On June 26, a military coup suddenly took place in the South American country of Bolivia, but this coup came and went quickly. In the afternoon of the same day, the coup master, former commander-in-chief of the Bolivian army, Souniga, was arrested and the coup forces were disbanded.
Bolivia is a country where coups often occur, it is said that some people have made statistics, this country has had more than 180 coups, so it seems that this coup d'état did not even succeed, I am afraid it is just a small splash, nothing to care about, but I don't think so, because this military coup is likely to be a warm-up for the new battlefield of the Sino-US game in advance.
Why?
First of all, we need to be clear about why Suniga carried out this coup d'état.
The explanation given by Zúñiga is that because the country is becoming poor and the army is being humiliated, the heads of the three armed forces have expressed their disappointment to him after the lead, so he took this action in the hope of forming a new cabinet, but interestingly, he did not target the current Bolivian President Arce, but the former President Morales: Zuniga did not ask Arce to step down, but made it clear that he could not let Morales come back.
The coup d'état was not carried out to overthrow the incumbent president, but to target the former president. Why did Suniga target him?
Morales served three consecutive terms as president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, and is considered a legend in Bolivia, and during his administration, one of the most distinctive labels was "anti-American fighters". One of the things that made the United States unhappy was that he emphasized sovereignty over natural resources and did not allow the United States to interfere in package development; One is to prohibit foreign countries from establishing military bases in Bolivia. At the same time, during his tenure, Bolivia also strengthened relations with China, which Morales visited during all three of his terms.
The United States has always regarded South America as its own "backyard", and Morales has been weakening American influence in Bolivia, while also being close to China, how can the Americans let him go? As a result, in the Bolivian general election held in 2019, Morales was caught in a storm of electoral fraud, and Bolivia fell into turmoil. In the midst of the 2019 turmoil, Bolivian opposition leaders have planned a coup d'état, of which the United States is a covert supporter.
Although forced into exile, Morales did not give up, and in 2020, he sent his ally Arce back to Bolivia to continue his presidential candidacy, and was successfully elected, so Morales also ended his nearly year of exile and returned to his homeland.
Next year is Bolivia's election year, and Morales has announced that he will run in the 2025 presidential election, and the coup d'état in Zúñica is aimed at preventing Morales' return.
So what does this have to do with the U.S.-China game?
According to a report released by the U.S. Geological Survey, the world's proven lithium reserves are about 98 million tons, including 21 million tons in Bolivia, 20 million tons in Argentina and 11 million tons in Chile. The statistics are not necessarily entirely accurate, but Bolivia is indeed a lithium powerhouse. In the new energy era, lithium, a key metal used to make electric vehicle batteries, has become a strategic resource.
Bolivia has become one of the chessboards of the Sino-US game, and this coup d'état is just a warm-up in advance, and with the Bolivian general election approaching, this struggle is bound to become more intense.