The 2019 Bolivian coup

Def: Coup (/ko͞o/) noun: a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government.
“he was overthrown in an army coup”

On the 10^th of November, after a contested election result, Evo Morales was ‘strongly urged’ to step down as the Bolivian president, at the prompting of the police and military, after a few weeks of increasingly violent protests contesting the election results of 20 Oct. Morales had duly won the election with a margin of 10%, more than enough to form government. Apparently the right wing parties and middle class in Bolivia weren’t happy with the result. Rather than try to hang on to government and risk widespread violence in the nation and his own life, he chose to leave Bolivia and has since been given asylum by the Mexican government. One Jeanine Áñez Chávez (no relation to Hugo) has declared herself president.

The Bolivian coup is part of a transit configuration that was in the chart of the Mercury transit: a Mars/Eris opposition with Pluto forming the apex of a t-square. The t-square in turn completed a great cross with Bolivia’s Mars, which has been opposed by transiting Pluto in the last months. The coup had been brewing for months before, and had been in the planning stages for those months. The plotters used the election on the 20^th of October to trigger the event, referenced later. On the day of the election, transiting Mars was on Bolivia’s Ceres, marking the turning point, or catalyst, that was needed to kick the event into motion. In reference to the Mercury transit, the coup has certainly introduced a different point of view into South America, and much of the world has denounced it.

There was a similar coup in 1971 in Bolivia, which overthrew the then socialist government of “J.J.” Torres, replacing it with a repressive military junta under Bazder, who ruled until 1978, and was then ousted for 19 years. Banzer was to be reinstated for four years, legally elected in 1997, replaced by an interim government in 2002, until Morales was elected with an absolute majority in the 2005 election, restoring the socialist order. Bolivia now faces at least a couple of years of uncertainty as to its future path. We will look at why, but first a little background.

Bolivia declared its independence from Spain on 6 Aug 1825 after 16 years of war, “freed of Royalist dominion by Marshal Antonio José de Sucre”. Bolivia is named after one of the leaders of the revolution, one Simón Bolívar. If that name sounds familiar, we heard about it earlier in the year in reference to Venezuela and their Bolivarian Revolution and attempted coup there. The chart for the declaration of Bolivia’s independence is below (bigger), noon chart.

When we don’t have a ‘birth time’ for a nation we need to rely on the general rulerships of the planets. In general, though, we see that Bolivia is a Leo nation, which is easily seen in its independent leadership, evidenced in its rejection over the years of capitalism as its primary economic model. In the past off and on and until now it has been governed in a democratic socialist model, in contrast to the neoliberal economics that have been foisted on South American for the past four decades. And without a time of day, we cannot know the degree of the Moon  for certain, other than it was probably a daytime chart, thus placing the moon in a grand trine with Neptune and Mercury – a highly idealistic and mystical combination, which a quick Google search on its art quickly reveals.

That idealism is strongly reinforced by the midpoint structure Jup=Ura/Nep, shown on the chart. Bolivia is probably one of the more high-minded nations in South America, one of the reasons its government has been highly stable until recent decades, and one of the main reasons it has had a democratic socialist government. The welfare of the common people is quite important to them, despite what we might hear to the contrary. That care for the common person is what made Morales so popular since the start of this century.

One of Bolivia’s gifts as well as one of its curses is its proven wealth of natural resources. It has the second-highest reserves of oil (most of which is undeveloped) and the largest reserves of natural gas in South America. It also has the highest reserves of lithium, the lightest metal, which is used extensively in high-capacity batteries – as used in electric vehicles and mobile phones. China has been Bolivia’s largest customer of the latter in recent years. All of those resources have been nationalized under the leadership of Morales. Is a picture beginning to emerge? The three resources just mentioned all fall under the purview of the midpoint structure mentioned above. Jupiter shows the wealth. Neptune shows the oil and gas. Uranus rules the lithium, used for electric power.

But for all of its wealth in resources, Bolivia is one of the poorest nations in South America. Its population is about 11.5 million, with 68% of the population being of mixed European and indigenous heritage (mestizo). 5% of the population is white and 20% are indigenous Bolivian. This mix points to one of the reasons why Bolivia has been poor – a lack of education and infrastructure for the mass of the population, especially in rural areas. Almost 60% of the population is under 25 years of age also, and about 70% of the population lives in urban areas. Bolivia has only achieved the elimination of illiteracy in this century, done under Morales’ governance.

The midpoints to the Sun show the weakness of the governance in the past (shown on the chart). In addition, we find Mars in Cancer, one of the weakest placements for Mars. It describes a nature that is subject to actions governed by instinct and subject to the mood of the moment, rather than through focused thought, giving impulsiveness and a lack of perseverance. The Sun is square the Moon, showing a nation that can live well by its wits and giving objectivity to the nature. But lacking other indications, there is little in the way of drive toward material success. That needs a catalyzing agent.

Mars is unaspected except for a semisquare to Mercury, and Saturn is wholly unaspected by major (Ptolemaic) aspects. Without ambition and drive, which those two planets give, Bolivia’s resources are very slow to develop. The saving grace is the Leo Sun, which can overcome quite a lot. And with the Moon in stubborn Taurus, Bolivia has a tenacity, or resistance to change that amount to legendary status. The slowness to change and weakness of response was changed under Morales.

Evo Morales’ chart is below (bigger):

We won’t go over his chart, save for a few points.  Firstly, he has a powerful base trio – Scorpio Sun conjunct Mars and Neptune (power to inspire, to move hearts and minds) in Scorpio, the Moon conjunct Uranus in Leo (marking him as highly individualistic, humanistic and talented intellectually) and Capricorn rising (ambitious, highly driven and achievement-oriented) with its ruler, Saturn, in Capricorn (thus ruling the chart) sextile the Sun/Mars/Neptune conjunction and trine Pluto. That is a combination for wealth, par excellence. Plus, his chart is a bowl pattern, additionally  making him highly focused and with clear ideals, as well as being in the top of the chart – altogether a powerful public persona. He gives Bolivia what it lacks – ambition and direction. In addition, his Moon/Uranus conjunction sits on Bolivia’s Jupiter. He has expanded Bolivia’s vision and direction. A recent tweet explains why [John Hilary @jhilary Nov 11]:

“Bolivia under Evo Morales. No wonder they wanted him out.
Illiteracy
2006  13,0%
2018    2,4%

Unemployment
2006  9,2%
2018  4,1%

Poverty
2006  60,6%
2018  34,6%

Extreme poverty
2006  38,2%
2018  15,2%

#EvoNoEstasSolo”

This background brings us to the coup, why it has happened, and who is behind it. The Western press refuses to call it a coup, with Trump calling the coup “significant moment for democracy“, further stating it puts the governments of Venezuela and Nicaragua on notice. Seen from another perspective, he doesn’t know how right he is, in that it has indeed put all the nations of South America on notice, which may not go according to Washington’s plans in the future. Readers in the US may want to take note, given the coup being attempted against Trump. As to who is behind the Bolivian coup, stated bluntly, it has been steered by the urban middle classes and ultra-right regional elites in Bolivia. Further:

“It is not the US-backed coup many have declared on social media, reading from the script of the recent past in Latin America. But it is a coup nonetheless, steered by the urban middle classes and ultra-right regional elites in Bolivia. It should be understood, in part, as a backlash against the redistributive and pro-indigenous policies promulgated by Morales over the past 14 years…

Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia and a former coca grower, was first elected in 2005 with his social movement backed party, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS). Under his tenure Bolivia has slashed poverty rates, reduced inequality, overseen economic growth while rejecting IMF debt bondage, and nationalised key industries.

Bolivia also has crucially seen the ‘indigenisation’ of the state – the elevation of Bolivia’s indigenous peoples and the centering of indigenous belief systems in public life. Morales has made powerful statements on the global stage in favour of redistribution of wealth, the recognition of indigenous rights and protection of the environment. In 2010, Morales championed the ‘Rights of Mother Earth’ law which recognises the earth as a political subject enshrined with, among other things, a right to life.

None of this was without opposition from traditional white-mestizo (mixed race) elites and international capital. Bolivia is Latin America’s poorest country, with a long history of economic exploitation by foreign powers and racist discrimination against its majority indigenous population.”

Emphasis added. This is the coup in a nutshell. If Morales, like Maduro did in Venezuela, had the backing of the military and the police, the coup would not have happened. However, the author of the cited piece fails to mention certain facts.

The police commander that ‘requested’ Morales’ resignation has close ties to Washington (machine translate), as do many within the Bolivian military. The said commander was appointed to his position in Bolivia three weeks ago. The military and police higher-ups have served as attaches in DC. This is fairly common for police and military forces throughout South America. The coup proceeded along predictable steps.

More concerning, though, is the leader of the coup, who is a far-right, Christian fundamentalist fascist paramilitary leader, one Luis Fernando Camacho, who is also a multimillionaire, and who has courted support from Colombia, Brazil and the Venezuela coup regime of Guaidó. He also has the support of  Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in the US, who actively encouraged and gave advice about the coup. Regarding this Camacho dude, there is the following:

“Virtually unknown outside his country, where he had never won a democratic election, Camacho stepped into the void. He is a powerful multi-millionaire named in the Panama Papers, and an ultra-conservative Christian fundamentalist groomed by a fascist paramilitary notorious for its racist violence, with a base in Bolivia’s wealthy separatist region of Santa Cruz.

Camacho hails from a family of corporate elites who have long profited from Bolivia’s plentiful natural gas reserves. And his family lost part of its wealth when Morales nationalized the country’s resources, in order to fund his vast social programs — which cut poverty by 42 percent and extreme poverty by 60 percent.

In the lead-up to the coup, Camacho met with leaders from right-wing governments in the region to discuss their plans to destabilize Morales. Two months before the putsch, he tweeted gratitude: “Thank you Colombia! Thank you Venezuela!” he exclaimed, tipping his hat to Juan Guaido’s coup operation. He also recognized the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro, declaring, “Thank you Brazil!” Camacho had spent years leading an overtly fascist separatist organization called the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista.”

Camacho also mentored the Santa Cruz Youth Union. He and his followers have resembled the Brown Shirts in their coup efforts, pulling Morales supporters out of their homes and subjecting them to beatings, burning the homes of government officials, kidnapping family members of Morales government officials until they resigned and even publicly torturing a socialist mayor. This is called ‘restoring liberty’. So from here, we go to the astrology. What shows in the chart? A coup? Well in fact, yes. The chart with transits and directions is below (bigger):

We do see quite a lot of unsettling directions and transits. The big direction is the directed Sun to the natal Mars/Pluto midpoint, which pretty well describes what is going on in Bolivia at the moment: “Injury, accident, violent measures, an upset or shock caused through the intervention of Higher Power.”

We also note the direction of Neptune to the natal Mars, which has weakened the resolve of the nation, has shown the deception foisted on the public by the military as well as the deception and obfuscation by foreign actors. That direction is quite typical in cases of sabotage.

Then, there is the applying transit of Saturn to the Bolivian Uranus, clipping the wings of progress. In itself, this is a very telling transit – reactionary forces (Saturn) scuttling the gains made in the past years through progressive policies (Uranus). But that is not the worst part.

In January there is the eclipse on the Bolivian Mars, which has already had one (12 Jul 18, solar), followed by the Saturn/Pluto conjunction opposite that Mars, and in turn activating the Neptune direction. All the malefics and ‘heavy hitters’ (outer planets) will be in synch and combined, from now through to March.

We could see, and probably will, a civil war in Bolivia. Just as the middle classes and the wealthy have fought against losing parts of their wealth and holdings through the socialist government, so the poorer sections of the society will want to hold on to their gains. Bolivia made massive gains under Morales, just not to the liking of the middle and upper classes. We may see a revolution again in Bolivia if a hard-right government takes hold and tries to reverse the social gains made under Morales.

This Jeanine Áñez who just pronounced herself interim president (shades of Guaidó in Venezuela) did so with a large Bible in her hand, declaring the indigenous movement in Bolivia dead – a little prematurely, from growing indications. She was the highest ranking member after the resignations of other officials from the previous day. The session of congress she convened was absent opposition members, as they feared for their safety if they had attended. She has called indigenous rituals ‘satanic’, and has been called racist for having made other statements about the indigenous population. If she is any indication of what is to come, the people of Bolivia will suffer for years under the reintroduced neoliberal order, except for the wealthy few.

People with capitalist sentiments are calling the coup a great success, except that they refuse to call it a coup. The common mainstream narrative is that Morales ‘stepped down’. People with socialist sentiments call it a very dark day in Bolivia’s history. The trolls are out in force in social media, denouncing Morales’ tenure as an economic disaster (the economy actually grew under Morales, and was worse under capitalism).

But it is clear to anyone who digs a little that this was a violent coup, orchestrated among many parties, including the OAS, who had cited irregularities in the vote (there weren’t any), US senators, NGOs and other right wing governments in South America. But this story is a long way from being finished, if the astrology and the rising indigenous protests are any indication. There is a direction of the Moon that began to approach the natal Uranus/Pluto midpoint (our ‘revolution midpoint’) a couple of years ago – a people’s revolution (Moon=Ura/Plu), which will be exact in about a year and a half.

Hopefully there will be lessons learned from this episode. If the democratic socialists regain power, then we can probably expect purges in the military and police, capital flight and emigration from Bolivia. But that is always the way after revolutions. There is a wave of progressive politics rising across South America. The people are fed up with capitalism US-style. And who is to say they are wrong? As for Bolivia, meet the new boss, for now, but she sure ain’t the same as the old boss.

Featured pic from Common Dreams