Did the US back an irregular change of government in Bolivia in 2019?

Bolivian President Evo Morales' claim to a reelection victory in November 2019 was undermined when observers from the Organization of American States cited irregularities. After weeks of protests, Morales resigned and left the country. An interim government held new elections in 2020.

Morales was seeking a fourth term, after courts struck down constitutional term limits. The U.S., an OAS member and its largest funder, termed the events a step forward for democracy.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning Washington think tank, challenged the OAS assessment of the election. The OAS assisted in what was effectively a coup against the country's first Indigenous leader by “a white and mestizo elite with a history of racism, seeking to revert state power to the people who had monopolized it before Morales’ election in 2005,” said Marc Weisbrot, the center's co-director.