Jake Johnston discusses the coup in Bolivia last year following accusations of election fraud by former President Evo Morales. Leading up to the election, the Organization of American States had raised concerns about the legitimacy of the election, given Morales’ decision to seek another term in excess of official term limits. On the other hand, a Bolivian court had previously ruled that the move was constitutional. In any case, the OAS and its allies in the U.S. quickly claimed that early voting returns indicated a fraudulent election, and set forces in motion that led to Morales, his family, and high profile members of his government fleeing the country for their lives. The problem, Johnston explains, is that the election statistics actually never supported the claim of election fraud, and were consistent all along with normal electoral patterns. Only now, nearly a year later, have independent reviewers and news outlets come out to public support such claims. Unfortunately, with the damage already done, it may be too late for Morales and the people of Bolivia.

Discussed on the show:

“Observing the Observers: The OAS in the 2019 Bolivian Elections” (Center for Economic and Policy Research)

“In Bolivia, A Bitter Election is Being Revisited” (The New York Times)

“The Ukrainian Template” (Antiwar.com Original)

“Statement of the OAS Electoral Observation Mission in Bolivia” (Organization of American States)

“Final Report of the Audit of the Elections in Bolivia: Intentional Manipulation and Serious Irregularities Made it Impossible to Validate the Results” (Organization of American States)

Jake Johnston is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is the lead author for CEPR’s Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch. Find him on Twitter @JakobJohnston.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

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The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:00

For Pacifica radio, June 14 2020. I'm Scott Horton. This is anti war radio.

Alright y'all. Welcome to the show. It is anti war radio. I'm your host, Scott Horton. I'm the editorial director of anti war calm and the author of the book, fool's errand. Time to end the war in Afghanistan. You'll find my full interview archive more than 5000 of them now going back to 2003. At ScottHorton.org or youtube.com/ScottHortonShow. All right, you guys introducing Jake Johnston. He is a senior research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. That's CPR dotnet Welcome to the show. How are you doing, Jake?

Jake Johnston 1:03

Thanks for having me.

Scott Horton 1:04

Very happy to have you here. So audience, everybody remember that there was a coup d'etat, somewhat sanctioned by the USA last October down in Bolivia. And we all knew that it was a big fake excuse at the time. That was the election, that crooked election was excused for the coup. And one of the reasons that we knew that is because of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, they came out debunking the debunking of the election by the Organization of American States right away. And the big news now, is that now that it's June of the next year, the New York Times has seen fit to print that bitter election, accusations of fraud, and now second thoughts, not by them and not that they'll take any responsibility for the lies that they printed at the time at the position Their editorial page took at the time about it.