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@utopian_rebel Fair question: my standard for avoiding a "coup" is this: "the military signaled limits to further state repression, stayed out of the presidential chair, and did not substitute its choice of leaders for one determined at the ballot box."
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@utopian_rebel The military has told Bolivian presidents it's time to go at peak moments of crisis in 2003, 2005. Police mutinies or military reluctance de-escalated other crises. Details are here: woborders.blog/2019/11/09/police-mutiny-critical-point/
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@utopian_rebel Meanwhile, Bolivia has an eighty-year-long tradition of popular protest unseating presidents and providing a mandate for changes in government.
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@utopian_rebel Sometimes these are, in fact, coups. When the military does the things I mentioned: occupying the presidential chair, choosing civilian leaders, or enabling repression.
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@utopian_rebel It's a critical moment. Things could go disastrously wrong. But the possibility of a neutral caretaker government that holds fair elections is also real.
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@utopian_rebel Here's the eight-decade history of governments installed by popular revolt (red), caretakers (black), repressors (green).