Bolivia picks first US ambassador in 11 years

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse



Issued on: 27/11/2019 - 07:36
Modified: 27/11/2019 - 07:36



Bolivia's interim President Jeanine Anez at the national congress in La Paz, Bolivia, November 24, 2019.
David Mercado, REUTERS

Bolivia appointed its first ambassador to the United States in 11 years on Tuesday, officials said, as the interim government resets the country’s foreign policy after the departure of Evo Morales.

Walter Oscar Serrate Cuellar has been given the key posting, the foreign ministry announced on Twitter, filling a position left vacant since a diplomatic spat between La Paz and Washington in 2008.

The high-profile appointment, which has to be approved by the Senate, comes as the caretaker government prepares to hold new elections that exclude Morales.

Morales’ Movement for Socialism party controls the upper house of Congress.


Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/20191127-bolivia-picks-first-us-ambassador-in-11-years

[Kid Berwyn]

1. May Bolivia enter an era of peace and prosperity.

Though I have doubts.

My friends from that beautiful nation said (in July) that Morales overextended his stay in office and became ineffectual, transforming from a reformer into a professional politician. They felt his reforms would hold after his time and progress would continue.

Now the right returns to power. They will put democracy and the People “in their place.”

[sandensea]

2. An era of peace and prosperity is what they had with Evo Morales

Growth averaging 4.8% annually - compared to 2.4% for Latin America over the same period, and 1.7% in the U.S.

That's all over now. The Áñez dictatorship has basically shut down YPFB (the state energy concern), YLB (state lithium), and public bank lending among others.

Why? To prepare them for privatization at fire-sale prices (Wall Street's very happy - especially Tesla, whose stock went up 30%).

Expect a sharp decline in GDP next year (if it's accurately reported - which is in doubt, since they've also occupied the INE statistics bureau at gunpoint).

100,000 or more will flee to Chile and Argentina, much to the chagrin of the local right-wingers.

[QualTest]

3. I agree

I seems to me that things were fine until the ultra-right/fascists' held a coup, started killing the indigenous,
and opened the country for sale.

The only democracy that the USA likes is the one where neo-liberal, corporate, forces get to determine the
outcome, and direction of things, just an observation....

[sandensea]

5. They forget Murphy's Law

What can go wrong, will - especially if if they choose to throw their weight around the world for all the wrong reasons.

Sad. They'd profit so much more by working with local peoples, rather than imposing on them.

Couldn't expect anything better from Cheetolini though.

[ehrnst]

16. What neo-liberal, corporate forces are you referring to? (nt)

[QualTest]

17. ?

Is not the description self explanatory?
res ipsa loquitur

[ehrnst]

18. If it was, would I be asking?

An vereris, ad respondendum?

[QualTest]

19. OK, Try This...

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/11/30/whats-next-bolivia-after-military-coup
Perhaps it will help.

[ehrnst]

20. Not seeing it. Can you pull some quotes that answer my question?

Perhaps reading the question again will help:

You stated:

The only democracy that the USA likes is the one where neo-liberal, corporate, forces get to determine the
outcome, and direction of things, just an observation....

And then I asked:

What neo-liberal, corporate forces are you referring to? Specifically.

[QualTest]

21. I did answer

Twice... Sorry if you don't like the answer.

[ehrnst]

22. I guess that's another No. You've evaded answering twice.

Sorry if the question was too uncomfortable for you.

There are other boards where you might feel freer to answer it, and feel less reluctant to come out and say what you think about the Democratic party.

[QualTest]

24. Uhh

What exactly does anything I posted have to do with the D party?

Obviously you refuse to accept my answers because you've decided
there's some secret agenda beyond the obvious. How does neo-liberalism
and corp. influence in Bolivia have a hoot to do with Dems?

Maybe you need to go to a site where conspiracy theory's and tin foil hats reign?

Enough time wasted on your foolishness already.

[ehrnst]

26. That was a bit over the top, don't you think?

Talk about the foil hat calling the kettle silver...

The only democracy that the USA likes is the one where neo-liberal, corporate, forces get to determine the
outcome, and direction of things, just an observation....

Ring a bell? Just scroll up.

You really believe anyone here thinks you're talking about "neoliberal" Republicans, Hon? But do continue to evade owning up to your actual opinions of Democratic leaders, as well as your opinion of how dim the Democrats here on DU are.

[Judi Lynn]

23. QualTest, welcome to the Democratic Underground. You'll find the next year to be very interesting.

It gets crazy for Democrats during the year before a national election: lotsa trolls slither over here to try to destroy communication among progressives who come here for all the right reasons. You'll probably see the pathetic attacks and attempts to disrupt increasing as it gets closer to election day. Don't even think about them.

[ehrnst]

25. Nice demonstration!

Last edited Mon Dec 2, 2019, 07:29 PM - Edit history (2)

It gets crazy for Democrats during the year before a national election: lotsa trolls slither over here to try to destroy communication among progressives who come here for all the right reasons. You'll probably see the pathetic attacks and attempts to disrupt increasing as it gets closer to election day.

Very helpful example pf what to watch out for.

[Kid Berwyn]

4. That all is true.

The economic benefits no longer were reaching my friends, though. They said Morales no longer had them at the top of his agenda. In that, they said, he had become just another “professional politician.”

My friends there all wanted democracy. They don’t deserve a right wing coup and whatever else the wealthy have in store.

[sandensea]

7. Good point.

Success, as you know, usually breeds complacency.

Very dangerous to be complacent in a country where, as an indigenous man, he would always be in a disadvantage with a mestizo/white-dominated business class and military.

Here's hoping they can all come to an equitable solution soon. It'll certainly help if Cheeto - or any other Republican - is no longer in the White House.

[Judi Lynn]

6. People who've been watching Bolivia's progress for years have seen the immediate difference.

Even before he was actually elected, the racist, fascist elements both within the Half-Moon and the industrialist Washington interests have worked continually to find any way possible, legal or otherwise, and violent when opportunity arose, to rip away any leader who dared to represent the great majority of Bolivian people, the indigenous citizens.

It's impossible to drag out the propaganda again to sell any witness to history the total dirty lie that Evo Morales has been wrong for the great majority of Bolivians who have suffered so desperately at the hands of murderous monstrous US-supported brilliant WHITE dictators all these long, violent years.

Whenever they are trying to spin their yarns they always forget to acknowledge they wouldn't let indigenous people vote or even walk on the sidewalk with Caucasians until a revolution in 1952.

Their attempt to Make Bolivia Great for themselves again should, if there is any justice in this world, fail miserably. Their shock troopers from Santa Cruz, in their trucks, armed with barbed wire studded clubs they use to bludgeon and mutilate indigenous people they find, should take a long drive off a short cliff.

[sandensea]

8. Absolutely, Judi. Race is an extremely contentious issue wherever one goes in Latin America.

Wall Street and Cheeto's neo-cons understand this all too well - and knew that, in a country where the military is still mestizo/white dominated, using Morales' ethnicity as a wedge was the best bet to get them to turn against him.

I don't doubt he made some mistakes as well, and that after 13 years of success he might have become a little complacent - but there's no doubt about it: his very indigenous heritage was what ultimately made it impossible for him to assert control over the military and police.

Here's hoping Morales' MAS or an ally can win - or, I should say, be allowed to win - the next elections, which Áñez reluctantly agreed to thanks to skilled negotiations on the part of MAS lawmakers (who still have a majority in both houses).

Somehow I doubt the MAS will be allowed to win though. Wall Street don't like'em - and that seems to count for more than any amount of popular support it seems.

[Judi Lynn]

9. What a shame it will be if the coup remains in place. Hope the progress won't all be lost,

and will accumulate until a progress makes his/her way up that desperately dangerous hill again, against all odds.

Large industrial concerns depend upon almost free access to natural resources in others' countries as well as enormous desperately poor pools of cheap labor to make their dreams come true. Any change in that arrangement gets them wild.

Hope the gains made will be kept close to the heart and considered the right they should be within the natural heirs to the country.

[rockfordfile]

10. They look like idiots

[Judi Lynn]

11. You've got that right. They are murderous, racist idiots who live on hatred. n/t

[TheFourthMind]

13. Add some MAGA hats to some of these folks and it could be any city USA. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

15. True! They are undoubtedly as stupid as the ones here, too. n/t

[ehrnst]

27. Again, thanks for providing an example of your characterization of others on DU!

[Judi Lynn]

29. You have overreached. Anyone reading the context would grasp I referred to "here" as here, the U.S.

Nothing other than that meaning would make sense.

Calm yourself.

[ehrnst]

30. Easy now.

No need to lose one's cool. Take a few deep breaths.

We're all progressives here, right?

[TheFourthMind]

12. Great post (and responses) Judi Lynn.

I recollect being quite overjoyed when Morales was elected, and at the same time knowing that eventually his name and "coup" and United States would surface. I guess all that was missing was the words "President Trump" to make it actually happen.

I enjoyed this paragraph from the linked article:

"The coup is driven by the Bolivian oligarchy, who are angered by the fourth election loss by their parties to the Movement for Socialism. The oligarchy is fully supported by the United States government, which has long been eager to remove Morales and his movement from power. For over a decade, the US embassy’s Center of Operations in La Paz has articulated the fact that it has two plans – Plan A, the coup; Plan B, assassination of Morales. This is a serious breach of the UN Charter and of all international obligations." https://peoplesdispatch.org/2019/11/09/we-stand-against-the-coup-in-bolivia-statement-from-noam-chomsky-and-vijay-prashad/

[Judi Lynn]

14. Such a clear picture forms right in front of people who care enough to pay attention,

to question what they hear, to look for answers.

It's a real shame when the truth gets so deeply buried and people in the US are completely confused about who the Democrats are, south of the US border. The US has not protected actual democracies in the Americas, not at all. The ones the Republicans support are the white European descended wealthy elites who are parasitically attached to the industry, agricultural production, and ruling class of the countries and who view the native people as their inferiors, and are more than happy to betray them all to US commercial interests.

All it took to start the blood flowing again was Trump. He succeeded where others usually have wisely abstained.

So true about the intentions of the powerful Bolivian oligarchs and their supporters in Washington. There have been various attempts made from the very first to murder Evo Morales, very serious for sure, not to mention the extreme violence against the indigenous people during the same time. The oligarchs have created a heavy moral debt during Evo's time in office. Sooner or later they are going to have to pay. They are wildly outnumbered.

It would appear not a lot has happened to refine the sensibilities of the ruling class in Bolivia since the death of one of the great Bolivian leaders, Túpac Amaru I. That kind of evil takes a long time to die. Here's his Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BApac_Amaru_II

So glad you took the time to comment. Thank you, TheFourthMind.

On edit, wanted to include his words which people have repeated for hundreds of years, before they cut his tongue out:

"I will return and I will be millions."

There is an amazing mural in some government building built during Evo's Presidency showing a huge indigenous spirit leading multitudes of indigenous Bolivians down the mountain roads to the flat lands which immediately focuses anyone who sees it. I have been looking for it again so I can post it, but can't find it.

The words do stick in one's mind, for sure.

[rso]

28. Bolivia

While in the US Foreign Service, I was posted at the US Embassy in La Paz from 1984 to 1986. Though an inferiority complex based on race and ethnicity was always a feature in Latin-American societies, never have I seen a place where being of native descent was more undesirable. The irony is that even those people with obvious and overwhelming native appearance would simply change their dress and pretend to be of European-descent. In looking at photos and clips of what is going on today, I see indigenous people demonstrating against Evo. As if Bolivia did not have enough problems, the inferiority complex of many of its people is contributing heavily to the ongoing crisis.