Flying national and indigenous flags and chanting pro-Morales slogans, the protest march met a forceful police response in Bolivia’s administrative capital on Wednesday, facing down volleys of tear gas from armored security forces, dramatic footage captured by Ruptly shows.
RT.COM—Opposition politician Jeanine Añez declared herself interim leader of Bolivia on Wednesday, after President Evo Morales was urged by his country’s military chief to step down. But her legitimacy has already come into question. As the editor of the Grayzone Project pointed out, Añez is a fringe figure who garnered only 1.7 percent of the votes cast in Bolivia’s last elections.
NEBOJSA MALIC—“Restoring democracy” was also the narrative accompanying the US attempts – so far, unsuccessful – to install in power in Venezuela an unelected opposition politician polling in single digits. Those of you with longer memories may also remember that the October 2000 events in Serbia also involved an unpopular opposition leader of a coalition forced together by US diplomats. They were also painted as a spontaneous, grassroots protests – until it was over, and the media felt free to reveal the role of CIA and National Endowment for Democracy (NED) operatives and their “suitcases of cash.”
PAUL FRENCH—In folk tales tigers kill bad men and protect the virtuous. Those born in the Year of the Tiger are thought to be brave, strong, stubborn and sympathetic. The body parts of a tiger are believed to bestow energy, courage and strength, and their use in traditional medicine has speeded the population’s decline. Tigers are now extinct in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, with perhaps two dozen remaining in Myanmar and an unknown number in Thailand’s Kayah Karen Tenasserim ecoregion, all thought to be Panthera tigris tigris.
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—As happens every single time the US tries to overthrow a government these days, social media is currently swarming with small, brand-new and suspicious-looking accounts, many of which are publishing the same words verbatim, all defending and supporting the coup.