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Bolivian people score victory against US imperialism: Analyst

Monday, 19 October 2020 7:16 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 19 October 2020 7:26 PM ]

Supporters of Bolivia's leftist presidential candidate Luis Arce, of the Movement for Socialism party, celebrate early on October 19, 2020, in La Paz after Bolivia held general elections. (AFP photo)

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales’s victory in Bolivia shows that the US does not have hegemonic power in the world, according to Daniel Kovalik, an American political commentator and human rights activist.

Kovalik, who teaches international human rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Monday while commenting on Morales’s party stunning political comeback after its candidate defeated rivals heavily in Bolivia’s presidential election.

The official results of Sunday’s election are yet to be announced, but exit polls have projected that Luis Arce, the candidate for Morales’s Movement for Socialism Party, has secured more than 50 percent of the vote while his closest rival received about 30 percent.

The big win for Arce ruled out earlier opinion polls that had predicted the election would go to a run-off.

The leftist candidate Arce was running against former centrist president Carlos Mesa, who gained second place.

Exit polls signal socialists sweeping back to power in Bolivia with Arce win

Exit polls show Bolivia

“Well, I think the US has to take away from this that they do not have hegemonic power in the world, that people in countries like Bolivia still have the power to effectively resist their attempts at regime change,” said Kovalik.

“And I think for the people of Bolivia, they should celebrate that they turned back this coup, which has killed a lot of people, mostly indigenous people in Bolivia,” he added.

“But there still needs to be popular pressure put on, well, first the US not to intervene again in Bolivia, but also on the coup government itself to recognize the results of the election,” he noted.

“I would say we're not quite out of the woods yet, but there's a lot of reasons to be hopeful and to be happy,” he said.

“I think every time a country like Bolivia turns back a US-supported coup other countries around the world like Venezuela, like Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran take hope from that, that it's possible to win against really great odds and Bolivia is showing that,” he said.

“So I do think it will put wind in the sails of independence movements throughout the world,” he concluded.

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