Evo Morales warns of new military coup in Bolivia

La Paz, December 27 (RHC)-- Former Bolivian President Evo Morales has warned of the possibility of a repeat coup d'état in the country and urged his followers to debate how to care for the current government and the process of change.

During an assembly with the six Federations of the Tropic of the Department of Cochabamba, Evo Morales said that "the theme of the coup is still valid, it is an ideological, programmatic struggle; it is a cultural, social, communal and of course, an electoral struggle."

He added that there has yet to be a debate on how to protect the policy applied by his party -- the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) -- since 2006 when he became president and now being continued by the current president, Luis Arce Catacora.

"How are we going to take care of Lucho [Luis Arce] president, David [Choquehuanca] vice president, and how to defend the process of change.  Here we should deeply debate the new military and police doctrine, what the police and the armed forces are going to be for," he said.

The former president also recalled that the former head of the Armed Forces, General Sergio Orellana, had tried to prevent Luis Arce from assuming the presidency days before the inauguration, but he did not have support because "some military men conducted themselves very well."

"I am also convinced that in the Armed Forces there are not only people who respect and admire the MAS, but also anti-imperialist soldiers, [although] they are not many (...) The other struggle we have is to debate, to see what is to be done with some who are subject to the U.S. empire, military or police," he urged.
The meeting concluded that the six Federations of the Tropic of Cochabamba "will demand justice for the victims of the massacre and the politically persecuted" by the government of Jeanine Áñez, and they will also call on the Armed Forces to take care of the people and the natural resources of the country.