Financial vultures on Wall Street and in London are intensifying their warfare against Bolivia, warning it is on the verge of a currency devaluation due to a shortage of dollars and that it may not be able to meet its foreign debt obligations. On March 24, pointing to a shortage of dollars it said threatened the country’s “macroeconomic stability,” Moody’s downgraded Bolivia’s debt by two notches, to Caa1, and placed it under review for further downgrades. The following day, Bloomberg published complaints by various Wall Street “financial analysts” that Bolivia’s problem was its “overvalued fixed exchange rate” and fiscal deficits and refusal to abandon its currency peg.
Finance Minister Marcelo Montenegro shot back that Moody’s downgrade was “rushed” and that it failed to take into account factors that affect the government’s ability to maintain macroeconomic stability, such as the global financial crisis, high interest rates, increased energy prices and the need to subsidize domestic energy prices. Last week, he had denounced a deliberate campaign of speculation and rumor mongering about the dollar shortage that had caused panicked citizens to line up in front of the Central Bank to purchase dollars.
A related side of this destabilization campaign is the demand by six U.S. Republican lawmakers, three from the Senate and three from the House, that President Joe Biden impose “selective” sanctions on Bolivia for human rights violations. A March 24 letter to Biden by the six, posted to Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) website, charged that President Luis Arce’s government “targets political opponents and undermines the rule of law,” and that it is in the national security interests of the United States to demand that Bolivia “uphold the rule of law” and defend the human rights of its citizens.
The “political opponents” in question are Jeanine Áñez, who was illegally installed as President after President Evo Morales was overthrown in a State Department-run coup in November 2019, and who is now jailed for committing human rights atrocities and economic crimes; and the neo-Nazi Governor of Santa Cruz Fernando Camacho, a leading figure in the 2019 coup, now in pretrial detention on charges of terrorism. But the State Department’s real target here is China, with which Bolivia enjoys a strong economic and strategic relationship, as a partner in the Belt and Road Initiative.
Their Republicans’ letter claims that the alleged absence of a “robust opposition, civil society and independent media opens the door to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other authoritarian regimes to further impose their strategic interests on this South American country and the region.” So, imposing sanctions and making the country “safe for democracy” will deal with the problem of the nasty Chinese. The letter asserts that “the Bolivian people should have the ability to rigorously evaluate and debate the merits of investment proposals that the CCP would rather negotiate behind closed doors. As such, it is imperative that the United States hold accountable those Bolivian human rights abusers that violate the fundamental freedoms of Bolivia’s opposition candidates, and their supporters.”
Aside from Rubio, other signers include Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL). (https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2023/3/english-espa-ol-rubio-colleagues-urge-potus-to-sanction-bolivian-human-rights-violators)
