The brainy billionaire Elon Musk appeared to approve of the Bolivian coup last week. This was preceded by comments from critics who pointed to the benefits that the uprising in the country could bring him. “We will arrange a coup to whoever we want! Humble yourself, ”Musk wrote.

And while Musk was perhaps never considered a politically savvy intellectual, his “I'm just kidding” statement still provides some insight into how the wealthy and influential US ruling class as a whole feels about the “global South”.

November coup in Bolivia

[Acting President] Jeanine Agnes is now in power in the country. Its anti-democratic regime, directed against the indigenous population and the working class, and backed by the United States, is causing suffering to the people of Bolivia, negating what has been achieved in a generation of economic and social policies adopted by the Movement to Socialism government under President Evo Morales.

The development of these historic successes was blocked in early November, when the coup d'état began. On October 24, 2019, Morales announced another decisive victory in the presidential election, following which he was supposed to remain in office for another term, dealing a severe blow to the right opposition, whose attitude towards his leadership was becoming more and more radical. Shortly thereafter, the Organization of American States issued a statement in which it expressed doubts about the validity of the results of these elections. And although many experts reacted skeptically to it, the right-wing radicals still received their unreasonable impetus.

Based on this misleading report, right-wing protesters began to intimidate the Movement to Socialism leaders, burning their homes and threatening their loved ones. Morales made concessions and offered to hold a repeat election. However, opposition figures were not interested in a democratic solution, and in early November he was forced out of office when the military and police opposed the government of the Movement to Socialism, establishing the Agnes regime through a coup. 

Since then, the leadership that has come to power in this way has been trying to return the country to the era of neoliberalism or something worse.

Political repression of the Agnes regime

On May 10, after six months of this disaster, Agnes's supporters took to the streets. Right-wing police and protesters burned the viphala flag, a symbol of the indigenous population. A video recording of this act, highlighting the inhumanity of the current leadership of Bolivia, was published by the Kawsachun News resource. Agnes also issued a "supreme decree" allowing persecution of those who "sow doubt among the population" or "spread false information." This blatant infringement on free speech has drawn condemnation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the UN.

In addition, the [Agnes] regime is failing to cope with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving scores of Bolivians to starvation and disease as the government continues to crack down on it. Agnes and her entourage, realizing that they had no legitimate reason to claim power, took advantage of the pandemic and continued to obstruct the organization of elections, which the legislature, as well as the Bolivian Electoral Court, decided to hold on August 2. Earlier, the Agnes government suspended preparations for the elections, which were scheduled for May this year.

Many speculate that the main goal of the coup is the privatization of Bolivia's lithium deposits. In terms of proven reserves of this metal, it ranks first in the world. Lithium is a key component of batteries (which are used in [including] Tesla cars) and will become one of the most important natural resources on the planet in the long term.

Since coming to power, the Agnes regime has clearly shown that it intends to sell these rich [lithium] reserves to multinationals. According to some reports, it even got to the point that Foreign Minister Karen Longaric wrote a letter to Elon Musk, dated March 31, which says the following: “Any corporation (according to other sources -“ cooperation. ”- Note from the author of the column ) that you or your company can offer our country, it will be gratefully accepted. "

The indifference of the American ruling class to human suffering

Ousted Bolivian President Evo Morales drew attention to Musk's tweet, calling it further proof that the coup was due to Bolivian lithium. He also noted that the result was twice bloodshed and reiterated his commitment to protecting the country's natural resources. Residents of the Salar de Uyuni region (where lithium deposits are located) reacted in the same way.

However, Musk continues to relentlessly bend his line (this is, obviously, his guiding principle of life) with regard to solidarity with the Bolivian people. In his response to the post of an account called I like Teslas, that is, "I love Tesla," the owner of which condemned the Morales government as fraudulent, Musk congratulated the Bolivians on the arrival of the regime they inherited.

The worldview of people like Elon Musk has little to do with the worldview of the average person. This is clearly seen in how individuals like Musk, who have easy access to one or another platform, seem to need just one tweet to turn into a real Bond supervillain. And this is not a joke or an isolated case - such people systematically appear incapable of elementary humanity.

If large-scale repression, loss of sovereignty, rising racism, widespread hunger and rising rates of disease are to be considered bad (and any sane person would agree with this), then there can be no doubt about the nature of the unselected Bolivian regime. And no statements in support of such a system can be considered funny or ironic.

Twitter column author - @BradBlank_

The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.