Bolivian region rejects US anti-drug aid in favor of Venezuelan aid

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Herald Tribune/Associated Press

Bolivian region rejects US anti-drug aid in favor of Venezuelan aid
The Associated Press
Published: June 25, 2008

LA PAZ, Bolivia: Coca growers in Bolivia's Chapare province said Wednesday that they will suspend projects financed by the U.S. government aid agency and instead seek funding from Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez.

Leaders in the key coca-growing region accused the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, of using its aid to undermine leftist President Evo Morales, who rose to prominence as leader of the coca growers union.

"We want USAID to go. If USAID leaves, we will have aid from Venezuela, which is unconditioned and in solidarity," Chapare coca leader Julio Salazar told The Associated Press by telephone. Venezuela already is a major financial backer of Bolivia.

USAID gave US$87 million in aid to Bolivia in 2007, including US$11.9 million to Chapare, mostly for road building and projects to help farmers to grow alternatives to coca.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/25/america/LA-GEN-Bolivia-US-Aid.php

[High Plains]

1. Very interesting. Chavez was already providing financing for...

coca-related industries. How to win friends and influence people.

[ret5hd]

3. Please, regale us with your evidence.

[EFerrari]

9. The CIA is probably hating him right now.

lol

[Tempest]

14. I call BULLSHIT

And until you can provide verifible evidence of this so-called financing, that's all your post is.

[High Plains]

22. Ahem. See below.

[Tempest]

27. Would you care to clarify?

You claimed Chavez was "providing financing for coca-related industries", implying he was making direct financing.

Which is not the case at all.

Was that your intention?

[High Plains]

29. See post #17 below. On edit: I assume you already have.

So what is it you don't understand? I provided two links that say exactly what I said above.

[fascisthunter]

15. have a link to a reliable unbiased source?

I seriously doubt your claim.

[High Plains]

17. Oh, ye skeptics. Here you go:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0527-04.htm

Published on Saturday, May 27, 2006 by Reuters
Chavez Spreads His Oil Wealth in Bolivia
by Helen Popper

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pledged $1.5 billion in energy investments in impoverished Bolivia on Friday, receiving a hero's welcome from coca farmers who applauded his anti-U.S. message.

<snip>
COCA A KEY ISSUE

The choice of Bolivia's tropical Chapare region for the start of the Venezuelan president's visit was symbolic.

Support for Morales is strong in Chapare, where for years he grew coca and led sometimes violent protests against U.S.-funded coca eradication programs. Coca is the main ingredient for cocaine but is also traditionally grown to make tea and for medicinal purposes.

Venezuela plans to aid Bolivia in creating jobs by funding projects to produce organic tea, coffee, dairy and legal coca products. Chavez also donated computers to schools in Chapare.

"Our three nations are talking about industrializing the coca leaf," Morales said, referring to Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela. "We want to tell the whole world coca is not cocaine and we're going to industrialize it for the good of humanity."

<snip>

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/bolivia/3969.html

Morales opens Chavez-funded coca factory

Reuters
June 17, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales visited a coca-growing region on Saturday to open a Venezuelan-funded factory where coca leaves will be made into legal products such as tea and soft drinks.
Morales rose in politics as the leader of Bolivia's coca farmers and part of his anti-drug policy is to encourage licit uses for coca -- the plant used to make cocaine, which is also revered by Andean peoples for its medicinal properties.

"Manufacturing coca (products) doesn't do any harm because coca isn't a drug," Morales told hundreds of coca farmers gathered in a stadium in the town of Irupana, in the Yungas region 85 miles from La Paz. The event was broadcast on state television.

Coca has been cultivated in the rolling green valleys of the Yungas for centuries and the region's coca crops are considered grown for traditional uses such as chewing or making tea to ward off hunger and altitude sickness.

The law allows 29,650 acres to be grown in the Yungas, although government and U.S. officials have expressed concern that cultivation is rising in the world's third-biggest cocaine producer.


<snip>

[High Plains]

18. Chavez funding coca products is a GOOD THING.

This is coca, not cocaine.

Coca bread, coca tea, coca gum, coca toothpaste....

The greater the market for coca products, the less leaf that ends up as cocaine.

[Hydra]

2. Just wait for calls for Bolivia to be invaded

:evilgrin:

Bush's finger probably itches to use the nuclear football every time Chavez gains new ground.

[lib2DaBone]

4. Bush's Democracy

They had better be careful or Black Helicopter Gunships will deliver "Democracy" to them shortly. Don't do drugs, the government doesn't like competition.

[DCKit]

7. It's the BFCE that doesn't like competition.

USAID, the World Bank and IMF are simply the loan sharks. Enforcement comes later, and at a much higher cost than in the movies.

[Wizard777]

5. Way to go Chavez!

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

6. Good--it will save us some money.

[Peace Patriot]

8. Coca leaves are a medicinal herb, full of vitamins and proteins, which the indigenous

chew, or brew as tea--it has a mild stimulant effect like coffee, but is much better for you--and they have done so for thousands of years, particularly to survive in the icy, high altitudes of the Andes. Cocaine is a highly processed drug that can destroy your life and even kill you. The two things are very different. But, of course, the brutal, murderous police state/military boondoggle, the U.S. "war on drugs," cannot distinguish between a medicinal herb and dangerous drug. It is the same with marijuana. Stupidity abounds where there is opportunity for fascist profit--in weapons, bullets, uniforms, boots, badges, helicopters, pesticides, high tech surveillance, prisons, prison guards, their uniformns, boots, badges & guns, tear gas, cs gas, tasers, court costs, lawyers' fees, and big gains in the fascist militarization of society--the excuse to invade peoples' privacy, and to bust the heads of the poor, and stick fingers up their asses and vaginas looking for drugs, and to treat people like shit, in a culture rife with guns and bad drugs--a Bushite paradise.

And the evil of the "war on drugs" doesn't stop there. The U.S./Bush Junta has larded $5.5 BILLION on the fascist thugs running Colombia--where they chainsaw union leaders and throw their body parts into mass graves. And this huge U.S. taxpayer expense is not just cover for rightwing paramilitary death squads; it is part of a Bushite war plan in South America. It has NOTHING to do with stopping illicit drug traffic--which has never been more prevalent and more lucrative. It is a plan to USE the Colombian military and associated paramilitaries (and mercenaries like Blackwater, which is active in Colombia) for aggression against Venezuela and Ecuador, where the oil is. And shots have already been fired in this second oil war--with the Colombia/U.S.-Bush bombing/raid against Ecuador in March--a test of war systems, using U.S. high tech surveillance and five to ten U.S. "smart bombs," and likely U.S. aircraft and personnel--the bombing/raid that killed the FARC chief hostage negotiator, Raul Reyes, and stopped all hostage releases by the FARC, as well as ending the talk of a possible peaceful settlement of Colombia's 40+ year civil war. Since they have unable to defeat democracy in South America, the Bushites are devising a war plan that involves their support, funding, organizing and probably arming of fascist separatist groups in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, who want to split off the oil rich provinces from the national (leftist) governments, and create fascist mini-states in control of the oil. The Bush Junta is reconstituting the 4th Fleet (a nuclear fleet), which will be roaming off the coast of Venezuela by midsummer--and the purpose of this fleet is probably for the U.S. "act swiftly"--as Donald Rumsfeld urged, in a WaPo op-ed in December--in support of "friends and allies" in South America. Ecuador wants the U.S. military out of their country. Paraguay (newly elected leftist president) wants the U.S. military out of their country as well. Bolivia is obviously sick to death of us--for several reasons, including the U.S./Bush collusion with the white racists who want to split off the eastern provinces (where the gas and oil are). Our bases, military maneuvers and all aid in these countries have been used--not only to favor cooperative cocaine and weapons traffickers (my opinion), and to drive peasant farmers off the land for Monsanto, et al--but for war preparations. That is why these countries want us gone. And that is why the 4th Fleet is needed.

I am so glad to hear of people fighting back against this horrible "war on drugs" policy. And it's wonderful to learn of a SANE drug policy that works for the benefit of society and not the destruction of society. And I'm glad to hear that Bolivia has another source of assistance to small farmers than the Bushites. If ever there was a country that is using its oil profits righteously, it is Venezuela! The South Americans are systematically disentangling themselves from all poisonous--indeed, lethal--ties to the U.S., including for instance, the World Bank/IMF and ruinous "free trade" (monopolistic trade) deals. They are an example to us on how to restore democracy and the sovereignty of the people.

[ima_sinnic]

10. I wish I could recommend your post--excellent

kicked and recommended

[Tatiana]

13. Great post, as always, Peace Patriot.

Coca leaves do have medicinal value. There is a paste that can be made with a coca leaf brew that I have used when out of the country to draw out infection from an insect bite.

The war on drugs is a farce. It is a war for "profit." I'm glad Bolivia is standing up for themselves.

I sincerely hope that we can repair our relationship with South America. It saddens me to no end how we have treated our neighbors to the south.

[LynnTheDem]

11. Very smart move, Bolivia.

Appears Bolivia prefers not to have their country run (and their citizens killed off) by the US regime.

That's very smart.

[Judi Lynn]

12. In Latin America, some leaders reject US drug war

In Latin America, some leaders reject US drug war
Published Date: June 25, 2008
By Alonso Soto

From Argentina to Nicaragua, Latin Americans have elected leftist leaders over the last decade who are challenging Washington's aggressive war on drugs in the world's top cocaine-producing region. These governments are shaking off US influence in the region and building defense and trade alliances that exclude the United States. Some now say they can better fight drugs without US help and are rejecting policies they do not like. The strongest resistance to US drug policies is in Ecuador and Bolivia, two co
ca-growing countries of the Andes, and in Venezuela. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, the son of a drug smuggler, has ordered parliament to pardon about 2,000 small-time couriers, one of a number of measures seen at odds with US policy.

I lived through this and these people are not criminals," the president said when an opposition lawmaker raised questions about his father's past. "They are single mothers or unemployed people who are desperate to feed their families." Among those likely to walk free in a mass pardon expected later this year is Nury Vivas, 33, who was caught with 150 grams of cocaine in her stomach as she stood in line to catch a flight to the United States. She is now serving six years in a run-down prison in Quito that
is packed with couriers picked up for smuggling cocaine to the United States and Europe. Vivas, who was earning $10 a day making candy in a gritty border town near Colombia, said she did it get out of debt. "We didn't know what to do with so much debt," she said. "We needed the money.

'Problem will always exist'
For Correa and other leaders, the plight of people like Vivas, coupled with stubbornly high smuggling rates, is proof of the failure of a drugs war focused on prison sentences and eradication of the coca crop, the raw material for making cocaine. They resent prescriptions handed down from Washington that they say cram courts and prisons with the poor without slowing demand for cocaine in US cities.

Washington seems to accept that Correa takes the fight against drugs seriously, noting recent billion-dollar drug hauls in Ecuador. But US officials say Venezuela gives drug traffickers safe haven and they also have questions about Bolivian plans to increase legal production of coca. Bolivian President Evo Morales, a former coca grower, has said crop eradication policies harm indigenous Andean people, who have legitimate reason to chew coca leaves for the mild stimulant effect that helps ward off hunger.

More:
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=ODc4MzYwMDU=

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/media/images/41555000/jpg/_41555854_condi-morales2_b203_ap.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/41/113870863_47c9481c9e.jpg http://netzoo.net.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/themes/akhdian/images/ricecoca.jpg

"Condoleezza Rice At the end of their 25-minute meeting, Bolivia's
President Evo Morales, presented the U.S. secretary of state with
an Andean guitar that bore a coca-leaf inlay."

[fascisthunter]

16. Why Would They Want to Trust the U.S.

This government of ours is a criminal enterprise owned by international corporations who have no integrity at all. You may as well shake the hands of Rumsfeld.... Saddam did. Look what wonders that did him.

[Judi Lynn]

19. You may recall Rumsfeld conspired with officers in the miltary to remove Bolivian missiles

prior to the Presidential election of Evo Morales, once they knew beyond any doubt he would win. Rumsfeld ALSO did this behind the back of the sitting Bolivian President, who was very angry in learning about it later.

The missiles were taken to a U.S. base in New Mexico.

Here's one article on the subject, a little "spun," of course:

US Denies Removal of Bolivian Missiles Was Secret
By David Gollust
Washington
23 December 2005


In-Depth Coverage The United States denied Thursday that it removed anti-aircraft missiles from Bolivia without the knowledge of top officials in La Paz. The State Department says the operation was at the request of Bolivian authorities and in line with an Organization of American States resolution.

Officials here acknowledge that the United States removed a small number of MANPADS, man-portable air defense system, from Bolivia earlier this year as part of a broader effort to keep the shoulder launch missiles out of the hands of terrorists.

But they are denying charges from Bolivia, which figured in that country's presidential election campaign, that the operation was conducted without the knowledge of senior Bolivian officials.

Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, the victor in last Sunday's election, has alleged that the 28 Chinese-made missiles were spirited out of the country in June in an operation he described as international intervention.

He says he will press for an investigation of the affair and is quoted as saying he would punish those responsible and evict U.S. military advisers from the country.

Questioned about the issue here, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. officials had worked with the Bolivian government on the removal of a small quantity of missiles he said were in a deteriorating condition.

He said the removal came at the request of the Bolivian government consistent with an O.A.S. resolution last June and said suggestions to the contrary are untrue:

"As for who was told in Bolivia about the action, you'll have to talk to the Bolivian government about that. As for these other allegations, it's just not true. This was done at the request of the Bolivian government, and it was done in partnership and consistent I would note with an Organization of American States resolution on the matter," he said.

More:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2005/12/mil-051223-voa01.htm

[julios]

20. The only way South America and Latin America

can break away from decades of U.S. brutality and control is to keep doing things like this-unifying and communicating with each other and growing together. This has been happening lately with this move by Morales and the recent cooperation between Brazil and Venezuela. This is great news for sure!

Hi I am new. My name is Julio. You will probably come to notice eventually anyway so I tell you now I am strong supportor of Chavez!

This site looks great and I am looking forward to discussions.

thank you.

[High Plains]

21. Bienvenidos a DU, Julio.

Chavez is very controversial here. You'll get some good discussions.

[julios]

24. Gracias

I only want what helps the people, and though I support Chavez he should be scrutinized like everybody with power. So I look forward to discussions on Venezuela and Chavez and lots and lots of other things too. There is plenty to scrutinize and discuss about America without looking South of the border!

[Judi Lynn]

26. Americans ARE involved south of the border when U.S. Presidents work to overthrow democratically

elected Presidents of Latin American and Caribbean countries. Americans are directly involved through the use of their hard-earned tax dollars in the material support of ill-conceived and inapproprate actions, and Americans are involved directly through having their Presidents support death squads, the slaughter of entire villages, the training and support of death squad members, genocide, torture, and all the other horrors taught to them at the School of the Americas, and implemented by military and political figures working closely with Washington, D. C.

Some of us are deeply opposed to learning about mass murder done in our name only decades later, since all information was suppressed at the time, while thousands and thousands of people, and their families have been destroyed for political purposes, nothing else.

Many Ameriacans oppose using Latin America as a backyard where American-based companies believe they are free to steal, plunder at will, killing everyone who may even possibly get in their road, working with U.S. placed puppets against the interests of the people themselves, while their countries are depleted, and generations upon generations are deprived of adequate housing, food, education, and hope, living in constant fear, with no future whatsoever.

The people of Latin America have been trying to tell the U.S. for decades upon decades to get out and leave them alone. They don't want our foreign aid, which goes directly to their oligarchy. They want us OUT, and anyone with a partially functioning brain should be able to recognize it, and grasp why they, the victims do.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Great to see you! It would seem to go without saying that you must be someone who has

invested some serious time in trying to find out what the truth is!

So glad you showed up here! Welcome to D.U. :hi:

[High Plains]

25. A good source for info on coca and Bolivia:

The Andean Information Network

http://www.ain-bolivia.org

[Vidar]

28. Viva Chavez! Viva Morales!