The exit of Bolivia’s leftist President Evo Morales was interpreted by Donald Trump as a warning for Nicolás Maduro and Daniel Ortega who should see Bolivia recent events as a “signal” for their questioned government regimes.
After considering Morales resignation as “a significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere., the U.S. President statement pointed out that “These events send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail.”
Trump also praised the role of the military, and the way people pressed the government for a way out to the political crisis.
“The United States applauds the Bolivian people for demanding freedom and the Bolivian military for abiding by its oath to protect not just a single person, but Bolivia´s constitution”,” the U.S. leader said.
Morales quit Sunday following election irregularities that triggered weeks of violence and intervention from the armed forces. Trump’s statement is the first official communication from the administration on Morales’s exit.
“We are now one step closer to a completely democratic, prosperous, and free Western Hemisphere.”, concluded the declaration.
In another reaction to the convulsed scenario of the South American country, The leftmost section of the Democratic Party in the United States, represented among others by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, considered Evo Morales departure from a different position and denounced the recent events as a coup d’état.
“What is happening in Bolivia at the moment is not democracy, it is a coup d’état. The people of Bolivia deserve free, fair and peaceful elections, and not to be subjected to violent takeovers of power,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter, in a message published in English and Spanish.
For his part, her fellow congresswoman Ilhan Omar also referred to Morales’ departure from power: “There´s a word for the president of a country being pushed out by the military. It’s called a coup.”
According to a Spanish news agency, Both Omar and Ocasio-Cortez have expressed in recent weeks their support for the presidential candidacy of leftist senator Bernie Sanders, who so far is silent on what happened in Bolivia.