Washington versus Morales
Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:28:05 GMT
By Yusuf Fernandez, Press TV, Madrid

The Bush administration ordered the expulsion of Bolivia's ambassador
to the United States only one day after Bolivia expelled his American
counterpart. "In response to unwarranted actions and in accordance with
the Vienna Convention (on diplomatic protocol), we have officially
informed the government of Bolivia of our decision to declare
Ambassador Gustavo Guzman persona non grata," State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack said. McCormack had previously called the
expulsion of US Ambassador Philip Goldberg a "grave error" and warned
that La Paz would face retaliatory action.

Meanwhile, in La Paz, Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca told
reporters that he had formally requested Goldberg's expulsion but added
that he had also written Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that
Bolivia "wishes to maintain its bilateral relations with the
United States."

In reality, Morales has been under attack since he registered to run
for president in 2002, when he came in second place. In the run-up to
that election, then-US Ambassador Manuel Rocha said that American aid
to the country would be cut if Morales were to win.

In 2006, Morales became the first indigenous leader of Bolivia after
winning more than 53% of the votes in the presidential election -a rare
absolute majority victory in the country. He has recently won a
referendum on his continuity in the presidency with two thirds of the
vote.

This comes as the right-wing opposition rejects Morales-proposed
reforms, one of which is to put an end to the historic privileges of
the four gas-rich eastern provinces and give a part of the energy
revenues to the poorer five Western provinces. The poor provinces are
mostly inhabited by indigenous people, who have traditionally suffered
from discrimination despite constituting the majority of the country's
population.

The economy of Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, is
heavily dependent on natural gas. On the other hand, Morales also wants
to rewrite the constitution and distribute land to the poor. In order
to block his reforms, opposition right-wing provincial governors have
demanded more autonomy and perhaps even the secession of the eastern
provinces.

On June 9, a crowd of 20,000 protesters marched to the gates of the
American embassy, denouncing US policies and clashing with the police.

The protesters demanded that the US extradite former defense minister
Carlos Sanchez Berzain and ex-president Sanchez de Lozada. Both of them
had ordered a military crackdown on anti-government protests in
October 2003, in which 60 people died and hundreds were injured. De
Lozada stepped down as president during the political upheaval of 2003,
caused by his attempts to sell the country's gas reserves to US
corporations, and fled to Miami together with Sanchez Berzain.

The demonstration prompted the State Department to temporarily recall
Goldberg in protest. "The government of George W. Bush has decided to
give refuge to the butcher Sanchez Berzain, and also I suspect to the
genocidal Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada... we cannot tolerate (that),"
protest organizer Roberto de la Cruz told a local radio station.

The Bolivian government has also asked officials from the US Drug
Enforcement Agency (DEA) to leave their base camp in the coca-growing
region of Chapare due to security problems, according to the State
Department. A US statement accused La Paz of disrupting DEA activities
in the region "after 25 years of working side by side." Morales defends
farmers in planting coca, a traditional plant in the region, but has
also been cooperating with US-backed efforts to block trafficking.

On the other hand, La Paz has recently announced that it would no
longer send Bolivian military officers for training in the United
States. Interior Minister Alfonso Rada said that he had decided to
dissolve the Organization for Development of Police Research (ODEP), an
intelligence unit funded by the US State Department to fight narcotics
trafficking and terrorism. "This unit has already completed its cycle,"
Rada told reporters. "We do not want the unit to be used for other kind
of work."

This statement was in a reference to charges of US espionage made by
Bolivian officials and American Fullbright scholar John Alexander van
Schaick, who claimed that the head of security at the US embassy in La
Paz, Vincent Cooper, had asked him to report back on any suspicious
activity by Cuban and Venezuelan officials that he came across during
his research into local peasant organizations. Van Schaick then made a
legal declaration to a olivian notary, which the Bolivian government
has used as part of a judicial investigation. Morales said he would not
allow Cooper to return to Bolivia from Washington, where the embassy
said he had been to provide information on the incident.

The Bolivian government also claimed that it has evidence that the US,
and particularly the USAID agency, has been consorting with opposition
leaders - and even funding them to bring about instability. "USAID
helps with the process of decentralization," said Jose Carvallo, a
press spokesman for the main rightwing opposition political party,
Democratic and Social Power. "They help with improving democracy in
Bolivia through seminars and courses to discuss issues of autonomy," he
said. In 2006, USAID gave almost 4.5 million dollars to help
departmental governments "operate more strategically," documents of the
organization revealed.

In July 2002, a declassified message from the US embassy to Washington
included the following text: "A planned USAID political party reform
project aims at implementing an existing Bolivian law that would . . .
over the long run, help build moderate, pro-democracy political parties
that can serve as a counterweight to the radical MAS or its
successors." MAS refers to Morales' party, Movimiento al Socialismo
(Movement Toward Socialism).

In order to counteract US activities, on October 10, 2007, Bolivia's
Supreme Court approved a decree that prohibits international funding of
activities in Bolivia without state permission.

On September 5 this year, Goldberg met the rebel governor of
Chuquisaca, Sabina Cuellar, and openly stated that Washington should
interfere in the country's internal affairs.

In late August, Goldberg also met governor of the state of Santa Cruz,
Ruben Costas, another fierce opponent of President Morales. He openly
declared support for such rebel governors and called on Morales to pay
attention to the demands of the political opposition. Goldberg was then
summoned to the Bolivian Foreign Affairs office, which argued that his
statements and support for the right-wing pro-autonomy movement clearly
violates Bolivian sovereignty.

Finally, on September 11 Morales ordered Goldberg out, accusing him of
conspiring with Bolivia's conservative opposition and instigating
protests against his government. "The Ambassador of the United States
is conspiring against democracy and wants Bolivia to break apart,"
Morales said during a speech at the presidential palace in La Paz.

The announcement of Goldberg's expulsion came as Bolivia was obliged to
reduce natural gas exports to Brazil because anti-government activists
damaged a pipeline, and a day after protesters stormed public buildings
in the eastern Santa Cruz city, an opposition stronghold.

Opposition activists also shot dead seven indigenous peasant farmers in
the remote Amazon region of Pando. "We are talking about a real
massacre and the person responsible is the Pando governor," said Deputy
Minister of Social Movements Sacha Llorenti.

Goldberg's remarks about the interference in Bolivia's internal affairs
came some days after the visit of Evo Morales to Tehran, where he
stated that Iran and Bolivia were two brotherly revolutionary nations.
Washington has warned Bolivia against developing ties with Iran, but
Morales has responded that no one can damage the relations between La
Paz and Tehran. "Iranians and Bolivians would like to see how their
leaders defend the interests of their countries and fight Imperialism,"
Morales said.

Shortly after Morales announced his decision to expel Goldberg,
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also ousted the US ambassador to
Caracas, whom he accused of conspiring with a group of retired and
active generals who had tried to organize a coup d'etat against him.

Chavez, who leads a bloc of progressive presidents in Latin America,
has vowed to come to Morales' aid if there is a coup in Bolivia. "If
the oligarchy, the Yankee stooges directed (and) financed by the empire
(United States), topple any government we would have the green light to
initiate whatever operation was needed to restore power to the people
in Bolivia," he said. Ecuador and Honduras voiced support for Bolivia
and Venezuela's decision to expel US ambassadors in their respective
countries on 12 September. This support, along with the recent decision
of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to recognize the Russia-supported
republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, shows that the United States
may now be facing its worst crisis in diplomatic relations with Latin
America in the last few decades.