When the Bolivian government’s electoral authorities nervously announced to the nation that elections were to be suspended for the third time in four months, the fear instilled in many seemed to suddenly melt away. It was replaced by a fury of a country whose working-class districts and rural areas were led to believe that free and fair elections, on September 6, would provide a peaceful route out of the country’s dramatic economic collapse.

The hope was that these elections would mark the end of authoritarian rule at the hands of an unelected regime, who stand as proof of how the United States rules its “backyard” and the ease with which neoliberalism dispenses with its purported values when facing down those who call for national sovereignty and public control of natural resources.

When elections were suspended last week, Bolivia’s indigenous and trade union leaders — most of whom have charges hanging over them — announced mobilizations on a scale far outstripping the mostly disorganized resistance to the November coup. The coming week will see those social movements launch what is probably a final fight for democracy; if they are defeated, brutal persecution awaits.