainly in Australia, Chile, and Argentina. Bolivia has plenty—9 million tons that have never been mined commercially, the second-largest amount in the world—but until now there’s been no practical way to mine and sell it.
Morales’ cancellation of the ACISA deal opened the door to either a renegotiation of the agreement with terms delivering more of the profits to the area’s population or the outright nationalization of the Bolivian lithium extraction industry.
As Telesur reported in June, the Morales government announced at the time it was “determined to industrialize Bolivia and has invested huge amounts to ensure that lithium is processed within the country to export it only in value-added form, such as in batteries.”
It’s unclear what the next steps are for the industry in a post-coup Bolivia, according to global intelligence analysis firm Stratfor:
In the longer term, continued political uncertainty will make it more difficult for Bolivia to increase its production of strategic metals like lithium or develop a value-added sector in the battery market. The poor investment climate comes at a time of expanding global opportunities in lithium-ion battery production to meet rising demand from electric vehicle manufacturing.
ACISA told German broadcaster DW last week that the company was “confident that our lithium project will be resumed after a phase of political calmness and clarification.”
On Sunday, Morales resigned.
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*Common Dreams is a non-profit independent newscenter created in 1997 as a new media model. By relying on our readers and tens of thousands of small donations to keep us moving forward—with no advertising, corporate underwriting or government funding—Common Dreams maintains an editorial independence our readers can count on.
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Jai Sen
Independent researcher, editor
Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900)
CURRENT / RECENT publications :
Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press. Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN, MOM1Flipkart, and MOM1AUpFront
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?. New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
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