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FinalCall.com News
World News
U.S. covers its tracks in Bolivia
By Haider Rizvi
Updated Sep 30, 2008 - 11:55:00 AM
Web Video: President Evo Morales Press Conference (09-30-2008)
NEW YORK (IPS/GIN) - Who in Bolivia is receiving millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars? That is what many policy analysts in Washington want to know.
“Washington has decided to keep its ties to Bolivia’s opposition shrouded in secrecy,” said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, an independent think tank.
Mr. Weisbrot and other critics of U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America and the Andean region have voiced deep concern over the George W. Bush administration’s reluctance to disclose details regarding the amount of U.S. funding and its recipients in Bolivia.
“The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is doing in Bolivia what it was doing in Venezuela ... aiding the opposition,” said independent researcher and writer Jeremy Bigwood, who specializes in Latin American affairs.
For example, a July 2002 declassified message from the U.S. embassy in Bolivia to Washington said, “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 (the party of President Evo Morales) or its successors.”
Mr. Bigwood has made several attempts to obtain detailed information about the nature of current U.S. spending in Bolivia, without success. He said he has filed five separate petitions under the Freedom of Information Act since 2005.
However, one FOIA request he filed revealed that the quasi-governmental National Endowment for Democracy had funded programs that brought 13 young “emerging leaders” from Bolivia to Washington between 2002 and 2004 to strengthen their right-wing political parties.
“It’s not just the USAID but also other U.S. government entities that are putting money into opposition groups in Bolivia,” Mr. Bigwood said, charging that a major part of the funding is apparently aimed at “bribing people” in that country.
The State Department denies these charges. However, in September, President Morales declared the U.S. ambassador Philip Goldberg “persona non grata” and asked him to leave Bolivia within 72 hours. Mr. Morales accused Mr. Goldberg of aiding right-wing opposition groups.
The opposition in five out of Bolivia’s nine provinces is up in arms against the first-ever indigenous government’s attempt to rewrite the country’s constitution and bring about economic and social reforms in favor of the majority native population.
According to published reports, in the Media Luna provinces in the eastern part of the country, which are ruled by right-wing governors, many Morales supporters have been killed and wounded in attacks by armed opposition activists.
The Media Luna areas have a disproportionate share of Bolivia’s natural gas resources. The conservative non-indigenous elites want to keep their tight control over these resources, the profits from which Mr. Morales wants to redistribute across the entire population.
The Bolivian federal authorities have arrested the governor of Pando province, who is believed to have ordered violent attacks on Morales supporters. Pando’s governor Leopoldo Fernandez is accused of hiring the hit men who killed at least 16 farmers.
In response to Mr. Morales’s request, South American leaders met in Chile Sept. 15, forcing the Bolivian opposition to resume talks with the government on the issue of a referendum on the new constitution and other questions.
Reports from Bolivia suggest that pressure from Brazil, Venezuela, and other major players in the regions have helped reduce violence in the troubled provinces and that the situation is returning to normalcy.
However, the Bush administration seems to be sticking to its unilateralist stance. On Sept. 17, Washington encouraged its citizens currently in Bolivia to leave the country, saying special flights were being made available. The same day, the U.S. government put Bolivia on a “black list” of countries that failed to meet obligations to limit drug production in the past year, an issue that involves international controversy over its coca plan.
Since coming to power about two years ago, Morales has consistently defended his countrymen’s right to produce coca, not just because the crop has a commercial value, but also because it has ceremonial and medical uses by indigenous communities. Coca is used to make cocaine, but many native and non-native people in Bolivia’s mountainous areas use the leaves in tea, or chew them to minimize hunger and treat altitude sickness.
Related links:
North American tribal leaders energized by Morales meet (FCN, 10-23-2006)
Evo Morales and the roots of revolution (FCN, 02-07-2006)
