Operation Lithium: Bolivia

U.S.-Backed Neocolonialism

Image created by author using Dall E-3

What’s happening in Bolivia right now isn’t some organic domestic “crisis.” It’s yet another page in the well-worn CIA playbook, destabilize, install puppets, and pillage resources under the banner of democracy and freedom.

This time, the target is lithium, again.

Right now, Bolivia’s right-wing government is actively hunting Evo Morales like he’s some kind of international criminal, occupying embassies, intimidating diplomats, and using the full weight of the state to erase him from politics. All because he had the audacity to nationalize resources and try to make Bolivia work for Bolivians instead of Wall Street.

This isn’t new, this is just the latest chapter of U.S. imperialism in Latin America.

Evo Morales was Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, and from 2006 to 2019, he scared the hell out of global capitalists, because he dared to nationalize Bolivia’s gas and mining sectors. He lifted millions out of poverty, he implemented land reforms, and he challenged U.S. hegemony.

So naturally, they labeled him a “dictator,” screamed “election fraud” without real evidence, and backed a military “suggestion” that he resign. That “suggestion” came with tanks, guns, and a U.S.-friendly puppet government waiting in the wings, led by…