Jan Schakowsky denounces that “Trump and the OAS have a sinister alliance” in Bolivia
A New York Times publication on a new academic study that concluded that the initial allegations of fraud by the OAS “were based on incorrect data and inappropriate statistical techniques”
The Organization of American States (OAS) has been described on different occasions as a key piece of the United States regime to apply its interventionist and extraterritorial policy, as well as to maintain its hegemony on the continent.
Part of its job is to provide “Electoral Observation Missions” for governments that want — supposedly — “honest and independent experts” to observe their electoral processes. But these missions tend, in the vast majority of cases, to bow to political pressure.
For the operational work of the OAS, the North American Congress provides about 60% of the funds of the organization, which is why it is not only said that it is an arm of Washington for or against Latin America (Depending on what the US wants), but also influences the US perspective on what they call their “backyard.”
As the largest economic contribution of the OAS comes from the US, it can not only but must — or at least make it appear so — investigate the role of this organization in countries where its actions cause political, economic and social ‘turns’, as the most recent case: Bolivia.
The president of the House Commission on Human Rights, Jan Schakowsky, said this weekend that current President Donald Trump and the OAS have an alliance that “seems to coincide with something sinister”.
In the statements collected this Saturday by the digital medium The Hill, Schakowsky indicates that based on what happened in Bolivia in 2019, after the coup against President Evo Morales, promoted by the OAS, Congress is obliged to verify what happened in the South American Andes nation.
Does American money finance coups in Latin America?
For Schakowsky, it is critical to know whether or not US taxpayer money supported the overthrow of democratically elected governments, civil strife, and even human rights violations.
For this reason, in the same publication by The Hill, whose headquarters is in Washington, Schakowsky asked the congress to investigate the manipulation of OAS data in the last elections in Bolivia, which ended in a coup against Morales, who evidently obtained the presidential re-election by way of voting.
In addition, according to the legislator, Trump shows little affinity for multilateral institutions, such as the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO) -of which he announced the withdrawal of the United States-, global agreements on climate; and even the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“But there is one organization with which his administration has strongly aligned itself: the OAS. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this alliance seems to coincide with something sinister”, stressed the congresswoman.
In that sense, she recalled that the OAS, when it provides electoral observation missions, sometimes ends up giving in to political pressure and loses its objectivity, which places the peoples of some countries to be subjugated to the ruling of the regional entity, whether or not they are right in their rulings.
“This happened in the elections of 2000 and 2011 in Haiti, and more recently, the OAS played a destructive role in Bolivia, after the elections of October 20” of 2019, she said.
OAS helped direct a false narrative
“In the South American country, from the day after the vote, the OAS helped direct a false narrative that the incumbent president, Evo Morales, and his party ‘manipulated’ or ‘stole’ the elections, which contributed to political polarization, violence, a military coup and the current uncertainty about the future of democracy”, Schakowsky commented.
The congresswoman alluded to a New York Times publication on a new academic study that concluded that the initial allegations of fraud by the OAS “were based on incorrect data and inappropriate statistical techniques”.
“The new academic study agrees with the vast majority of experts who have analyzed the data, including 133 economists and statisticians who sent a letter to the OAS and have received no response”, she emphasized.
Despite Morales’ victory without the need for a second round, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro publicly stated that he believed it was a fraudulent election.
“Almagro, in his own bid for reelection as secretary general, appeared to be courting right-wing governments in the region, including the Trump administration. And, in fact, he received a new five-year term in March”, Schakowsky stressed.
Actions of the OAS should be investigated
In her opinion, “Congress should investigate the actions of the OAS in Bolivia because after having exposed such a massive lie, how is it possible that the members of Congress continue to take the OAS’s statements at face value?”.
In fact, the military coup overthrew the first indigenous president of Bolivia, the country with the highest percentage of indigenous people in the hemisphere and which had the best economy on the continent, even above the United States.
Since the coup, the security forces of the Bolivian state, which are currently under the command of a civic-military dictatorship and operate with the promise of impunity from the De facto regime, have perpetrated at least two massacres, in which 18 people were killed. many of them indigenous.
“It is not surprising that the Trump administration has celebrated the return to an undemocratic government where indigenous peoples are marginalized and excluded. But the Congress of the United States should not tolerate this”, denounced Schakowsky.
The situation in Bolivia, under the dictatorship of Jeanine Áñez — who also began her presidential election campaign on Sunday — is so serious that even the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an autonomous body of the OAS, has denounced an increase in attacks and threats against journalists and the criminalization and persecution of social leaders and former officials of the Morales government.
