Bolivian leader slams US drug policy

[Clara T]

Bolivian leader slams US drug policy
Web posted at: 1/1/2006 3:23:34
Source ::: AFP

HAVANA: Bolivia’s socialist President-elect Evo Morales wrapped up a visit to Cuba yesterday by sharply challenging US drug policy for his Andean nation, the US occupation of Iraq, and US military presence in Latin America.

Morales said that the United States “constantly accuses me of everything: being a drug trafficker, coca leaf mafia man and a terrorist,” questioned by reporters on Friday.

“We are proud to be coca producers; you know that coca leaf is not cocaine,” stressed Morales, here for a 24-hour visit and meetings with communist President Fidel Castro.

“There will not be zero coca, but there will be zero cocaine,” Morales pledged. Coca is the raw material from which cocaine is processed. But it has been used in traditional medicine and religious ceremonies in his country for centuries.

http://www.myantiwar.org/view/69029.html

[pretzel4gore]

1. it appears the latin americans have gotten control of their voting system!

they need a new term ('banana republic' is too evocative of oppressed colonized peoples) to describe Bigbrotherland, as GroupCapt at Thom Hartman chat says he prefers to the term US 'Homeland'...Boo Shamerica is one is one idea for our Latino friends to consider, or perhaps Mikel Moore's 'the Biggun' which maybe translates better into spanish (los loco grando uno?) ....i like the United States of SlamBamThankyouMa'America (this refers to our getting screwed by bozo and the naztys) or JesusChristAlmightyland; though how these translate i can only guess?

[EuroObserver]

2. The market for cocaine is in north america,

and, unfortunately, increasingly in europe.

Mr. Morales promises to fight to prevent cocaine-refining and exports to our countries, while protecting traditional coca-leaf cultivation - that of a natural traditional life-enhancing herb - for local people.

He may have to throw out the CIA for a start.

We all know that this is our problem, not theirs.

[znowboarding]

44. Dang, I agree 100%

Well put EU Dude!

[Pavulon]

3. More raw material, more supply, cheaper 8 ball.

I have not heard the US accuse him of anything. Even the article say nothing of the sort. But US bashing is in vogue these days. Seems a nice socialist triangle is forming. Glad my petro dollars are going to a good cause.

And before someone says it being a democrat does not mean I should feel required to support delusional ultra left socializing leaders.

[pitohui]

4. how do you figure?

la paz is the highest capital city in the world, people in the high altitudes of the andes need coca leaf to function in the low oxygen atmospheric conditions

why should they be sick or die because you can't control yr drug problem?

the usa has been poisoning bolivia by spraying coca w. chemicals from airplanes for at least 20 yrs, educate yrself before posting

the man has a point to be upset w. usa policies that are poisoning his country

if you are opposed to use of cocaine, don't use it, don't allow it to be used on yr property, and if you have a friend who uses, confront him that you will drop him if he doesn't get to rehab

that's what i do, it seems a lot more reasonable to me than pouring poison out of the sky on strangers

[Pavulon]

5. Are you saying I have a drug problem??

I am missing your point. Mine is simple economics more supply means more product.
I will bring my coca next time I am in Colorado.

No chemicals are used. Should they die because you make wild assertions not backed by fact?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/19/AR2005121900117.html

That part about educating yourself before posting is good advice. Especially when you are trying set someone straight.

I could give a shit if coke was legal. Drug war is a waste of money any way.

This is about money not coke or farmers.

[pitohui]

6. i'm saying i can't understand yr point

you seem to be posting v. randomly, i simply can't understand what you are trying to say

what does this mean -- Mine is simple economics more supply means more product.
I will bring my coca next time I am in Colorado.


because, no offense, it is not immediately obvious what you are trying to say or why you would be opposed to this particular elected leader who, w. what little information we have at this distance, seems to be one of the good guys

if people were bombing your entire house and field to kill one helpful plant they thought you were growing, wouldn't you think those people were pretty much terrorists even if they wrapped themselves in a usa flag?

you say you have not heard usa accuse him of anything, well i have, others have, in fact, i've heard the entire nation of bolivia accused for at least 20 years :shrug:

[Pavulon]

7. At no point

has the any branch of the us government criticized this official.

Like I said the coca program does not involve chemicals, as you posted.

We have not bombed anyone. Feel free to post a link. I did.

Colorado has many places above 12k I never need the helpful coca leaf when hiking there. Light Sarcasm.

I am saying that he is making accusations from a communist country about language that has not been used. Seems brash.

If they ask the DEA to leave they will.

Bolivia has been an exporter since carter was in office. Carter suspended diplomatic relations with them. We poured plenty of money into bolivia, if they don't want it I'm pretty sure we can keep it.

[ridgerunner]

13. ahem ....

At no point has the any branch of the us government criticized this official.

Published on Monday, July 15, 2002 in the Guardian of London

The United States government is actively intervening in Bolivia's choice of new president next month, warning that US aid will be withdrawn if the socialist Evo Morales is appointed.

>snip

Otto Reich, the Cuban-American appointed by President George Bush as his assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, warned that American aid to the country would be in danger if Mr Morales was chosen on August 3.

Mr Morales is leader of the country's coca-growers and is opposed to the coca eradication program sponsored by the US as part of the "war on drugs" on the continent.

"We do not believe we could have normal relations with someone who espouses these kinds of policies," Mr Reich said on a visit to Buenos Aires.

more:http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines02/0715-03.htm

[Pavulon]

15. Missed that, you are correct(nt)

[ridgerunner]

17. Ahem again

Like I said the coca program does not involve chemicals, as you posted.

Coca eradication
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Coca eradication is a strategy strongly promoted by the United States government as part of its "War on Drugs" to eliminate the cultivation of coca, a plant whose leaves are used in the manufacture of cocaine. This strategy is being pursued in the coca-growing regions of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, where it is highly controversial because of its environmental and its socioeconomic impact.

Plots denuded of coca plants by mechanical means (burning or cutting) or chemical herbicides, such as Monsanto's Roundup, are abandoned and cause serious problems with erosion in seasonal rains.

In addition, the U.S. has also been involved in the application of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum to wipe out coca; that fungus poses serious hazards both to humans and to other plant species. In 2000, the Congress of the United States approved use of Fusarium as a biological control agent to kill coca crops in Colombia (and another fungus to kill opium poppies in Afghanistan), but these plans were canceled by then-President Clinton, who was concerned that the unilateral use of a biological agent would be perceived by the rest of the world as biological warfare. The Andean nations have since banned its use throughout the region. (The use of biological agents to kill crops may be illegal under the Biological Weapons Convention of 1975.)

more:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca_eradication

[Pavulon]

18. Ahem to the WP on that one..(NT)

[ridgerunner]

33. Well, I read your link yesterday

and if that is the "fact" that you are basing your assertion on, well, what can I say. Here's some more reading for ya.



Published on Sunday, July 1, 2001 in the Observer of London
Plan Colombia
British Chemical Company ICI Pulls Out of Cocaine War
by Antony Barnett and Solomon Hughes

ICI has pulled out of the controversial US project to spray vast areas of Colombia with herbicides in an attempt to eradicate its cocaine and heroin trade.

The British chemicals company's decision, which came after an Observer investigation revealed its involvement, will be a major embarrassment to the US government and will dent the credibility of the plan.

ICI does not want its name dragged into such a program, particularly as there have been reports of children in Colombia who have inhaled the chemicals falling ill.

>snip

In January, the US State Department claimed the only chemical used in the aerial eradication is glyphosate. This pesticide, commonly known as 'Round Up', is made by the biotech corporation Monsanto.

However, the department was forced to admit it was mixing the glyphosate in an untested brew with another chemical called Cosmo Flux, a sticky soap-like substance which helps the pesticides stick to the leaves of plants. One of its key ingredients is made by ICI.

more:http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0701-02.htm

[IndianaGreen]

38. Speaking of pesticides used by the US in its "drug" war and Monsanto

there is an eerie resemblance between Monsanto and IG Farben and their pesticides glyphosate and Zyklon-B. As all students of history know, the pesticide Zyklon-B was the gas used to murder millions of Jews by the Germans.

There is a common thread of profit-driven amoral behaviour by corporations, American and German alike, that profit from the destruction their products bring to humanity.

[Pavulon]

43. Umm no

Roundup MSDS is a little less scary than cyanide gas.. Closer to table salt.

Dramatic post though. I stop when nazi comparisons are made..

11. TOXICOLOGICAL INFORMATION

This section is intended for use by toxicologists and other health professionals. Data obtained on product or on similar products are summarized below. Data obtained on active ingredient are summarized below.

Acute oral toxicity
Rat, LD50 (limit test): > 5,000 mg/kg body weight
Other effects: breathing difficulty, decreased activity, soft stools
Practically non-toxic.
FIFRA category IV.
No mortality.

Acute dermal toxicity
Rat, LD50 (limit test): > 5,000 mg/kg body weight
Target organs/systems : None.
Other effects: None.
Practically non-toxic.
FIFRA category IV.
No mortality.

Acute inhalation toxicity
Rat, LC50, 4 hours, aerosol: 2.6 mg/L
Target organs/systems : None.
Other effects: breathing difficulty, decreased activity, local effects
Practically non-toxic.
FIFRA category IV.

Skin irritation
Rabbit 6 animals, OECD 404 test
Days to heal: 1
Primary Irritation Index (PII): 0.4/8.0
Other effects: None.
Essentially non irritating.
FIFRA category IV.

Eye irritation
Rabbit 6 animals , OECD 405 test
Days to heal: 10
Moderate irritation.
FIFRA category II.

Skin sensitization
Guinea pig, Buehler test Positive incidence: 0 %

EXPERIENCE WITH HUMAN EXPOSURE
Ingestion, short term. case report(s):
Gastro-intestinal effects: irritation, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea

Ingestion, short term:
Respiratory effects: increased fluid in lungs (lung/pulmonary oedema)
Cardiovascular effects: decreased blood pressure (hypotension)

Similar formulation

Acute oral toxicity

Rat, LD50: 5,000 mg/kg body weight
Slightly toxic. FIFRA category III.

Acute dermal toxicity

Rabbit LD50 (limit test): > 5,000 mg/kg body weight
Practically non-toxic. FIFRA category IV. No mortality.
Skin irritation

Rabbit 6 animals, OECD 404 test
Days to heal: 3
Primary Irritation Index (PII): 1.0/8.0
Slight irritation.
FIFRA category IV.

Eye irritation
Rabbit 6 animals , OECD 405 test
Days to heal: > 21
Other effects: pannus, tissue destruction in eye (necrosis of conjunctivae)
Severe irritation. FIFRA category I.

Acute inhalation toxicity

Rat, LC50, 4 hours, aerosol: 3.28 mg/L
Practically non-toxic.
FIFRA category IV.
Skin sensitization
Guinea pig, 9-induction Buehler test
Positive incidence: 0 "/o

EXPERIENCE WITH HUMAN EXPOSURE
Ingestion, excessive, intentional misuse:
Respiratory effects: pneumonitis (aspiration)
Gastro-intestinal effects: nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloody vomiting (haematemesis)
Cardiovascular effects: abnormal heart rhythm (cardiac dysrhythmia), decreased heart output (myocardial depression)
General/systemic effects: disturbances of fluid and electrolyte regulation, abnormally decreased blood volume (hypovolaemia), elevated serum amylase, fluid loss (haemoconcentration), no cholinesterase inhibition
Laboratory effects -blood chemistry: elevated serum transaminases, mild acidosis
Eve contact short term. epidemiological:
Note: No cases of irreversible eye effects could be attributed to glyphosate formulations in an extensive epidemiological survey of reported accidental eye contact with these formulations.

[SOS]

25. "If they ask the DEA to leave they will."

That's a safe assumption.

"At an April 8, 1989 blockade, CAPC leader Evo Morales, who had
recently travelled to Europe to develop legal markets for coca
leaf (in teas and other products), was attacked by UMOPAR troops,
beaten, slashed with a machete and shot in the leg with rubber
bullets. The troops then dragged him away by his hair,
semi-conscious, and staged a photo of him holding explosives,
according to witnesses.
A week later, UMOPAR troops with helicopters, backed up by a
DEA force, attacked another cocalero blockade, arresting 100,
wounding 24, and killing four. Autopsies revealed that the four
had been shot in the back from the air."

[sweetheart]

24. the drugs war against poor people

THe absurdity of waging war on a series of plants is the white man's burden these days it seems.

The american drugs nazis are off the reservation in their comprehension of civil liberties, as if
by survieling everyone for the drugs users, then they will root out the poison, because they are
terrorized by their own delusions about what they don't know about drugs. Drugs are simple.
Don't use them if you don't want to... Morales sounds like he's speaking common sense, a plain
honest man, a plain honest speaker... the most threatening force indeed to
a bunch of liars and fraudsters wearing fake cowboyhats, cowboy boots investing their loot
from their raids on wall street in times of olde... hmmm.. who to trust, an honest man
of the people for whom che guevara would be a friend and role model, or a bunch of mass-
murdering war criminals.

In any case, your post captures in the sentence about "wouldn't you think those people were pretty much.."
very well explained... something not seen in print enough. On the cutting edge, the
drugs war is nothing but state terrorism.

[Flanker]

8. Then research it

I don't see how if you have not heard of them does not mean that it never happened, as for petro dollars Bolivia does not export petroleum to the United States.

[Pavulon]

9. They export NG I believe.(nt)

[BrotherBuzz]

22. How does landlocked Bolivia export Natural Gas?

Is there a secret pipeline through Ecuador I don't know about?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3535644.stm

[IndianaGreen]

39. Bolivia-Argentina and Bolivia-Brazil natural gas pipelines

You can read about this here:

http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/20604/Southern_cone_final.pdf

This is from a paper presented at the, get this: the Energy Forum at the James A. Baker
III Institute for Public Policy

And from ENRON:

Bolivia

The Bolivia-to-Brazil pipeline - a 3,000 km Bolivia-to-Brazil natural gas pipeline is one of the largest gas projects ever undertaken in South America. With a capacity of 30 MMcm/d, the pipeline system stretches from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia to Porto Allegre, Brazil.

http://www.enron.com/corp/pressroom/factsheets/egs/egsi.html

BTW, Rumsfeld visited US troops in Paraguay in 2005 and made threats to Bolivia if Evo were to be elected. The American troops are across the border from Bolivia's rich natural gas region.

[BrotherBuzz]

41. LOL, info overload! - Thanks

The best I can figure out from all this is that Bolivian gas reserves are not being exported extensively and are ripe for exploitation - and that's the game that's afoot. What with the new president in Bolivia, and all, bets are off the table for the moment while new rules are drawn up. In the meantime, we need to keep a jaundiced eye on Rummy's secret operations in Paraguay.

Here's a very interesting read on what Rumsfeld has been doing in Paraguay, and it begs a lot of questions:

Dark Armies, Secret Bases, and Rummy

by Conn Hallinan


November 24, 2005


It would be easy to make fun of President Bush's recent fiasco at the 4th Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. His grand plan for a free trade zone reaching from the Artic Circle to Tierra del Fuego was soundly rejected by nations fed up with the economic and social chaos wrought by neoliberalism. At a press conference, South American journalists asked him rude questions about Karl Rove. And the President ended the whole debacle by uttering what may be the most trenchant observation the man has ever made on Latin America: “Wow! Brazil is big!”

But there is nothing amusing about an enormous U.S. base less than 120 miles from the Bolivian border, or the explosive growth of U.S.-financed mercenary armies that are doing everything from training the military in Paraguay and Ecuador to calling in air attacks against guerillas in Colombia. Indeed, it is feeling a little like the run up to the ‘60s and ‘70s, when Washington-sponsored military dictatorships dominated most of the continent, and dark armies ruled the night.

U.S. Special Forces began arriving this past summer at Paraguay's Mariscal Estigarribia air base, a sprawling complex built in 1982 during the reign of dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Argentinean journalists who got a peek at the place say the airfield can handle B-52 bombers and Galaxy C-5 cargo planes. It also has a huge radar system, vast hangers, and can house up to 16,000 troops. The air base is larger than the international airport at the capital city, Asuncion .

Some 500 special forces arrived July 1 for a three-month counterterrorism training exercise, code named Operation Commando Force 6.

<snip>

Would the United States try to destabilize Bolivia's economy while training people how to use military force to insure Enron, Shell, British Gas, Total, Repsol, and the United States continues to get Bolivian gas for pennies on the dollar? Quite likely.

<more>


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HAL20051124&articleId=1322

[Judi Lynn]

45. Thanks for the pipeline info. Bolivia sure would like its coastline back!

Thanks for mentioning the Rumsfeld threats targeting Evo Morales. What a shame such defects ever found a way to worm themselves into positions of power.

[Clara T]

10. Morales, Chavez and others only appear ultra left

in the context of how wildly to the right the entire framework for politics is in the US. Chavez and Morales are in fact only moderately left of what is called the center, if you need those categories.

If restoring some of the common wealth to the commoners is wildly left then we should all swing so wildly to the left.

[Pavulon]

11. I use Germany and France

as a model for nations with effective social programs. They do not nationalize. That is socialist state run industry. Even china is moving away from this model. It is regressive. Little left for me.

But to each his own.

[Clara T]

16. Germay and France are imperialist colonizing examples

sounds like using the thieves as the example. Very Eurocentric ideologies.

Germany and France both have terrible economic realities and inequities and their social programs are deteriorating rapidly. Why the riots in France? I won't go into on this thread but it is easy enough to research.

These so-called effective social programs, while far better than ours, are only effective when compared to ours which isn't saying much.

[Pavulon]

26. Yeah

Modern germany is busy imperializing away.

The state run socio economic programs that provide for all their citizens and allow free trade (germany isn't nationalizing foreign assets), free movement of people and ideas is where I prefer to be. These countries pay for their programs with capitalist dollars. Dollars drive advances in the medical community. Nuclear medicine, imagery, trauma care, and other fields that are innovating aren't doing so for free or because the state says to do it. The socialist state is not a democratic party ideal and never has been.

Use switzerland or finland if you don't like the examples listed.

Ultra left socialist state run economies fail. There is not one economic power that is moving toward that model. China is moving away from state control of markets.

I would prefer to be sick in western europe or the us than south america. When I travel there I pay for evac insurance. Sane people do.

You going to get a pet scan and cancer care in a 3rd world country, get real. You are going to die with minimal supporting treatment, if you are lucky.
Neurosurgery or micro surgery to repair vessels damaged by trauma or disease. Sorry. Maybe with enough petro dollars they can afford to build a modern medical system but they are no where near it now.

[NorthernSpy]

28. hello? those "3rd world countries" with no medical care...

... are mostly under-regulated, unbuffered market economies! These failing capitalist economies simply aren't the supposed "ultra left socialist state run economies" that you've been trying to rant about.

Funny that you haven't noticed that yet...

[Pavulon]

29. Poor management

of a market economy does not lend credence to the virtues of socialism(communism). Those countries have major issues with corruption and have for decades under all types of government. All they are doing is changing the cut the government takes from industry.

I never said Bolivia was socialist, just that they elected a socialist. If Venezuela turns into a leftist soviet style nation it does not effect me. I doubt that is in the best interest of the people who live there but that is just a guess. all the piggies are equal just some more equal than others..

A socialist revolution in Bolivia not going to make a difference to most people over time. They are still an underdeveloped nation.

Doesn't get democrats elected in 06.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

30. OH MY GOD THE COMMIES ARE COMING!!!! Quickly everyone

hide your kids.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Apparently the occassional poster will prove he doesn't stay informed,

by posting complete drool. I only have time to drop off a little information, but it should help. Active DU'ers already know very well how often and bitterly the _Bush administration, dating back to the days of Collin Powell, hurled insinuations and threats in Evo Morales direction. We discussed it here long ago.

Here's a quick google grab which may or may not help throw some light. I didn't have time to read all of it, unfortunately, as I'm in a rush:

~snip~
As they have with Chavez, the United States government and its lapdogs in the mainstream media have vilified Morales. Morales and Chavez are both portrayed as "threats" to the United States and have been characterized as "enemies". It is mind-boggling that the leaders of the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of humanity can view these men or their tiny nations (neither of which have the military might to overpower the state of Rhode Island) as legitimate threats. Is the US power elite suffering from delusional paranoia? Actually, their fears are well-founded, but one needs to analyze the situation a bit more closely to discern the root cause of their trepidations.
(snip)

Juan Evo Morales Ayma was born in 1959 in Orinco to a family of indigenous Quechuans, but moved to Chapare province in the 1980's to cultivate coca leaf. Growing coca leaf is a practice dating back to the Incan Empire. While the Indigenous people of Bolivia, who comprise over 50% of the population, chew coca leaves to ease hunger and make folk medicines, coca leaf is also the primary ingredient in cocaine. As part of its "War on Drugs", the United States began a program in the 1990's to eradicate coca production. In 1998, Plan Dignity, a barbaric and violent US-sponsored effort, resulted in the elimination of nearly 80% of coca production and left the campesinos in Bolivia with no economically viable alternative crops to cultivate. Supplied and supported by the United States, the Expeditionary Task Force, a paramilitary unit which the locals called "America's Mercenaries", reportedly engaged in violence and murder. Just imagine if Canada financed paramilitary forces in the United States which wiped out 80% of the production of Sudafed and Iodine because they are used in the manufacture of crystal meth. How long would Americans stand for that?

In response to the intrusive, oppressive policies of the United States and its puppet Bolivian president, Hugo Banzer, Evo Morales emerged as a leader of the Cocaleros, an opposition movement comprised primarily of coca growers. His support in Chapare and Carrasco de Cochabamba was strong enough that he was elected to the national Congress in Bolivia in 1997 by the widest margin amongst the 68 Congresspeople who won in that election.
(snip/...)

http://www.counterbias.com/471.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Coca Grower Killed in Bolivia

Andean Information Network
February 7th, 2002

January 30, 2002 -- At approximately 5:15 p.m. yesterday, January 29, an Expeditionary Task Force patrol dispersed a group of coca growers attempting to block the Cochabamba-Santa Cruz highway in Shinahota. According to eyewitness testimony, members of the forces shot directly at a group of farmers on a market road perpendicular to the highway.

The forces shot Marcos Ortiz Llanos (34 years old) in the left side. The bullet exited his right side, apparently passing through his heart and remained lodged in his right arm. He died soon afterwards in the Villa Tunari Hospital. The forensic specialist of the Justice and Human rights Center is performing the autopsy at this time and will issue the corresponding medical certificate.

Multiple eyewitness testimonies state that Cnl. Aurelio Burgos Blacutt (School of the Americas Graduate, 1974) aimed and fired directly at Ortiz. Burgos is easily identifiable because he is missing his left forearm.

Several other people were wounded in the incident. Members of the Expeditionary Task Force continued to beat coca growers with nightsticks and kick them after the shootings.

On December 6, 2001 a member of the Expeditionary Task Force, Juan Eladio Bora, shot and killed Chimore Union Leader, Casimiro Huanca, during a peaceful protest. Another member of the Force shot Fructuoso Herbas, who had to have his leg amputated above the knee as a result.

This irregular mercenary force receives salaries from the Narcotic Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy and has been credibly implicated in a significant portion of the human rights violations committed during the last five months in the Chapare region. Off the record, security force commanders told AIN that clearly the Expeditionary Task Force let things "get out of hand" last year.
(snip/...)

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=1753

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dark Armies, Secret Bases, and Rummy

by Conn Hallinan
~snip~
The Movement Toward Socialism's presidential candidate Evo Morales, a Quechuan Indian and trade union leader who is running first in the polls, wants to renationalize the deposits. Polls indicate that 75% of Bolivians agree with him.

Failed States and Intervention But the present political crisis over upcoming elections Dec. 18, and disagreements on how to redistribute seats in the legislature, has the United States muttering dark threats about “failed states.”

U.S. General Bantz J. Craddock, commander of Southern Command, told the House Armed Services Committee: “In Bolivia , Ecuador , and Peru , distrust and loss of faith in failed institutions fuel the emergence of anti-U.S., anti-globalization, and anti-free trade demagogues.”

Bolivia has been placed on the National Intelligence Council's list of 25 countries where the United States will consider intervening in case of “instability.”
(snip/...)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HAL20051124&articleId=1322

[Pavulon]

14. Goes back to Jimmy Carter

Cocaine has ruled relation since Carter was in office. An anti us candidate is in the interest of me how? Voting democrat does not mean I support ultra left anti-capitalists.

"The worst enemy of humanity is capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that the national states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated." Evo..


Just my 2 cents.

[Judi Lynn]

19. No, it goes back to Nixon. Just my 2 cents.

CIA protection
of drug pipelines
-
Narco-colonialism
in the 20th Century

Narco-Colonialism. Bolivia:

~snip~
But there's one last CIA intervention that did involve drug lords and narco-militarists, and that was in Bolivia (this particular page in history was documented in the book "The Great White Lie," by ex-DEA agent Michael Levine).

The CIA already had a history of intervening in Bolivia against socialists and Catholic church workers with reformist leanings during the 1960's and 1970's. In 1980, the DEA uncovered CIA and Argentinian collusion with a coup d'tat by the cocaine barons. In what came to be known as the Bolivian "Cocaine Coup", the CIA and Argentinian government backed the cocaine barons in their 1980 overthrow of the Bolivian government. (Note that the rationale for CIA support of this coup d' tat was similar to the CIA's intervention in Chile eight years earlier)

In 1980, we had a Socialist Bolivian government which, having strong anti-drug policies, was a natural enemy of the cocaine barons. The Bolivian cocaine underworld would be a certain foe to any government that enforced any anti-narcotics law, making the Bolivian drug lords the ideal proxies to support in a Bolivian coup d'tat.

As the drug barons wanted to further expand their cartel, and the CIA and Argentinian government wanted to suppress socialism in South America, an alliance was formed against the legitimate Bolivan government. At that point, the fall of the Bolivan government to narco-fascism was inevitable: Allied with the Argentinian military the Bolivian cocaine barons were able to muster logistical support and organize a coup d'tat that brought Bolivia under their control.

The result: A narco-fascist government.
(snip/...)

http://ciadrugs.homestead.com/files/analysis.html

[Clara T]

20. Focus should be on the grinding poverty

High in the Andes

The standard U.S. view portrays Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia as nations terrorized by powerful drug-trafficking cartels, often working in alliance with left-wing guerrillas. According to this view, the hard-pressed Andean governments may need U.S. support in order to protect their populations and prevail against the narco-terrorists. This standard view is almost totally incorrect.

The real problem facing the people of these countries is grueling poverty caused by the astounding greed of local elites and the grim workings of the international economic system, maintained by equally greedy elites in the industrialized nations.

In Bolivia in the first half of the 1980s, gross national product declined 2.3 percent per year, official unemployment went from 5.7 percent to 20 percent, and inflation stood at 10,000 percent in 1985. The world price of tin declined 57 percent between 1980 and 1988; over the five-year period 1983-87, Bolivian exports shrank 38 percent. The government closed most state-owned tin mines, throwing thousands of miners out of work.' More than one out of every six Bolivian children die before their fifth birthday.'

<snip>

For the Bush administration, fighting drug wars represents a way to appear to be dealing with a problem that is wracking American society- without having to admit the ugly truth, that drug abuse is not forced on the United States from the outside, but is the result of lives made desperate by the poverty, the unemployment, and the alienation of American society.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Foreign_Policy/Drugs_IA.html

[Solon]

21. What about that quote is incorrect by both experience and fact?

I don't see where there is to be an objection to an OBSERVATION of the results of Neo-Liberal Free Trade policies. If he's anti-capitalist, count me in to, all you need to do to become one is look at those "Free Trade Zones" set up in many Latin American countries, let me tell you, you would be shocked. Not to mention Guam, but for some reason, Americans are blind to what happens on American soil, as long as migrants are the ones who suffer.

[Judi Lynn]

23. More on that US cocaine interest in Bolivia going back as far as Nixon:

Bolivia, the Drug War, and a Leaf
Two years ago, Gary Payne and his son Sayer traveled to Colombia to investigate the impact of the U.S.-led drug war there. Shocked by their discoveries, they traveled to Bolivia this summer to continue investigating drug eradication efforts and to seek the views of Bolivians. This report covers the findings of their 1800 kilometer writer-photographer journey.

By Gary Payne
October 2, 2003

In the narrow cobbled streets of old La Paz, Bolivia, stands the Museo de la Coca (Coca Museum). In it, an ancient clay mask dates from before the birth of Christ. A telltale coca bulge along the lower jaw of the mask shows that the artist’s subject—real or imagined—had a cheek full. The message is clear: everyday use of the coca leaf in Bolivia is a tradition as old as the roots of its civilization.

Bolivians do not view coca, in its natural leaf form, as unhealthy or criminogenic. Its effect is only mildly stronger and more entertaining than one might experience from strong coffee. We noted in our travels that the coca leaf is offered as a gift, hoarded by healers, employed by the poor to curb hunger, and even substituted for coins to make change in rural areas. From the perspective of a visiting American, the Bolivian people are responsible and conservative in their use of it. They do not seek to abuse coca by using the refined extract.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. government’s demand for the total eradication of Bolivian coca crops met with more than a little resistance there. Most Bolivians do not find it in their interest to eradicate one of their traditional pleasures in order to please a foreign government.

Moreover, the U.S. eradication policy had a tarnished beginning. According to Museo de la Coca, the plan to eradicate coca was originally hatched in a 1971 meeting of then U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Nixon administration, and then unelected Bolivian leader Hugo Banzer, previously a trainee at the infamous School of the Americas. Both men have been widely accused of substantial human rights violations.
(snip/...)

http://www.americas.org/item_20



Hugo Banzer of Bolivia and Augusto Pinochet of Chile, both Nixon-approved
right-wing dictators.

Chilean human rights lawyers, many of whom also represent victims in the Caravan of Death case, have filed a criminal case against Henry Kissinger, Augusto Pinochet, former Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer, former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, former Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner, and several other US, Chilean, and Argentine officials for their role in Operation Condor.

Operation Condor was the campaign of terror that united the security forces of South American dictatorships to exchange intelligence and carry out joint operations against "subversives," including international assassinations. Recently declassified documents have shown that the US was aware of Operation Condor from its inception, and at least one document suggests that a US military base in Panama may have served as a communications center for Condor operatives.
(snip/...)

http://www.tni.org/pin-watch/watch37.htm

[Minstrel Boy]

27. Ever heard of the "Cocaine coup"?

From my blog:

As Evo Morales begins to exercise his unambiguous mandate, it will be interesting, and quite likely disheartening, to watch how Bolivia suddenly becomes a topic of great concern in certain quarters; even possibly a crisis of national security demanding intervention.

Here's an early example from Jim Kouri, a Vice President of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, who's written an opinion piece entitled "Bolivian Thug Becomes President." He predictably bloviates that the win "will increase the destabilization of the South American continent," and that Morales is an "ally of the drug cartels and traffickers."

The continent enjoys far greater stability today - and in the mental health sense of the word, too - than in the days of death's head satraps employing the methods of the School of the Americas and answerable to none but Washington. And in an interview with Luis Gómez of Narco News, former Bolivian guerrilla leader and presidential candidate Felipe Quispe makes distinctions between coca and cocaine that undoubtedly would be lost on Kouri:

Coca has been, ancestrally, a sacred leaf. We, the indigenous, have had a profound respect toward it... a respect that includes that we don't "pisar" it (the verb "pisar" means to treat the leaves with a chemical substance, one of the first steps in the production of cocaine). In general, we only use it to acullicar: We chew it during times of war, during ritual ceremonies to salute Mother Earth (the Pachamama) or Father Sun or other Aymara divinities, like the hills. Thus, as an indigenous nation, we have never prostituted Mama Coca or done anything artificial to it because it is a mother. It is the occidentals who have prostituted it. It is they who made it into a drug. This doesn't mean that we don't understand the issue. We know that this plague threatens all of humanity and, from that perspective, we believe that those who have prostituted the coca have to be punished.

Kouri walks his readers right up to "regime change": "should Morales's coca policy show an increase of cocaine on US city streets, his regime will be seen as a national security threat and rightly so."

Funny, that. Or rather, like so many things these days, it would be funny if it didn't mean people's lives. Because on July 17, 1980, "los Novios de la Muerte" - narcotics traffickers and mercenaries recruited by fugitive Nazi and CIA asset Klaus Barbie - overthrew the democratic government of Bolivia in the "Cocaine Coup." Cocaine production increased dramatically and America was flooded with the cheap drug. In his essay on the drug war's shills in Kristina Borjesson's Into the Buzzsaw, 25-year DEA veteran Michael Levine writes that "there are few events in history that have caused more and longer-lasting damage to our nation." Bolivians could say the same.

Levine made headlines two months prior to the coup when his DEA sting netted Bolivian cartel leaders Roberto Gasser and Alfredo Gutierrez outside a Miami bank. He had paid them $8 million for the then-largest ever seizure of cocaine. Just a few weeks later Gasser and Gutierrez were released, thanks to pressure from the CIA and the State Department, and weeks after that both men and their cartels became principal financiers of the coup, and were rewarded by the new regime with squads of neo-Nazis to bully their competition.

And then there's Sun Myung Moon. Robert Parry remembers that one of the first international well-wishers who travelled to La Paz to congratulate the putschists was Moon's right hand Bo Hi Pak, former publisher of The Washington Times and "Koreagate" principal, who declared "I have erected a throne for Father Moon in the world's highest city." Later disclosures from the Bolivian government strongly suggested that Moon's organization had heavily invested in the coup, and Parry writes that in 1981 "war criminal Barbie and Moon leader Thomas Ward were often seen together in apparent prayer." Lt. Alfred Mario Mingolla, an Argentine intelligence officer recruited by Barbie, described Ward as his "CIA paymaster." His monthly salary was drawn from the offices of Moon's anti-communist umbrella organization, CAUSA. (As we've seen, Moon still has a huge stake in South America, having purchased the land above the world's largest fresh water aquifer, in Paraguay. These people play a long game.)

"Meanwhile," Parry adds, "Barbie started a secret lodge, called Thule. During meetings, he lectured to his followers underneath swastikas by candlelight." Old habits, hardly dying, and a polyglot web of fascist patrons unashamed to profit by the labours of their Nazi lieutenants.

And here's another would-be funny thing: there were no American headlines about all of that. None at all.

But maybe that's enough talk for now about a coup, while there's a revolution going on.

[Judi Lynn]

47. Great post. It's so good to see that material being shared here.

Latin America has been on a news blackout, basically, for decades. How much information have we ever really been given in our media concerning the other countries right here in our own hemisphere.

Why is it more people have never even been remotely curious? A nation of too many _{George Bushes,} no doubt. With such gross widespread indifference, and ignorance, it has been super easy for our MEpublican presidents to lay waste to hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans through arming, training, funding, directing their dictators. Pity.

Information can get around so much faster now, and I'm so glad for the INTERNETS. Maybe some people will become awakened in spite of themselves.

[NorthernSpy]

31. if Evo Morales is "anti-US", does that make you "anti-Bolivia"?

An anti us candidate is in the interest of me how? Voting democrat does not mean I support ultra left anti-capitalists.

Oh, sure. If Bolivians would rather not allow outsiders to dictate Bolivian policy, then clearly they hate America, and it's time for us to get our noses all out of joint yet again -- and start dreaming up some appropriate "retaliation".

:eyes:

You wanna know what's in your interest as an American? Learn how to mind your own goddamn business! It's no skin off your ass if Bolivians decide that they want to use their country's natural resources to improve the lives of poor and working class Bolivians. And believe it or not, they really don't need your permission to run their country as they see fit.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

32. You need to stop with all your logic and common sense and shit. n/t

[Pavulon]

34. This is a discussion

that is for entertainment. It makes me nothing. If bolivia becomes a great and powerful economy and its employment goes up great. It it turns into north korea and the world gets another "dear leader" it does not really effect ME at all.

I could give a shit about the drug war, hugo chavez, or any other silly distraction issues. These guys are of no importance to any real issues that get democrats elected and improves the lives if AMERICAN working class people. They are circus acts that distract from real issues.

Ultra anything states are fucked up. religious, left, right, whatever ultra usually means bad things happen to the people who live there. That is the end of my concern. Since I am not a deputy director of the CIA or part of the Military industrial complex my thoughts on this topic are pretty meaningless, as are yours. Unless you happen to hold a position of power in the government that allows you to actually influence events. No, then we are having a coffee shop conversation.

[Clara T]

35. It's all connected

US military build-up in Colombia e.g. means looting of US National Treasury for the National Security State.

Does one capitulate or dissent?

Yes we are powerless for the most part but hopefully those who speak out against these groos injustices on this board and in the coffeehouses get out in public fora. Many do.

"We Americans love our freedom; apparently though the freedom to revel in acts of mass murder ranks high upon our list of national pleasures. Nothing new and surprising here, folks: From Wounded Knee to Fallujah, genocide has always been our favorite blood sport. As proof of this, one simply needs to consider the impressive body count of Iraqis that we've rung-up in only two short years of our freedom fructifying crusade in their country. No need for a congressional hearing into this matter: We've rung up the high score without any steroid enhancement."
-Phil Rockstroh

[Pavulon]

36. They got to personal

addressing me like I have some ability to influence events is a little off. This is basically a coffee house where I can sit barefooted and smoke without pissing people off.

I agree it is a great forum. However tolerating others beliefs and even presenting your own is a fair thing. I admit when I am wrong, am polite, and enjoy talking about the news.

I really can't think of one thing in colombia we can gain by force that can not be bought. Does it piss off chavez, sure. Does that matter in the long run, no.

Everything changes, when the power changes hands back to democrats there will be issues that are meaningful, like the war, and those that are not. Like Bolivian politics.

As for your quote, I disagree, but am very happy you are able to express it without fear of retaliation.

[Clara T]

46. "...can't think of one thing in colombia we can gain by force..."

Who's "we"? Don't include me in the "we". Other people and world's are not to be used for "our" benefit. Sounds like American exceptionalism and provides a wonderful rationale for wholesale slaughter of other, mostly brown-skinned, people.

Of course it matters in the short and long run.

As for everything changing... "when the power changes..." this too is a myth, the US national security state has run straight through numerous adminstrations.

What part of the quote do you disagree with? Any historical references to counter this quote?

[Minstrel Boy]

37. "This is a discussion that is for entertainment"

I'm sorry you feel that way.

What you call "silly distraction issues" mean much more than that to those of us who come here for something else.

[Judi Lynn]

48. Sad to discover the occassional idiot who does believe it's his

party's President who is entitled to meddle in every country's internal affairs. MEpublican Presidents have very little to offer the world, and life. Not fit to lead. They only achieve power through dirty, dirty tricks, fearmongering, lies, and dirty election theft.

From an article posted by I.G. in another thread, by Harold Pinter:

Direct invasion of a sovereign state has never in fact been America's favoured method. In the main, it has preferred what it has described as 'low intensity conflict'. Low intensity conflict means that thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a bomb on them in one fell swoop. It means that you infect the heart of the country, that you establish a malignant growth and watch the gangrene bloom. When the populace has been subdued – or beaten to death – the same thing – and your own friends, the military and the great corporations, sit comfortably in power, you go before the camera and say that democracy has prevailed. This was a commonplace in US foreign policy in the years to which I refer.
(snip)



A Pope's funeral can be a super
place to practise pResidential love.

[killbotfactory]

40. So are the plans to "privatize" rain water completely off the table now?

that was Bolivia, right?

[Judi Lynn]

42. Absolutely right. It's something you'd NEVER expect to hear.

You just wouldn't think people could get that greedy, but leave it to a company connected to the elder _Bush to try to pull it off:

World Bank’s ICSID to Hear Case on Bolivia Water Privatization
Bechtel Corp Suing for $25 million in Lost Profits After People Revolt
by Malcolm Seymour
50 Years Is Enough Network legal intern
More and more people are learning, through experience or through burgeoning campaigns, about the inhumanity of water privatization campaigns in the Global South. The story, re-enacted across the world, never loses its sting: the IMF and World Bank pressure governments to sell off publicly-run water systems; for-profit corporations from the North step in; within weeks, water bills skyrocket to unaffordable levels.

A new phenomenon has started pushing across the horizon, bringing hope to those who feared that water commodification had become the bleak, inevitable future of the developing world. Civic demonstrations in countries like Bolivia, Argentina, South Africa and Ecuador have succeeded in chasing corporations away from public water.

But these protests have come at significant costs. In Bolivia, the government responded to protests against an agreement which went so far as to privatize rainwater in the province of Cochabamba with brute force and a martial lockdown. In the ensuing bedlam, a 17-year-old boy was killed when police catapulted a tear gas canister into his head. Bechtel, the company which had secured the contract for the privatization, finally chose to withdraw in the face of such strong opposition.

To add insult to injury, Bechtel, which had hiked water rates an average of 50% virtually overnight, sued the Bolivian government for $25 million -- a figure far greater than what they invested. Following a principle becoming more common in the age of “free-trade” treaties, they sued for the projected profits they would now not realize.
(snip/...)

http://www.50years.org/cms/ejn/story/85

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~