Bulletins and News Discussion from September 16th to September 22nd, 2024 - This Megathread Is Dedicated To The Brave Mujahideen Fighters of Afghanistan - COTW: Afghanistan

Image is of China's ambassador to Afghanistan, Zhao Sheng, meeting Taliban Prime Minister Hasan Akhund in September 2023.

I know the Rambo title card is a hoax.

The COTW was chosen in the wake of the aborted sequel to the attempted assassination of Trump being performed by a guy who is VERY enthusiastic about Ukraine, to the point of trying to sneak Afghan soldiers into Ukraine by setting up a house in Pakistan to house them and then further transport them. He also apparently offered to send thousands of Afghan soldiers to Haiti to help them combat gang violence. Whomst among us doesn't have the numbers of thousands of Afghan soldiers on speed-dial. Do you reckon there's a group chat?

Anyway, while there is still no official recognition of the Taliban's government by any country, China has taken a different course than the late USSR and the US - forming economic in-roads, rather than trying their own invasion. This has been a big boon for the struggling country, with various mines and oil and agriculture deals helping keep things barely afloat. A total disintegration of the social fabric of Afghanistan is not in the interest of any of the powers that border it - China, Pakistan, and Iran, with Russia not too far away - so an interesting dynamic of helping-without-official-recognition has been established. I wonder who will be the first country to fully recognize them?

The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Afghanistan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

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Luis Arce accuses Evo Morales of plotting 'coup d'état' in Bolivia
Marches against fuel shortages have been confirmed by Morales and his MAS supporters, who will leave the city of Caracollo in the direction of La Paz.
According to Arce, the mobilization, called by Morales under the pretext of solving the fuel shortage, is actually an attempt to destabilize the popular government.
“In the next few days, they will begin a march and then move on to a national roadblock, which will end in an attempted coup d'état against a popular government. Don't set our country on fire with your actions, which are far from what you proclaim with words. Don't impoverish the economy or take food away from Bolivian businesses and families with national blockades,” said the Bolivian president in a speech to the nation.
- How is this a coup? Coups are done by military or government officials. This is a movement pushing for working class concessions. This isn’t a color revolution. How long until Arces says Morales is pushing “Russian propaganda” or whatever the Bolivian lib equivalent is?
  If you don’t want the government destabilized then give into the demands.
  Otherwise I fucking hope Morales enacts a coup on your neoliberal ass Arce. Haven’t ever trusted this guy and he’s never given me a reason to.
  
  Tbh, Morales did repeated the propaganda that Milei and Carlos Mesa had said against Arce. That Arce had attempted a self-coup or something like that, which literally made no sense. Even Morales' former vice-president said that this was a stupid move and that Morales and Arce should stop fighting, and then Morales got angry with him too. I think Evo was a good president, he's a good person and politician, but he has a big ego.
  I don't think Morales is planning a coup d'état or anything like that, he's just annoyed because Arce will probably be the main candidate for the next elections. And who knows, maybe in the future these two will make up, like Lula da Silva and Marina Silva did after literally 20 years. Iirc during the recent coup attempt, Evo was the first person to support Arce.
  
  This isn’t a Morales ego thing, since MAS is mass mobilizing for this and it’s a material demand. This is the working class making demands. Arce better learn his place as a representative of these people and give into their demands, or Morales will escort him out of power again
  
  how did the self-coup make no sense? it seemed at least a viable theory, given the media-friendly faceoff and how badly executed it was
  
  Zuniga's first action after he thought he had taken control was to try to arrest Arce and free Jeaninez and Camacho. Evo was the first politician to declare support for Arce, asking people to take to the streets in support of Arce. There were many other movements in Bolivia, Zuniga was waiting for reinforcements to arrive as he didn't have the support of the police. But the coup failed due to poor organization. When the so-called reinforcements arrived in La Paz, they were met by the police, which meant that they had screwed up. Most of these regiments returned to their bases soon afterwards.
  Zuniga tried to escape in an APC, but was soon captured. Later, other people, such as Juan Arnez Salvador, were also arrested. After that, Zuniga decided to say that it was all just an attempted self-coup out of nowhere. People like Carlos Mesa started repeating this. Evo also said this and then backtracked when Milei said the same thing and Evo's supporters were disappointed that he was agreeing with Milei.
  For me, what's really suspicious about this coup is how slowly Argentina, Ecuador and the US reacted to it. And it happened literally two days after Arce made a deal with China and Brazil over lithium mining rights.

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