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Why Bolivia Threw Our Ambassador Out
Evo Morales knows about "change you can believe in." He also knows what happens when a powerful elite is forced to make changes it doesn't want.
Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, the poorest country in South America. He was inaugurated in January 2006. Against tremendous internal opposition, he nationalized Bolivia's natural gas fields, transforming the country's economic stability and, interestingly, enriching the very elite that originally criticized the move.
Yet last September, the backlash came to a peak. In an interview in New York this week, Morales told me: "The opposition, the right-wing parties ... decided to do a violent coup. ... They couldn't do it."
In response, presidents from South American nations met in Chile for an emergency summit, led by the two women presidents, Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Cristina Kirchner of Argentina. The group issued a statement condemning the violence and supporting Morales.
Morales continued in our interview: "The reason why I'm here in the U.S.: I want to express my respect to the international community, because everybody condemned the coup against democracy to the rule of law -- everybody but the U.S., but the ambassador of the U.S. It's incredible."
After the attempted coup, Morales ejected U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg, declaring, "He is conspiring against democracy and seeking the division of Bolivia." Morales went on: "He used to call me the Andean bin Laden. And the coca growers, he used to call them Taliban. ... Permanently, from the State Department of the U.S., I have been accused of being a drug trafficker and a terrorist. And even now that I'm president, that continues on the part of the embassy. I know it does not come from the American people."
Morales has now given the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration three months to leave the country, and announced at the United Nations Monday that the DEA will not be allowed back. Morales was a "cocalero," a coca grower. Coca is central to Bolivian indigenous culture and the local economy. As Roger Burbach, director of the Center for the Study of the Americas, writes, "Morales advocated 'Coca Yes, Cocaine No,' and called for an end to violent U.S.-sponsored coca eradication raids, and for the right of Bolivian peasants to grow coca for domestic consumption, medicinal uses and even for export as an herb in tea and other products."
Morales aims to preserve the Bolivian heritage of coca growing, while eliminating the scourge of drug trafficking. He says the U.S. uses the war on drugs as a cover to destabilize his country: "If they really fought against drug trafficking, it would be very different."
He said the South American leaders are finally organizing among themselves: "We are actually setting up a national intelligence in collaboration with our neighbors Argentina, Chile, Brazil. And that way, the fight against drug trafficking is going to be more effective, but it's going to be something that has a political element in it. If we don't permit the DEA to come back, that doesn't mean we'll break relationships with the U.S."
The resurgent democracies in Latin America are hoping for better relations with a Barack Obama administration. On the election of the first African-American U.S. president, the first indigenous president of Bolivia told me, "Maybe we can complement each other to look for equality among people, people who are here on Mother Earth."
After we spoke, Morales headed off to Washington, D.C., to visit the Lincoln Memorial and to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: "I want to honor my brothers, the movement, the Afro-American movement. I have the obligation to honor the people who preceded us, the ones who fought for the respect of human rights and rights in general."
Thousands are gathering outside Fort Benning, Ga., this weekend for the annual mass protest and civil disobedience against the U.S. School of the Americas (now called WHINSEC), a military training facility that is alleged to have trained hundreds of Latin American soldiers who have gone home to commit human rights violations. The wounds of U.S. intervention in Latin America are still raw. President-elect Obama has an opportunity to reach out and grab the extended olive branch being offered by President Morales.
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38 Comments so far
Show AllThere has never been a war on drugs, only a war on the wrong people getting money and power from drugs, to foment their cause, which is a threat to U.S. interests, and keeping in power the U.S. puppet regimes. What we have here folks: is 2 bad guys that are drug lords and we support the thugs and bad guys that support American, hegemony. Evo Morales see this picture clearly in Columbia, Afghanistan ect.
This, too, will be important in finding out whether Obama is what he says he is, or is just more of the same. Will he continue the Gringo Boot in the face of Latin America, or bring about a brand new attitude?
I'll bet my left wing that Obama parrots the neo-con agenda in S.America. I will even go out on a limb and say he will have a WAR down there before his term is thru. War one way or the other. Most likely a false flag event. Keep vigilant watch people!
Go, Evo! I look forward to the day-- and it surely is coming-- when Latin America determines its own destiny, unhampered by the selfish, greedy, and often deadly activities of the U.S. government.
come now. The reason Evo threw the American ambassador out is that he is increasingly seen as nothing more than a Chavez puppet, and picking a fight with the gringos is a good way to divert the people's attention from this fact.
Liberty...Golly...your name is an obvious cia plant. You guys never learn do ya?
Simon Bolivar said, "The United States seems destined by providence to plague America with miseries in the name of LIBERTY".
Hah.
Maybe we can get the Mossad to sink 'Liberty' - they haveve the experience.
Evo is right on with his pronouncements. The rich don't want to share ANYWHERE. just witness the economy here and the bailout at the expense of the hoi polloi.
How do we get rid of our banes?
(Don't expect Obama to upset the status quo)
But I could be wrong !
I believe that Evo is under the false impression that people in Washington actually give a shit about human rights or democracy. Morales is an enemy of the U.S. for one and only one reason; he's pissed off corporate interests. Whether it is the American arms manufacturers who provide weapons to murder farmers and their families or whether it is Big Oil who feels that governments have no business in trying to regulate them, multi-nationals despise politicians who seek to serve the public interest. Morales is such a politician.
Meanwhile, corporate stooges and enemies of democracy such as U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg, are given a slap on the back by big business for being such a good corporate citizen.
My advice to Morales is to join the enlightened Latin American leaders such as Hugo Chavez and Castro and realize that the U.S. government will never represent the interests of humanity as long as it continues to be subservient to corporate interests. He won't even get an audience with anyone of any importance in D.C. and therefore it's a wasted trip unless he gets in a few scenic sights.
Excellent comment. Although hyperbolic your rationale is correct.
It's unfortunate that U.S. reps in D.C. wont meet with him. I'm hoping for change in America.
Completely agreed, But actually he's addressing US people, not the Shitheads in pentagon and elsewhere..!!! And I think he's right in the sense that we, US people were smart/brave enough to ditch the warmongers of Republican party.
I think #44 should make nice with Evo - if we ever want lithium to make electric car batteries.
Now Evo Morales IS a civilized president, as most are now in South America after many years of barbarian presidents promoted by the barbaric US Empire.
May we, once and for all, eschew the word "alleged" in the last paragraph of the story by Amy Goodman? I believe we have seen how the IPS, I think, traced the lineage of soldiers from Mexico, Central, South America and the Caribbean, implicated in murders in those countries, were proven to have trained at WHINSEC, a.k.a, "School of Assassins."
Bolivians and others in the region have used coca leaves for thousands of years without producing cocaine. By limiting supply, the WOD made cocaine profitable, as it has every other natural drug that can't be patented by Big Pharma.
Much as I admire his righteousness, Evo's WOD is an overreaction. He has been pushed by the US to say there is a drug problem when it is caused by the WOD itself.
I agree with ezflyer. As someone who has traveled in the Andes and found coca tea in eating establishments as staple fare... In previous centuries Andean people did not use coca as a drug. It was/is served daily in the higher elevations to combat the thin air and is helpful to those with any altitude sensitivity. Drinking the tea does not make you "high". It clarifies a mind that is groggy from less oxygen and gives lungs relief from the pressure. Andean indigenas' hearts and lungs have evolved to a larger size than those of people of lower altitudes. Coca is not a drug. Few Americans could spend a day in the high elevation of the Andes comfortably without the assistance of a cup of Mate - coca tea.
IMHO it is our industrialized world's alienation, desperation, depression, and boredom that has created drug traffic. That our government has chosen to address drugs by declaring "war" on those who produce a product that can be enhanced and find it's way to eager consumers, is a direct result of American policies that consider addiction as a crime rather than as a form of mental illness. It is also the mirror opposite of our government's relationship to the arms trade - arms most certainly kill a lot more people and destroy a lot more lives than drugs ever have!
Why do so few question that expensive illegal drugs from all around the world seem to most often end up in the hands of otherwise powerless and impoverished people? The war on drugs is a scam. I believe it was created to fund covert and illegal operations by people who have the power and resources to move these shipments anywhere they want... the taxes of the American public provides the bankroll.
Live Simply So That Others May Simply Live
If Hillary becomes Obomber's secretary of state, do you envision her improving US/Bolivian relations?
Bolivia threw our ambassador out cuz he was doing all he could to overthrow their democratically elected government; in no way cool. Bush bastards, bye, bye forever!
If Evo Morales lives long enough I bet the right-wing mouthpieces (Drug Rush, Sham Sannity, O'Liely and the rest) start calling him a dictator (like they do with Chavez).
ctrl-z,
Sad but true statement.
During the recent campaign Joe Biden in a speech railed against "the dictator in Venezuela." My response to BarackObama.com was Venezuela's elections are much more legitimate than those in the US as they are closely monitored, whereas we know our elections in 2000, Florida, and 2004, Ohio, provided illegitimate results!
Morales and Chavez are visionary and democratically-elected leaders.
Oh realy? Huh, then why did Chavez threat to bring out the tanks if is canidate did not win a local election? That does not sound like democracy to me. Chavez is a two bit dictator and history will prove that, he will never leave office, even if he is voted out, you wait and see.
It must be true, I read it in a forum post on the internet.
lol
Another troll for the Miami Mafia, that's what you are.
You wouldn't know democracy if it bit you in the testicles.
Moon! I never been to Miami and what I have read and seen, it is not a place I would want to go. Get your head out of your ass and see who these people realy are.
An interview with Morales in Washington on the 19th
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com:80/home/content/34804229.html
Amy Goodman had an hour long interview with him earlier this week. He is really real and heart centered-the real deal.
At some point there was some video of Obama shown during the hour - and my heavens, the contrast was so startling! Obama really looked and felt like a corporate drone in comparison.
Just a personal awareness i felt like sharing.
Anyone think it odd that Morales, a head of state, got an entire hour with Amy Goodman in the DN firehouse studio.
And why wasn't the rest of the media asking for a bit of his time?
---USAn---
"On the election of the first African-American U.S. president, the first indigenous president of Bolivia told me, "Maybe we can complement each other to look for equality among people, people who are here on Mother Earth.""
Yes we can! Obama will use the economic and military might of the US to heal the world. Just wait and see...
I won't be holding my breath for the US to use its economic and military might to heal ANYTHING.
One more thing to add, Its not US president nor the senate that runs these covert anti-democratic missions, Its the neo-liberalist economy around the world that drive all these anti-democratic, and in a broader sense, anti-human campaigns. Its not just in south America, but in Asia, Arab, Africa and in somewhat disgiused form here in USA itself, you see these effects.
And I think the trend in trying to curb the cats paw of corporate interests is attracting the middle/lower class all over the third world, which is driving these capitalists crazy..!
"President-elect Obama has an opportunity"
Does he really have an opportunity? No. If the chimp wants to be re-elected he will do the bidding of his masters. He has no opportunity. But PLEASE keep that audacity of hope cuz it's all ya got after giving away your vote to THEM, for nothing in return.
One must be skeptical of politicians including Morales. It is quite possible that his motivation is avoidance of US monitoring of drug production and trafficking in Bolivia. Remember shades of gray apply for those we sympathize with politically as well as those we oppose. Otherwise, we sink to some of the simplistic nostrums we found emanating from certain lefties in the Seventies.
One of the very few good things about the last 8 years (the other being the fairly good certainty that Jeb Bush will not be a serious candidate for any natonal office) is that guys like Hugo, Evo, Lugo,(Patraguay) and even that self-absorbed little twerp in Nicauragua, Ortega, got to be elected by free and fair democratic elections without major U.S.interference. My hope is that Fidel can live to see the day of Bush/Cheney being ushered off the stage of history into their retirements into irrelevence that they so richly deserve.
Maybe Teddy Stevens can save them a place at whatever Club Fed prison he checks into to spend the ramainder of his days. Wouldn't that be sweet. Regarding cocaine, the leaves make an excellent beverage when blended with other teas and have other medicinal-herbal uses as well. If we can eat poppy seeds on our bagels, then we should be allowed to have coca leaves with our tea if desired.
Poet
The same anti-Chavez rightwingers are the same losers who probably own the biggest gas guzzlers to begin with. If they would shut up and try settling for fuel efficient vehicles, Chavez wouldn't be sucking their money. When do these foam-at-the-mouth Republicans ever learn?