President Donald Trump “gave the order to overthrow and finish off the Indian,” Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro said on Monday, accusing Trump of forcing former Bolivian President Evo Morales to resign.
The socialist Morales, a longstanding ally to the Venezuelan regime, was the nation’s first indigenous president. He served nearly 14 years and stepped down on Sunday after the Organization of American States (OAS) revealed significant evidence of fraud in the election that garnered him an illegal fourth term on October 20.
In a television broadcast from Caracas on Monday, Maduro claimed that President Trump set about an international conspiracy to overthrow Morales via a military coup. Morales himself claimed, following his choice to resign, that he had been the victim of a “coup” despite the fact that the military played no overt role in his removal.
The head of Bolivia’s armed forces, Williams Kaliman, issued a statement following the publication of the OAS report stating that the military thought it best for Morales to step down given the proof that he was not elected in a free and fair election. The military made no moves, however, to depose him.
“There went Donald Trump to applaud and celebrate what he thinks is his victory … the look on Donald Trump’s face was one of vengeance, of hatred, and he gave the order to overthrow and finish off the Indian,” Maduro alleged.
The “celebration” Maduro referred to appeared to be a statement from the White House describing Morales’ resignation as a “significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere.”
“After nearly 14 years and his recent attempt to override the Bolivian constitution and the will of the people, Morales’s departure preserves democracy and paves the way for the Bolivian people to have their voices heard,” Trump said in the statement. “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 did indeed mention Maduro and the communist regime in Nicaragua in his statement.
“These events send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail,” Trump said. “We are now one step closer to a completely democratic, prosperous, and free Western Hemisphere.”
Maduro added in his televised remarks that Morales’ resignation was “a sign” to Venezuela and urged his allies to be ready for “combat.”
“We are going to battle, whoever wants a fight we will give them a fight, for the nation, for peace, for sovereignty, and for Venezuela’s revolution,” he said. “We will go to combat and once again towards victory. Victory belongs to us and we will show it with our practices in the streets.”
Maduro also threatened a “new stage in the Bolivian Revolution” and said Morales would return from Mexico with “made millions, sooner rather than later.”
On Twitter, Maduro claimed that those who opposed Morales’ power grab were working to “impose a racist and fascist regime to generate violence, repression, and death.”
The only evidence Maduro offered for his claims that the United States is operating in the Bolivian political crisis underway is a mysterious report from a leftist Bolivian website claiming that “a report” proved the United States hacked the servers counting the 2019 election votes.
“The cybernetic interventions to the elections occurred at the request of various national officials who signed a letter directed to the president of the United States and the Department of State … so that they would ‘intervene’ in the election.”
The OAS did find proof of an abrupt switch in the digital vote counts from the Bolivian electoral commission’s servers to an unknown, private one – but Morales’ lead widened significantly after that event occurred meaning that, if the unsubstantiated report is correct, the United States intervened to put Morales in power.
Maduro’s link did not describe the report that claimed the intervention other than calling it a “report” or offer any evidence as to its source.
Maduro’s cronies took to state propaganda network airways with similar conspiracy theories on Tuesday. Vice-minister of International Communication William Castillo claimed that Washington has “mercenaries” operating in Bolivia to depose Morales, again without offering any proof.
“What [OAS Secretary-General Luis] Almagro and OAS have done is shameful,” Castillo claimed. “First of all, they have not condemned the coup. They have not spoken of the coup, and the statement they put out was worshiping a statement of OAS … Almagro penetrates and deceives governments.”
He later added that the U.S. embassy in Bolivia “directed the social media war” against Morales and “has mercenaries in Bolivia operating in this coup.”
Diosdado Cabello, the cocaine trafficker and television host that runs Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), announced on Monday that Venezuela would form a “maximum mobilization to defend the revolution” in light of Morales’ resignation, a suggestion that Venezuela is preparing to intervene in sovereign Bolivian affairs.
Morales’ flagship policy initiatives as president were to empower farmers who specialize in coca, the plant used to make cocaine. Cabello is widely believed to be the head of the Cartel de los Soles, a multicontinental cocaine trafficking syndicate.
Maduro and other PSUV officials are openly cheering calls to violence by leftists in Bolivia. On Twitter, Maduro republished a message from a PSUV official glorifying leftist thugs in El Alto, one of the most damaged cities in the leftist riots that Morales triggered this weekend, for chanting “Here we go, civil war!” while committing acts of vandalism.
Morales is currently in Mexico after the leftist government of its president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, offered him “political asylum.” Morales is not currently facing any legal action, though he claimed without proof on Twitter that a warrant existed for his arrest.