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    Bolivia: As Elections Near, US-Backed Interim Gov’t Mobilizes Military, Arrests Opposition Leaders Archived Message

    Posted by sashimi on January 21, 2020, 1:45 pm

    (quote)
    Interim President of Bolivia Jeanine Añez has ordered troops to the
    streets and forced opposition candidates to organize abroad for fear
    of arrest ahead of the country's first elections since a US-backed
    coup last November.

    January 20th, 2020 by Alan Macleod

    Wednesday, January 22 marks the day that Jeanine Añez is set to stand
    down as "interim" President of Bolivia, beginning the process for
    fresh elections set for May 3. Añez came to power in November,
    following a U.S.-backed coup that deposed the Movement to Socialism's
    (MAS) Evo Morales. However, she is certainly not acting as if she
    intends to relinquish her power, let alone move towards new
    elections. Instead, she has sent the military, replete with tanks and
    other armored fighting vehicles, into the capital cities of all nine
    departments of the country.

    8pm: The Bolivian military is riding about central La Paz with
    their guns out and sirens on. They're not going to an incident,
    the objective is to intimidate the
    population. pic.twitter.com/Fjpt6pmuNV
    - Ollie Vargas (@OVargas52) January 17, 2020

    MintPress News' Ollie Vargas was on the scene in the center of the
    capital La Paz, where he filmed hundreds of armed soldiers performing
    drills outside the Cathedral of St. Francis and dozens of military
    vehicles circling the city, sirens on and guns drawn.

    "The purpose of that is to intimidate people ahead of possible
    protests against the coup on the 22nd of January...This was a show of
    force saying you are not going to be able to march what you want. The
    military is preparing for a war-style operations if marches do arrive
    in the city. It is about intimidating the people," he said in an
    interview with TeleSUR English; "The point was to be a show of force,
    rather than itself be an act of repression. It was there to show what
    repression could come."
    (/quote)
    Cont'd at https://www.mintpressnews.com/bolivia-election-government-mobilizes-military-arrests-opposition-leaders/264240/

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