Bolivian president suspends US anti-drug efforts

[AfterGlow]

Associated Press
Nov 01, 2008

LA PAZ, Bolivia – Bolivia's president says he is suspending operations by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as relations between the two countries worsen.

President Evo Morales accuses the DEA of involvement in regional anti-government protests. U.S. officials have denied promoting such actions.

Morales announced the cutoff in DEA operations in a speech Saturday in which he said his government has wiped out more than 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres) of illegally planted coca this year. Coca is the raw material for cocaine, but Bolivians use it in its natural form as a traditional tea or chew.

Bolivia expelled the U.S. ambassador last month, and Washington later put Bolivia on an anti-narcotics blacklist that cuts trade preferences.

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[phr]

U.S. set to suspend Bolivia trade benefits

U.S. set to suspend Bolivia trade benefits
JACK CHANG
McClatchy News Service
10.31.08


WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is poised to suspend lucrative trade benefits to Bolivia in a move that could further worsen tensions between the U.S. government and the impoverished South American country.

Administration officials say that Bolivia has failed to cooperate in drug control, which makes the country ineligible to export jewelry, textiles and other manufactured items duty-free to the United States under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act.

Bolivian officials counter that the threatened action has nothing to do with drug enforcement but is in retaliation for Bolivian President Evo Morales' expulsion of the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, last month. The U.S. government responded to that move by expelling the Bolivian ambassador to Washington.

More than $150 million in Bolivian exports entered the U.S. markets duty-free last year under the program, out of a total of $380 million in U.S.-bound exports, and cutting the benefits will cost some 20,000 jobs, Bolivian officials said.

President Bush announced the suspension last month, but the U.S. government had to wait out a legally required public comment period, which ends Friday. If Bush or his successor doesn't reverse the suspension by June 30, only an act of Congress can restore Bolivia's trade preferences. Colombia, Ecuador and Peru also receive the benefits.

''We told the Bolivian government that we weren't getting the cooperation,'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week at a news conference in Mexico. ``We talked about actions that could be taken to show that cooperation, and unfortunately, those actions were not taken, and now we will have to suspend Bolivia's participation.''

U.S. officials point to Bolivia's recent refusal to allow Drug Enforcement Agency planes to fly over the country and Morales' frequent criticisms of U.S. drug policy as proof of Bolivia's refusal to fight cocaine production.

Bolivia is the world's third biggest producer of cocaine, behind Colombia and Peru, and its president is a former grower of coca leaf, the main ingredient in cocaine.

Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Washington-based business group the Council of the Americas, said Morales' hostility toward the U.S. government and his expulsion of Goldberg ultimately pushed the Bush administration to act.

''It's hard to maintain economic advantages for a country when they kick you in the shins,'' Farnsworth said. ``At some point you have to say enough is enough.''

The trade promotion act asks that countries receiving the benefits meet certain criteria showing they are fighting drug production. In September, Bush listed Bolivia, Venezuela and Myanmar as countries failing to do their part in the anti-drug fight and later started the process for suspending Bolivia's trade benefits.

Bolivian officials say they're fighting cocaine production while allowing the cultivation of coca leaf, which is widely chewed to stave off hunger pangs and altitude sickness in Bolivia.

Erika Duenas, acting head of the Bolivian embassy in Washington, pointed to United Nations figures showing that Bolivian cocaine production increased only by 5 percent from 2006 to 2007, while production in U.S. ally Colombia jumped by 27 percent in the same period.

Duenas said some Bolivian businesses are already reaching out to buyers in Mexico and Venezuela to make up for the lost U.S. trade.



''We see the decertification as more political than based on a real technical criteria of the anti-drug fight,'' Duenas said. ``There have in fact been powerful actions like coca eradication, seizure of drugs and other ways to fight against drugs in Bolivia.''

Last week, Morales sent Luis Arce, the finance minister, Felipe Caceres, the country's top anti-drug official, and other Bolivian policymakers to testify before the U.S. Trade Representative Office. Rice made her comments that same day.

Tensions between Bolivia and the United States have deteriorated during the past two months as Morales accused Goldberg and other U.S. officials of supporting opposition leaders who staged violent anti-government protests in the country's eastern flatlands.

Citing a picture taken of Goldberg meeting such leaders, Morales declared the ambassador persona non grata, and sent him home. The Bush administration then expelled Bolivian ambassador Gustavo Guzman.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, a close Morales ally, sided with Morales by expelling the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, prompting Washington to kick out Venezuela's ambassador.

Poor Bolivians and not politicians will pay the price for this political rift, said José Ribero, general manager of Bolivia's National Chamber of Exporters. Ribero estimated another 30,000 truck drivers and other support workers will be indirectly affected by the action on top of the 20,000 workers who produce the goods for export.

''The actions of others are affecting people who don't have anything to do with politics,'' Ribero said. ``I'm confident the friendship between the American and Bolivian people remains strong, and the American people don't want to hurt Bolivians.''

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[bingalpaws]

Ohhhohohoooo snap!!! Well, how about some of this!

Bolivian president suspends US anti-drug efforts​

Bolivian President Evo Morales suspended U.S. anti-drug operations on Saturday as Washington's relations with his leftist government spiraled downward.

Morales accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of espionage and funding "criminal groups" trying to undermine his government.

He announced the indefinite suspension while declaring that his government has eradicated more than 12,300 acres of illegally planted coca so far this year - the minimum required under a 1988 Bolivian law passed under U.S. pressure.

Coca is the raw material for cocaine, but Bolivians use the small green leaf in its less-potent natural form as a traditional tea or for chewing.

Bolivia-U.S. relations have deteriorated in recent months as Morales' government limited DEA activities and later expelled the U.S. ambassador over charges of spying and involvement in anti-government protests in the eastern lowlands.

"There were DEA agents who worked to conduct political espionage and to fund criminal groups so they could launch attacks on the lives of authorities, if not the president," Morales said.

The U.S. in turn added Bolivia to its anti-narcotics blacklist - causing a cut in trade preferences that Bolivian business leaders estimate could cost South America's poorest country as many as 20,000 jobs.

U.S. anti-drug officials and diplomats have denied any political involvement.

"We reject the accusation that DEA or any other part of the U.S. government supported the opposition or conspired against the Bolivian government," U.S. State Department spokesman Karl Duckworth said in Washington. "These accusations are false and absurd, and we deny them."

Duckworth added that the DEA "has a 35-year track record of working effectively and professionally with our Bolivian partners."

"Should U.S. cooperation be ended, more narcotics will be produced and shipped to Bolivia. The corrupting effects, violence and tragedy which will result will mainly harm Bolivia as well as ... neighboring Latin American countries, Europe and West Africa."

Morales' decision creates "an unfortunate situation," DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney said in Washington, but added, "We will find other ways to make sure we keep abreast of the drug-trafficking situation through there."

Two DEA agents were pulled from the Chapare coca-growing region in September after Bolivian officials reported threats against them from coca growers in the area, a bastion of support for the president, who came to prominence as leader of a coca-growers union battling U.S. eradication campaigns.

The United Nations estimates that Bolivia's coca crop increased by 5 percent in 2007 - far below the 27 percent jump recorded in Colombia, a close U.S. ally. Cocaine seizures by Bolivian police working closely with DEA agents also had increased dramatically during the Morales administration.

Last month Morales denied a DEA request to fly an anti-drug plane over Bolivia, saying Bolivia doesn't need U.S. help to control its coca crop.

Morales is a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who in 2005 also suspended his country's cooperation with the DEA after accusing its agents of espionage.

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[Filkins]

God I really hate my government,
Why cant we just govern our country
:/

 

[qwe]

@filkins, we have to punish the brown and/or down people (just like we do in our own country), because it undermines the moral fabric of our children if we do otherwise 8)

 

[jdizzle]

God I really hate my government,
Why cant we just govern our country
:/

I completely agree. This kind of thing really angers me.

Regarding this quote:

"We reject the accusation that DEA or any other part of the U.S. government supported the opposition or conspired against the Bolivian government," U.S. State Department spokesman Karl Duckworth said in Washington. "These accusations are false and absurd, and we deny them."

I really wouldn't be surprised if the Bolivian accusations were 100% true. I doubt Bush would pass up an opportunity to try and overthrow an ally of Hugo Chavez.

 

[bingalpaws]

I completely agree. This kind of thing really angers me.

Regarding this quote:

"We reject the accusation that DEA or any other part of the U.S. government supported the opposition or conspired against the Bolivian government," U.S. State Department spokesman Karl Duckworth said in Washington. "These accusations are false and absurd, and we deny them."

I really wouldn't be surprised if the Bolivian accusations were 100% true. I doubt Bush would pass up an opportunity to try and overthrow an ally of Hugo Chavez.

came to say the same

 

[vortex30]

I completely agree. This kind of thing really angers me.

Regarding this quote:

"We reject the accusation that DEA or any other part of the U.S. government supported the opposition or conspired against the Bolivian government," U.S. State Department spokesman Karl Duckworth said in Washington. "These accusations are false and absurd, and we deny them."

I really wouldn't be surprised if the Bolivian accusations were 100% true. I doubt Bush would pass up an opportunity to try and overthrow an ally of Hugo Chavez.

Or Chavez himself, or Allende, or Arbenz, or Castro. Bush? No, no. ANY US president wouldn't pass up an opportunity to increase US controls over the region, not even Barack Obama. The State Department is a lying sack of shit, they always have been, the media's job is to report their statements as fact.

I love seeing the South Americans making progress in the ways they wish to make it. Reminds you that there is hope in this world for good government that cares for their people and not their world image. I support Chavez 100% in his efforts in Venezuela, and would like to see every nation of South America to kick out the DEA. The Drug War is a cover for US interventions in the region, here is one such case, thankfully the Bolivian leader is fighting back. Bolivia is also a little beacon of hope, their protests against the water privatization were epic.

 

[phr]

Why Bolivia Quit the U.S. War on Drugs
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky
Time.com
11.4.08


Some may see Bolivia's decision last weekend to opt out of Washington's war on drugs as the inevitable consequence of electing a President who was not only a leftist opponent of U.S. influence in the region but also a coca farmer himself. But President Evo Morales, elected in 2005, cast his decision on Saturday to suspend the activities of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in his country as a matter of national security. "We have the obligation to defend the dignity and the sovereignty of the Bolivian people," said Morales. "There have been DEA agents who, carrying out espionage, financed rogue groups with the intention of taking the lives of [Bolivian government] officials, though not the President's."

No evidence has been produced to substantiate Morales' allegations, which mark a new escalation in tensions with Washington following September's ouster of U.S. ambassador Philip Goldberg, also accused of conspiring against the leftist government.

Morales' government has accused a DEA agent of delivering money to opposition groups in the Amazon region during the wave of antigovernment violence that peaked on Sept. 11, claiming the lives of more than 25 indigenous peasants and wounding hundreds of others. Over the past year, Bolivia's eastern lowlands have been wracked with conflict as opposition groups have sought to wrest control from the central government over vast natural-gas reserves and laws governing the ownership of land. The Bolivian government has continually blamed the U.S. for fomenting the violence, but Washington routinely denies any malicious meddling.

"These accusations are false and absurd," said a senior State Department official in response to Saturday's announcement. "The DEA has a 35-year track record of working effectively and professionally with our Bolivian partners," the official added.

Morales' government, in fact, was acknowledged by the U.S. earlier this year to have successfully brought coca cultivation under control and increased Bolivia's rate of interdiction of coca destined for cocaine production. But Washington has been skeptical of Morales' talk of expanding the production of coca for non-narcotic uses such as teas and other products. Morales, for his part, was elected in some measure because of his strident opposition to the decades-long U.S. war on coca cultivation in his country. The leaf has for centuries traditionally been brewed in tea to stave off hunger and fatigue and combat altitude sickness, and the U.S.-led campaign to militarily eradicate the crop had claimed over 70 lives and wounded more than 1,000 people in Bolivia since the late '80s.

The details and possible consequences of effectively expelling the DEA are unclear. The U.S. embassy will not reveal the number of DEA officials working in Bolivia, but it's assumed to be several dozen, most of whom work out of the embassy in La Paz training Bolivian antidrug personnel and coordinating intelligence efforts with other South American countries. Bolivia's antidrug police, the Anti-Narcotics Special Forces, have yet to explain how this will affect their operations. The State Department fears the worst.

"Should U.S. cooperation be ended, more narcotics will be produced and shipped from Bolivia," says a senior official, adding that "the corrupting effects, violence and tragedy which will result will mainly harm Bolivia as well as the principal consumers of Bolivian cocaine in neighboring Latin American countries, Europe and West Africa."

But Morales points to his track record over the past three years in containing coca cultivation and improving interdiction numbers. He says Bolivia is capable of fighting drug trafficking without U.S. intervention and has called on the Union of South American Nations to begin playing the international-coordination role that the DEA has been playing. There has been no comment from the U.S. thus far on how Morales' latest move will affect the annual $35 million Bolivia receives from Washington to fund drug-control efforts.

Some suspect that Bolivia's move against the DEA could be part of a tit-for-tat escalation that began after Ambassador Goldberg's expulsion, when the State Department put the Andean nation on its "drug blacklist," accusing it of having "not cooperated with the U.S. in important efforts to combat drug trafficking." Bolivia counters that while its coca production has increased 5% in Colombia — Washington's No. 1 ally in the region — it has increased 26%, according to the U.N.'s drug-monitoring agency, without Colombia's being added to the blacklist.

In October, the Bush Administration announced the upcoming suspension of legislation that has since 1991 offered Andean nation trade benefits in exchange for drug-war cooperation. That legislation currently allows about $150 million in Bolivian goods, primarily textiles, to enter the U.S. tariff-free — exports that help sustain about 20,000 Bolivian jobs. "Bush's decision is a mistake because it sanctions the industrialized sector," says Marcos Iberkleid, owner of Ameritex, Bolivia's largest private employer, whose 4,000-worker textile factory does $30 million a year in tariff-free business with the U.S. under the suspended legislation. "The U.S.'s biggest concern should be limiting the growth of illegal sectors and promoting economic development, and this suspension does exactly the opposite."

Bolivia has already been moving to replace the U.S. with alternative markets for its industrial exports. Last week it signed an accord with its main regional ally, Venezuela, to import all those products recently denied tariff-free entry into the U.S., although this deal involves government-to-government trade rather than between private enterprises. Mexico, Brazil and possibly also European countries have offered to take Bolivia's exports on the same beneficial terms offered by the U.S. until last month.

But Bolivians are hoping Tuesday's U.S. election produces a government with which La Paz can make a fresh start. "I don't want this to be taken as me campaigning for anyone, but let's hope the U.S. goes blue too," said Morales on Saturday — his party's colors are the same as those of Senator Barack Obama. The Bolivian President made clear he envisages repairing the relationship as soon as President Bush has gone. More than once, he referred to his own victory in Bolivia as having brought "the change we need."

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[AfterGlow]

Bolivia ousts DEA officials

President Evo Morales accused agents of espionage and ordered them out, even with cocaine production rising.

By Chris Kraul
Los Angeles Times
Posted: 01/30/2009 12:30:00 AM MST

LA PAZ, Bolivia — The last U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents left Bolivia on Thursday, ordered out by President Evo Morales even as Bolivian police report that coca cultivation and cocaine processing are on the rise.

In November, Morales demanded the DEA's exit as part of a dispute between U.S. and Bolivian officials that included his expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg and the Bush administration's decertification of Bolivia's effectiveness in the drug war.

The departure over recent weeks of three dozen agents ends the DEA's presence here after more than three decades. Senior law-enforcement officials said it was the first time a DEA operation had been ordered out of a country en masse.

DEA officials here declined to comment prior to the departures but said earlier that the agents will be reassigned to countries bordering Bolivia to monitor the situation.

Over a 35-year history, the DEA generally has maintained good relations with host Latin American nations, which take advantage of its global intelligence network and training programs in the United States to fight drug traffickers.

Recent exceptions include Bolivia, where Morales has accused the DEA of engaging in espionage. Similar charges were leveled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has reduced the DEA's presence from 10 agents to two since 2005 by refusing to renew agents' work permits.

Coca cultivation and cocaine processing in Bolivia are still far below the levels seen in the 1980s before Colombia began to overtake Bolivia and Peru as the leading coca-farming and cocaine-trafficking country. Colombia produces about six times as much cocaine as Bolivia, according to recent international estimates.

But the trends concern counternarcotics officials. In 2008, more than 7 tons of cocaine was seized here, about five times the amount confiscated in 2006.

There was also a 24 percent increase in the number of illegal cocaine labs destroyed, evidence of increased production, and 55 percent more pounds of coca leaf were farmed over the two-year period, according to figures kept by Bolivia's anti-narcotics police force.

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[zekethemusicman]

If anyone is interested in this topic, you all should check out the film Zietgeist-Addendum. The film is not drug related, however, it does go into a good bit of detail considering our governments involvment in many carribean, middle and south american counties. Look for the segment about "economic hitmen" This video is really amazin. It will really open your eyes to the state of the worlds affairs, as well as explain a ton of other shit.

 

[drug_mentor]

Go Bolivia, sticking it to the DEA. It would not surprise me at all if their claims of DEA espionage were true, the US Government are conspiring rat bastards who love nothing more than meddling in other countries affairs.
Hopefully the rest of South America follows, I wonder if this happened would the US declare war on the entire region? Even with Obama in office theres a good chance they would I think, meddling cunts.