• ComradeMikey [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      cant they just declare it was a terrorist coup and not a legitimate transaction. lenders should really think before giving money for terrorists

      • ssjmarx [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I'm pretty positive the members of the IMF wouldn't take kindly to that, the Bolivian leadership most likely calculated that it's not a fight worth taking.

        • fuckwit [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          How is this legal, though? So any fascist right wing administration can do a drive by borrow of a 500 Billion dollar loan from the IMF and just shackle the country to the US government forever?

          • RedundantClam [they/them]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Currently listening to Debt: The First 5,000 years. In it the author mentions that most of the huge loans that break the backs of poor countries economies were taken out by right wing dictators. Who probably just pocket the cash in a Swiss bank account.

            It's profoundly fucked up, but that's how they want it.

      • cum_on_jack [any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        one of Chomsky's better takes is that virtually every debt held by countries like Bolivia (owed to the IMF) should be nullified under our own doctrine of odious debt, which states that debt is illegitimate if it's incurred via threat of violence or under extreme duress

        seems like a totally cool and good thing to have on the books until you realize we only invented it to get out of paying Cuban debt to Spain when we "liberated" Cuba lmao, apparently the rest of the world is shit outta luck!

      • spez_hole [he/him,they/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        They did, the imf thought "hell yeah, perfect opportunity for the neocolonialist debt interest mechanism to exact submission from another poor country" and maybe a little "thanks for the alley-oop, CIA"

    • CoralMarks [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Apparently, if I interpret the thread correctly, they did. Although not all of that is interest:

      "This loan, in addition to being irregular and onerous due to financial conditions, generated millions in additional economic costs for the Bolivian State, which as of Feb. 2021 amounted to $19.6 million due to exchange rate variation; $4.7 million in commissions and interests."

      So, because the loan was about $346.7 million and in the second to last tweet it says they paid back $351.5 million, I would assume that that would include the $4.7 million in interest.
      I have to admit I'm not sure where those $20 million in exchange rate changes figure in here.