 Lesson number one. Let's see what a coup, 21st style, looks like. It doesn't matter if there's an interruption of the current presidential mandate because the armed forces suggest that the presidential were signed. Or if the interruption of the constitutional rule is not accepted by the parliament. Or if violent groups opposed to the government burn the homes of the president's sister and even break into the president's house. It's simple. If there are elections helping your country and you decide to participate, be sure you make clear in advance that you don't trust the electoral tribunal and you won't accept the announced results. Of course, that's only if you lose. And finally, if your opponent wins with 47% of the votes, make sure you call your good friend in the OAS. Ask them to publish a preliminary report that throughout was committed. No proof is needed. It's a holiday. Don't worry. You'll rush as fast as they can so you don't lose momentum. And then demand the new elections be held but only under the condition that you rival the current president not be allowed to participate. Meanwhile, have your fascist friends burn the houses of members of the governing party and kidnap their families. Forcing the president to resign and presto! See, please hear them expected. They didn't even have to wait until the president's turn was over. Oh, and of course, have the president of the USA say that what happened in Bolivia is a significant moment for democracy. Don't worry, mainstream media will help and sell some ultra-leftist hardliners. Lesson number two, you don't have to actually win an election to be the president of a country. Just write to selfproclaimme.oas.org and you can self-proclaim president of your country. Okay, I'm kind of kidding. But, first Venezuela, remember Guaidó and now this. Okay, so up until now, we've talked about how the legitimate president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, was forced to resign. But the Congress is supposed to approve the resignation. Legislators from Morales's mass party, who are the majority, have been harassed, assaulted, threatened and injured. Thus, there was no quantum to accept Morales' resignation letter, but Janín Áñez, vice president of the Senate, self-proclaimed herself president of Bolivia anyways. At least Guaidó had a better crowd. Áñez conveniently invoked article 170 of the Constitution, which states that the presidency seizes when the president is definitely absent. But this reasoning doesn't take into account that Morales didn't leave of his own accord. He asked asylum in Mexico because his life was in danger and he wanted to avoid a bloodbath. Consider that Áñez was elected a senator in 2014 with 91,895 votes. That is to say she only counts with 1.7% of the votes in the nation. Compare that to Evo Morales' 47% of the votes in this year's presidential election. But that doesn't matter. She declared herself president of Bolivia with, of course, the blessing of the U.S. Blessing number three. Can't trust your enemy. The anti-Morales argument centers on the referendum of February 2016, when Bolivians voted on whether Morales could run for another consecutive term. He lost by 51.3% of the votes. Using article 23 of the American Convention of Human Rights, he submitted the issue to the constitutional tribunal, which ruled in favor of Morales. Guess who declared has running for reelection legitimate? Secretary-General Luis Almagro himself. Morales invited the electoral mission of the OAS and even accepted a binding audit. The OAS is not a neutral actor. Historically proven. Morales should have known better. And sure, what Morales did was controversial. But do you think that even if he had won the 2016 referendum, people behind today's coup would have just calmly accepted his reelection? In the wake of the bright wind violence in eastern Bolivia in 2008, which included the occupation of airports clashes with pro-government demonstrators and security forces, the bombing of the state companies and the massacre of political activists, Evo caught a deal with businessmen of Santa Cruz, Bolivia's economic powerhouse. In doing so, Evo sought to buy peace. But that peace came with concessions, including putting land distribution on hold. Furthermore, the peace was deceptive. Many of those same business people were just waiting for the right moment to stab Evo in the back. And that's exactly what happened this month. Lesson number four. Is the economy stupid? Is it? Definitely not. Morales can boast about outstanding achievements in education, health and economic growth. Bolivia was the economy with the highest economic growth by the end of this year, with a projection of 3.9%. Extreme poverty has been reduced by more than half in the last decade. Unemployment fell from 8.1 to 4.8% during Morales term. But if it's not the economy, what is it? Bolivia is a deeply divided country. That was shown when many people took to the streets to celebrate Morales' resignation, kicking and burning the multicolored flag, symbol of indigenous communities, known as the Wipala. In response, large groups of indigenous and peasants community throughout the country took to the streets demanding respect for the Wipala. While almost 70% of Bolivians are indigenous or mestizo, the epicenter of the coup was in Santa Cruz and other regions where the wealth is concentrated and where anti-indigenous, light-colored people live. So no, in this case, it's not about the economy. It's about power. It's about an elite used to control the country. I mean, the last elected president of Bolivia's nickname was El Gringo because he spoke better English than Spanish. That elite is now using religion for political purposes showing with extreme fanatism and intolerance that they want to regain their power at all costs. We don't want to be the Coliazullo. We don't want a flag. Like the Wipala, we want to be always Bolivia. We want the red flag, yellow and green flag, with which we were born as a country. And that's how we want to die. It's not either about Evo Morales being a caudillo who wants to perpetrate himself in power. Remember Angela Merkel? Lesson number five. It's not enough to have the people on your side. The U.S. security forces in Bolivia are colonized by U.S. imperialism. The U.S. trains them, arms them to join exercises with them and doctorinates them. The transformation of the armed forces should have been a priority. In Venezuela, it was the armed forces and the masses of people who defeated the coup against Chávez in 2002. That's obviously not happening in Bolivia. Lesson number six. Follow the money. Once Morales emerged as a threat to the established system in Bolivia, the United States began to invest in democracy-building programs. Funding political parties and movements, especially in Santa Cruz, through the USAID and the NET. Parties like Podemos, the Comité Cívico Santa Cruz, and the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista, all implicated in the coup. After all these years, Morales seemed to be in total control of the country. The U.S. worked patiently to undermine that control. Now Washington is creeping the harvest of its investment. I'm Michelle Maria Elner. For more information about Latin America, go to CodePink.org.