Sanders ‘very concerned about what appears to be a coup’ in Bolivia

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday joined those expressing concern about the ouster of Bolivian President Evo Morales, saying the nation had suffered a military coup.

“The U.S. must call for an end to violence and support Bolivia’s democratic institutions,” Sanders, a leading 2020 presidential candidate, said in a tweet.

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. The U.S. must call for an end to violence and support Bolivia’s democratic institutions.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 11, 2019

The Organization of American States, which reported the election irregularities for which Bolivia’s military demanded Morales’s resignation, has declined to label the president’s resignation on Sunday as a coup. 

President Trump voiced support for Morales’s ouster in a statement earlier Monday.{mosads}

“The United States applauds the Bolivian people for demanding freedom and the Bolivian military for abiding by its oath to protect not just a single person, but Bolivia’s constitution,” Trump said.

Sanders was joined in his condemnation of Morales’s resignation by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.), two progressive freshman Democrats who have also endorsed the Vermont senator in his 2020 bid for the White House.

“There’s a word for the President of a country being pushed out by the military. It’s called a coup,” Omar tweeted on Sunday.

There’s a word for the President of a country being pushed out by the military. It’s called a coup.

We must unequivocally oppose political violence in Bolivia. Bolivians deserve free and fair elections.

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 10, 2019

What’s happening right now in Bolivia isn’t democracy, it’s a coup.

The people of Bolivia deserve free, fair, and peaceful elections – not violent seizures of power.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 11, 2019