Stand With the Bolivian People for Self-Determination

Relatives of Antonio Ronaldo Quispe Ticona lead the procession of the victims killed during clashes with police at the Senkata fuel plant, on November 21, 2019 in La Paz, Bolivia. Police and military forces on Tuesday escorted gasoline tankers from a major fuel plant of YPFB in Senkata that had been blockaded for five days by Evo Morales' backers and at least eight people were reported killed during the operation. (Photo: Gaston Brito Miserocchi/Getty Images)

Stand With the Bolivian People for Self-Determination

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation calls for the immediate stop of killings, threats, racism and barbaric violence against our Bolivian brothers and sisters.

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) stands with the Bolivian people in their continuing struggle for self-determination against the current attacks of US imperialist-backed coup supported by the local ruling elites and right-wing opposition.

The Bolivian people's fight for self-determination, their establishment of a Plurinational State that put forwards the voice and visibility of Indigenous Peoples, comes from the history of the struggle to overcome colonial and imperialist powers and to find ways to prepare for a new society away from the history of US-sanctioned control over its land and resources.

The US imperialist felt the threat of a united national movement, under the leadership of Evo Morales, asserting national sovereignty and economic freedom from neoliberal clutches and interventionist foreign policy of the US. Thus, launching a full offensive of criminal violence forcing Morales and all his cabinet members to resign; manipulating the divide among the indigenous and other sectors and people of origin; and consolidating the local elite that will carry on the imperialist interest in their country - to plunder its vast lands for monopoly control and exploit the discovered minerals in its territories.

This counters the rightful position of the Bolivian people to achieve a long-fought for independence and peace. This undermines their right to self-determine their development, and recognize the improvement achieved by its people free from US-dominance.

The current situation manifests serious threats to communities and the population in general, endangering their life and security, and violates their basic human rights.

We call for the immediate stop of killings, threats, racism and barbaric violence against our Bolivian brothers and sisters. We deplore the repression against the civic freedom of activists and communities standing up to express dissent. We call for the immediate pull out of US-backed police and military and reactionary government. We support the call for all national and international actors to urgently channel support to the affected Bolivian people for independent investigations and assistance to uphold their rights and ensure the people's safety.

IPMSDL stands by the Bolivian people in their call for justice and accountability to the current crimes and violent suppression inflicted on peoples' rightful resistance.

We take inspiration from the Bolivian peoples' courage to face the rightist coup supported by US imperialism. The growing solidarity not only from the indigenous movements but from everyone carrying the anti-imperialist flag builds a unity to achieve genuine national liberation!

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