In light of the results of Bolivia’s election, lefties are flocking to Twitter to make jokes about the CIA.
A year ago, Bolivia’s democratically elected socialist leader, Evo Morales, resigned and left the country amid police and military pressure and now-debunked allegations of fraud. Between then and now, the country has been run by a conservative, U.S.-backed interim regime. On Monday, Bolivia held another election, and Morales’s party has won, yet again, with his rival conceding to his win. It’s all pretty gratifying to leftists all over the world, who saw the handling of Morales’s original resignation as a sign of a right-wing coup.
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Former CIA director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo supported Morales’s ousting outright. It’s also a matter of historical record that the CIA has had its hand in installing their preferred regimes in Latin American countries that have tried to choose socialist ones instead. This isn’t the first such case in Bolivia—in 1971, the United States backed right-wing General Hugo Banzer in a coup against the left-wing Juan Torrés. Using the CIA to stem the tide of leftist thought is in fact the plot of the upcoming video game Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. In general, the United States has gone to great lengths to ensure that leftist leaders do not gain power in Latin America, so much so that leftists in the U.S. are making jokes about Bolivia’s election results today on Twitter.
The memes here largely fall into two categories. The first makes fun of the CIA, which as an instrument of the most powerful empire that has ever existed on this planet, has failed to stop the people of Bolivia from choosing the socialist leadership they want. The second, more grim category jokes are about the CIA only suffering these results for so long before it steps in and reasserts its will.
Elon Musk, inventor of a shitty looking truck and a big concrete tube that does not meet fire safety regulations, has also been a target of these jokes. Bolivia has a reserve of lithium, a mineral that tech companies everywhere need for their batteries. Although Musk uses lithium from Australia, a year ago, when pressed on the morality of using Bolivian lithium Musk tweeted, “We will coup wherever we want! Deal with it.” The tweet has since been deleted, but people’s memories are long. Musk is certainly dealing with it now.
Only time will tell how the Bolivian election works out for the residents of the country, or if right-wing forces supported by foreign governments will yet again interfere. These jokes about the CIA’s busy international dance card are a representation of both the hope of the leftist movement, and the degree of jadedness leftists feel. Even if the people of Bolivia want Evo Morales’s party back in power, it’s good to brace oneself for complications.
There’s a ton of historical record to draw from, and it almost all points to the CIA sticking their fingers in this pot.
