By Veronica O’Kelly

“President Lula reinstated his solidarity with the Bolivian government and people and stressed the importance of being fully respectful for democratic institutions and the rule of law,” reports the Brazilian Presidency following the telephone conversation between Lula and Rodrigo Paz, Bolivia’s right-wing Christian conservative president.

Lula’s statements make clear, once again, whose side he is on. While the brave Bolivian people are in the streets confronting a government that is trying to unload the economic crisis on the working and popular majorities, Lula decides to institutionally support an anti-popular and repressive regime.

The Bolivian people are fighting against hunger, austerity and repression. They are fighting against the misery plans imposed by the IMF and applied with maximum obedience by Rodrigo Paz. The working class of Bolivia demonstrates that it is not willing to passively accept the destruction of its living conditions. The mobilizations, blockades and popular uprisings place on the horizon the concrete possibility that the masses of workers, peasants, indigenous and popular people will take the future of the country into their own hands.

Today, what exists in Bolivia is a deep crisis of the regime. There is a power vacuum that weakens not only the government, but the capitalist institutions as a whole. Power is divided between a practically dying government and the streets, where popular rebellion is growing.

Therefore, when Lula speaks of “respect for democratic institutions and the rule of law”, he is defending the State that represses, starves and tries to crush a people who are only fighting for the right to live with dignity. It is defending keeping up a social order at the service of the bourgeoisie, imperialism and the multinationals.

While Trump and U.S. imperialism press for the stability of governments subjected to their interests, Lula once again plays the role of containing and diverting the processes of popular radicalization in the continent. It is not the first time. In the name of “democracy”, he supports governments that attack the workers and protects rotten regimes that have already lost legitimacy in the eyes of the masses.

We are on the side of the Bolivian people. We extend our solidarity to the workers, the youth, the indigenous communities and the popular sectors that face repression and adjustment.

We join the demand of “Out with Peace!” and we raise, together with thousands, an independent exit of the workers and the poor people:

– Let those who have never governed govern: the COB, the indigenous communities, the peasants, the youth and the neighborhood councils!