November 16, 2019
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development stands with working-class Indigeneous peoples in Bolivia who are demanding an anti-imperialist and socialist regime and fighting to make an Indigenous future possible for “South America.” We condemn the right-wing takeover of the Bolivian government. We condemn foreign intervention. We do not recognize Senator Jeannette Arñez’s claim to the presidency. We also condemn reports that have uncritically presented the OAS as an unbiased source of information, as well as those that have expressed outright support for the right-wing forces sponsoring this coup.
We recognize the coup as part of the US’s broader efforts to secure its power in the region and facilitate capital’s access to markets, exploitable labor and resources — including Bolivia’s massive lithium reserves. This moment exemplifies why the transition from a fossil fuel economy must be anti-imperialist in order to be just. A renewable economy built on the expropriation of Indigenous land, the exploitation of Global South workers and nations, and US military hegemony will only uphold the extractive and genocidal imperatives of capitalism. As Koreans opposed to the US military’s occupation of our homeland, we are committed to opposing US empire everywhere.
We are all too familiar with the tactics that are currently being deployed against the Indigenous peoples in Bolivia. The ongoing division of Korea itself goes back to the US’s successful effort to illegally establish a capitalist government in the south. We stand firmly against the coup in Bolivia, because we know it is a prelude to increased violence and exploitation of the working-class Indigenous peoples of Bolivia — just as past coups in Bolivian and Korean history have demonstrated.
We fully support the right of Indigeneous peoples in Bolivia to democratically determine their futures. We support the people’s resistance.