United States: Bolivian president wasn’t forced out by coup

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior officials at the U.S. State Department said Monday the situation in Bolivia is not a coup, despite what some Latin American governments have claimed. They allege that the constitutional order in the Andean country will not be broken once an interim president calls for elections within 90 days.

Bolivia’s first indigenous president Evo Morales resigned Sunday after weeks of protests following a disputed election.

The U.S. officials said the Bolivian military merely pointed out the fact that public security had deteriorated by the time they asked Morales to resign. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to reporters.

There were no immediate signs that the military itself was maneuvering for power, but Mexico, Uruguay, Cuba and Venezuela have said Morales was deposed illegally. Argentina President-elect Alberto Fernández joined that analysis.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and self-described democratic socialist, also expressed worries about a possible coup.

“I am very concerned about what appears to be a coup in Bolivia, where the military, after weeks of political unrest, intervened to remove President Evo Morales,” Sanders tweeted Monday.

The Organization of American States has called an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon to discuss the situation in Bolivia.

Kurgen

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