for peace and the rule of law to be restored. well for a bit more insight on this we can now bring in live kevin cashman who senior associate at the center for economic and policy research in washington d.c. kevin thanks for joining us let's head the oas claimed that the election in bolivia was mobbed by manipulation and irregularities and it did recommend a rerun how do you view the organizations role in this crisis. it's definitely been very controversial and i think what your viewers need to know is that there's 2 ways the vote is tabulated and believe there's a quick count which is supposed to provide an election night result that's preliminary and there's the official count which takes a longer time because they have to count votes all over the country. so all this started when the oas basically took issue with how the blues you know what oral authority suspended the quick count. and they said that what they were doing was you know not transparent and. the media basically conflated this quick count with the official count and said that they were altering the election results but when you look further into it we have found that the blue van or tour with already had

and that was to discredit the. but if in elections the think tank the center of economic policy. the economic the center for economic and policy research that i work for has just published. the paper that i've coauthored actually showing that there were no evidence was provided by the oas to suggest that there were fraud in elections as i said that narrative completely at odds with obviously the organization of american states but also obviously nature governments like britain like washington who say it was evil morale is for acting on guns to do usually do you think one of the one of the context we should understand the coup is that bolivia has the largest sources of lithium which is used in the every phone battery every laptop battery in the world i think there are a number of elements certainly the model is government was always nationalist and sovereign to defend its national resources it nationalized its national resources particularly its gas resources. years ago so i mean lithium may have been an element. but i think more generally this bolivia. morales government was a part of what was often known as the pink tide of left this

mark weisbrot is co-director of the center for economic and policy research. speaking to us from washington, d.c. the president of bolivia evo morales resigned yesterday saying he was ousted by a military coup. this is democracy now! when we come back, the first-ever presidential forum on environmental justice. i co-moderated. today we play you are segment with elizabeth warren. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. first-everight, the presidenti f forumn environmental justice wawas held at south carinina state university in orangeburg for some six democratic presidential candidates to work. senators elizabeth warren and cory booker, tom steyer, marianne williamson, john delaney, and joeoe sestak. i co-moderated the event with mustafa ali, former official with the environment protection agency, vice president of the national wildlife federation. we will be airing highlights of the forum in the coming weeks, but today we turn to senator elizabeth warren stop must off ali began the questioning. mustafa: mehdi did communities of color, ind

resignation a triumph for democracy and people power or the product of a military coup joining me to debate this i'm mark weisbrot co-director of the center for economic and policy research who's been writing on bolivia for more than a decade and in vasquez director of the center for global liberty and prosperity at the cato institute and also an expert on latin america thank you both for joining me in the arena thanks me think it let's start with you is it fair to describe the resignation of as a coup no not by any stretch of the imagination let's remember how he got here this election was illegal to begin with the constitution bolivia does not a allow a 2nd reelection for the president and so in 2016 the president actually had a referendum to change the constitution and the population voted no he decided to neglect. paying attention to that and went ahead and had his compliant constitutional tribunals issue decree a judgment that allowed him to run against his own very constitution and so that made people in bolivia very upset obviously because it's undemocratic and so when he ran here he was losing and as the votes were being tallied he was behind and this meant that

for mr morales to resign. bolivia's armed forces have said they will never go against the people and the crisis must be solved by democratic means. mark weisbrot is co—director of the center for economic and policy research joins us now from there. how serious is this situation now? people are using words like cuba, are we people are using words like cuba, a re we really people are using words like cuba, are we really there yet?” people are using words like cuba, are we really there yet? i think it is serious. i think the opposition or the leadership at least is trying to overthrow the government. a near majority, a7% of the people voted for the president, which was over ten points more than the next runner up... ten points more than the next runner sorry ten points more than the next runner up... sorry to interrupt straightaway, but those results are exactly what is disputed. do you have a in those results because yellow if you've noticed, you can read dozens, hundreds of articles since october 20 on the web since the selection. and not one present even one shred of evidence that the election was in doubt, stolen, or anything else. so this is a very bad, i think, anything else. so this is a very bad, it

based center for economic and policy research says there's no evidence for this claim and even put out an extensive report backing as we're in the 1st rounds of the election so why exactly it's interesting tell me about these elections and you know the controversy there but also why would morales resign when it's really about the elections why not just hold another round. yeah i mean well he didn't resign because they have the as enough to said this is a coup you know he was forced to resign by the military. you know i think it's important to take a step back and look at who the oas is so the oas has been criticized pretty much sentence inception as basically serving as a tool for u.s. political interests in the hemisphere particularly south of the border and the way its headquarters is based in washington and the head of the. model has been particular mood particularly aggressive in following us imperial lines basically in the region so that's who's saying that these that these are illegitimate elections and so it's rather expected that they would do this. you know. there were 2 weeks

exactly the election morale is one what i just asked mark weiss brought director of the center for economic and policy research you can look at any website for any major news organization in the world and no one has yet presented any evidence and that's because there isn't any but i think the media split as you drooled by simply repeating over and over again this allegation which is really nothing at this point more than an unfounded conspiracy theory oh oh why it's one of the conspiracy theories we're. so that means it's totally true. man just fled the country on a bold premise that he rig the election here in the us hillary clinton stuck around even after. the d.n.c. admitted in court they rigged with their 2016 primary.

the election morale is one what i am just asked mark weiss project director of the center for economic and policy research you can look at any website for any major news organization in the world and no one has yet presented any evidence and that's because there isn't anywhere i think the media has played as you drooled by simply repeating over and over again this allegation which is really nothing at this point more than an unfounded conspiracy theory oh yeah it's one of the unfounded conspiracy theories we were. so that means it's totally true. man able to just fled the country on a boat premise that he rig the elections here in the us hillary clinton has stuck around even after. the d.n.c. admitted in court they rigged through their twenty's 16 primary elections. what what what do we have to do to get some of our to flee to mexico. a. and you don't say here even when they're being impeached they dig in like goddamn tax and like parasites like the t.v. show survivor you always think it's going to be gone but it's not. but something else you need to know about the libya it's not alone it's one of many co

speak to jeff hauser is the executive director of the revolving door project at the center for economic and policy research and washington can i ask what particularly you will be focusing on in the coming weeks obviously the impeachment inquiry now going into a very significant public phase. and there will be key witnesses called to testify next week. be looking to see if a coherent narrative forms from these hearings that is heard by what i consider the 10 percent of americans who are most important in american politics and these are the people who are not really part of donald trump's base they find him somewhat embarrassing but they also think he's doing ok to solid job as president and they're also not very fond of the democratic party and they are the 10 percent that separates the republican party from being in bad shape politically like they were revealed to be last night in elections across the country and being in catastrophic shape be very interesting this see whether or not these career figures within the foreign service of the united states these very down the middle figures can be persuasive to

on the other hand, we have the authoritative report from the center for economic and policy research,ch last week released a detailed study of the october 20 election, and found there was no evidence of fraud or at least if there were irregularities, there was no evidence that they were decisive in determining the outcome. now, is it possible there were irregularities? absolutely. i am not denying that. november 10,id, on earlier in the day, evo morales actually offered to hold new elections as a major concession to the protesters. he even offered to replace the entire electoral monitoring body. -- i disagreeat with pablo. i don't see that as necessarily an admission of fraud. i see it more as a concession that was intended to keep the peace. at the opposition, most of them, did nonot want new elections because they doubted they could be evo at the ballot boxes. they wanted a coup. that is exactly when the military steps in and orders evo to leave. i agree with pablo that the situation on the streets is extremely concerning. there is violence being committed, not only by the right, bu

policies of washington washington pays for 60 percent of that organization's budget and i would urge viewers and journalists alike to read a report recently issued by the center for economic and policy research a very fine incredible think tank based here in washington which looked at claims by the oas about voting irregularities and and fraud allegations of fraud in the bolivian elections and found that there were no actual credible pieces of evidence to suggest that this vote was invalid 47 percent of bolivians on october 20th voted for able moralities and we should remember that able more ali came to become came to the presidency in 2003 on the back of a social movement that was standing up to carlos mazen himself he was president vice president after the former president gonzalo sent. as that last photo was forced to resign for massacring demonstrators standing up to protect their national resource their national natural and national resources abel was among those demonstrators and he wrote a massive social movement of working people of peasants of farmers into power those ben will be monitoring and you're here even if mortalities even if more allies his forces step down that is why he s

brown he's the senior director of research and policy engagement at the african center for economic transformation and currently joins us now from across the world what do business leaders in ghana think about this program. well i think that 'd the maturity 'd. in this is the tip of the deformed business. looking forward to the compact the german government of the next i think was early this year the german government business for we brought together the right private sector that titian us and principles and i think there's a good expectation. that 'd the time is a days but but welcome in come back with africa where the great expectations but this isn't just do you think anything has happened i actually do you feel anything happening already yeah you're already in the loop is there is the video of you that is coming to stubbs plant here. they ship a nice already. cannot establish new plant listen in this country and just recently in the 'd african investment forum with the sale just. last week i attended that. the governments are in contract for this country this is all on the compact. with africa

he's research fellow for the heritage foundation's institute for the economic freedom and opportunity. and jared bernstein, the center on budget and policy what do you think you have advised democrats is this a smart play >> lee, if you're listening, don't go on tv today look, i hate to create a hole in your 12:00 spot, but the baseball players have a saying a boo on the road is a cheer at home as far as elizabeth warren's political brand and her campaign are concerned, these billionaires are doing her a great favor by invaying against her wealth tax we can have good arguments whether her wealth tax is the right way to go after wealth but the fact that wealth is more concentrated than it's ever been, this is a huge issue for democrats. and the idea that so much wealth escapes taxation, especially unrealized gains, is at the heart of a really important public finance debate she's helped to start. i think she's done us a great service. i think these billionaires are their own worst enemies right now. >> if it's helping her, why are you against lee cooperman coming on, then you're against her >> i'm just saying if those billionaires want to