Linda Farthing and Thomas Becker's Coup: A Story of Violence and Resistance in Bolivia

Abstract

Linda Farthing and Thomas Becker's Coup:A Story of Violence and Resistance in Bolivia Gabriel Panuco-Mercado (bio) Introduction November 2019 marked the sudden end of Evo Morales's fourteen years as Bolivia's president. During the tumultuous weeks that followed, politicos, journalists, and international organizations ardently argued about whether Morales's ouster constituted a coup by political opponents. Over two years later, there is still no consensus. Nevertheless, among the many works—scholarly and journalistic—that argue a golpe de estado took place, Coup: A Story of Violence and Resistance in Bolivia is one of the most compelling. The book presents a uniquely grounded argument by placing the overthrow in the historical context of Bolivian politics, juxtaposing anecdotal Bolivian experiences alongside anti-Morales punditry, and carefully weighing conflicting accounts. The authors conclude that a coup did indeed take place in Bolivia in November 2019. This review explores how journalist and researcher Linda Farthing and human rights lawyer Thomas Becker came to this conclusion. Historicizing Bolivian politics Farthing and Becker historicize their account of the coup by illustrating continuities in Bolivian political oustings, elitist politics, and Indigenous resistance leading up to 2019. Treated as a singular event, many have argued that the 2019 ouster did not qualify as a proper coup. However, against a history of coups and within a broader context of Bolivian anti-Indigenous racism, elitism, and state violence, the authors depict the historical precedents and momentum that led to what happened in Bolivia in 2019. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Bolivia, along with Ecuador, has experienced the most coups in Latin America.1 Notably, the 1962 coup established a dictatorship that lasted until 1984, followed by a period of neoliberalization. This period of privatization, economic hardship, and declining social programs fomented anti-government resentment, and the rise of Indigenous and campesino movements, culminating in the 2005 victory of Morales's leftist MAS2 party.3 According to Coup, the 2019 ouster of Morales was only the latest in a long line of twenty-three coup attempts since 1950, emerging from a confluence of historical antagonisms in a violent political moment.4 The authors highlight instances where anti-Indigenous racism, elitism, and state violence met throughout Bolivian history, dating back to the country's colonial period and building the foundation for present-day Bolivian politics. According to them, "three colonial and post-colonial processes shape Bolivia: the expropriation of resources by national and international elites; Indigenous peoples' resistance; and contention between the country's regions."5 Within these historical trends, racism has been a constant, along with extractive economic structures that privilege elites—even during Morales's presidency. When middle-class and elite Bolivians in Santa Cruz began protesting Morales's government in November 2019 after years of benefiting from extractive economic policies, they provided the opportunity for a right-wing coup that sought to marginalize Indigenous and campesino Bolivians.6 Middle-class and elite protests, threats against MAS politicians and voters, and the use of both private and state violence [End Page 137] against Indigenous Bolivians during the coup all fit historical patterns that have enabled ring-wing control. These examples provide powerful evidence for Farthing and Becker's argument. Nevertheless, it might have been beneficial for the authors to draw more concrete connections between the 2019 Bolivian crisis and Latin America's twentieth-century coups earlier in the book. While the authors mention these historical parallels as they conclude, an earlier introduction to this history would have primed readers to consider how Bolivia compared to other regional examples. Everyday Bolivians and punditry Farthing and Becker extensively describe the 2019 political crisis as seen from the ground, juxtaposing the experiences of everyday Bolivians against expert claims about electoral fraud and constitutional overreach that legitimized Morales's overthrow. Farthing and Becker regularly place Bolivian anecdotes next to pundit analyses to highlight the chasm between the two. Western critics of Morales focused on legal formalities and mechanisms while many Bolivians had different concerns—their livelihoods and representation for their identities.7 Moreover, Farthing and Becker put the consequences of the political crisis in a different light than many expert analyses at the time. Pundits inflamed claims...