BOLIVIA: U.S. Attempt to Balkanize South America

1) The Destabilization of Bolivia and the "Kosovo Option"
by Michel Chossudovsky - Global Research, September 21, 2008

2) Profit and Autonomy
GFP 2008/10/14

3) The Balkanization of South America
GFP 2007/07/08

4) Several News Agency dispatches and articles:
Bolivia president asks US ambassador to leave / Bolivia expels US ambassador / US, Bolivia, Venezuela engaged in diplomatic row / Latin American nations bolster Bolivia's Morales amid opposition violence / Honduras snubs US envoy / Chavez warns of military action to quell Bolivia unrest / Bolivia's Morales defiant after unrest / Bolivia arrests US-backed rebel governor / MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: On the Situation in Bolivia / Bolivian president censures United States / Bolivia's Morales rejects opposition autonomy proposal, talks on hold / Ambassador: Russia looking to boost Bolivia ties


See also:

U.S. Ambassador who left Yugoslavia in pieces now in Bolivia (+ several links to important articles therein)

JUGOINFO 21 giugno 2008: http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/6080


=== 1 ===

The Destabilization of Bolivia and the "Kosovo Option"

by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, September 21, 2008
- 2008-09-20

The secession of Bolivia's Eastern provinces is part of a US sponsored covert operation, coordinated out of the US State Department, in liaison with US intelligence. 

The death squads armed with automatic weapons responsible for killing supporters of Evo Morales in El Porvenir are supported covertly by the US. According to one report, "USAID has an "Office of Transition Initiatives" operating in Bolivia, funneling millions of dollars of training and support to right-wing opposition regional governments and movements."(The Center for Economic and Policy Research, September 2008). The US also provides support to various opposition groups through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). 

The expelled US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg worked under the helm of Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte,  who directly oversees the various "activities" of US embassies around the World. In this regard Negroponte plays a far more important role, acting behind the scenes, than Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. He is also known as one of the main architects of regime change and covert support to paramilitary death squads both in Central America and Iraq.  

Philip S. Goldberg's mandate as ambassador to Bolivia was to trigger the fracture of Bolivia as a country. Prior to his appointment as ambassador in early 2007, he served as US Chief of Mission in Pristina, Kosovo (2004-2006) and was in permanent liaison with the leaders of the KLA paramilitary, who had integrated civilian politics, following the NATO occupation of Kosovo in 1999. 

Supported by the CIA, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), whose leaders now head the Kosovar government, was known for its extensive links to organized crime and the trade in narcotics. In Kosovo, Goldberg was involved in setting the stage for the subsequent secession of Kosovo from Serbia, leading to the installation of an "independent" Kosovar government.  

In the course of the 1990s, Goldberg had played an active role in the break up of Yugoslavia. From 1994-1996 he was responsible for the Bosnia Desk at the State Department. He worked closely with  Washington's Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke and played a central role as Chief of Staff of the US negotiating team at Dayton, leading up to the signing of the Dayton Accords in 1995.  These accords were conducive to the carving up of Bosnia-Herzegovina. More generally they triggered the destruction and destabilization of Yugoslavia as country. In 1996, Goldberg worked directly as Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott (1994-2000), who together with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, played a key role in launching the war on Yugoslavia in 1999. 

The Central Role of John Negroponte

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte plays a central role in the conduct of covert operations. He served as US ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. As Ambassador in Tegucigalpa, he played a key role in supporting and supervising the Nicaraguan Contra mercenaries who were based in Honduras. The cross border Contra attacks into Nicaragua claimed some 50 000 civilian lives. During the same period, Negroponte was instrumental in setting up the Honduran military death squads, "operating with Washington support's, [they] assassinated hundreds of opponents of the US-backed regime." (See Bill Venn, Bush Nominee linked to Latin American Terrorism, Global Research, November 2001)

"Under the rule of General Gustavo Alvarez Martnez, Honduras's military government was both a close ally of the Reagan administration and was "disappearing" dozens of political opponents in classic death squad fashion.

(See Peter Roff and James Chapin, Face-off: Bush's Foreign Policy Warriors , Global Research, July 2001)

This did not prevent his nomination to the position of US Permanent Representative to the UN under the Clinton administration. 

The Salvador Option

Negroponte became Ambassador to Iraq in 2004, where he set up a "security framework" for the US occupation, largely modeled on the Central American death squads. This project was referred to by several writers as the "Salvador Option".   

While in Baghdad, Negroponte hired as his Counselor on security issues, a former head of special operations in El Salvador. The two men were close colleagues going back to the 1980s in Central America.  While Negroponte was busy setting up the death squads in Honduras,  Colonel Steele had been in charge of the US Military Advisory Group in El Salvador, (1984-86) "where he was responsible for developing special operating forces at brigade level during the height of the conflict.":  

"These forces, composed of the most brutal soldiers available, replicated the kind of small-unit operations with which Steele was familiar from his service in Vietnam. Rather than focusing on seizing terrain, their role was to attack ‘insurgent’ leadership, their supporters, sources of supply and base camps." (Max Fuller, For Iraq, "The Salvador Option" Becomes Reality, Global Research, June 2005) 

 In Iraq, Steele was "assigned to work with a new elite Iraqi counter-insurgency unit known as the Special Police Commandos". In this context, Negroponte's objective was to encourage ethnic divisions and factional strife, by triggering covert terrorist attacks directed against the Iraqi civilian population. 

Negroponte was appointed as the Head of the Directorate of National Intelligence in 2005, and subsequently in 2007 came to occupy the Number Two position in the State Department. 

The Kosovo Option: Haiti 

This is not the first time that the "Kosovo model" of supporting terrorist paramilitaries has been applied in Latin America. 

In February 2003, Washington announced the appointment of James Foley as Ambassador to Haiti. Ambassadors Goldberg and Foley are part of the same "diplomatic stable". Foley had been a State Department spokesman under the Clinton administration during the war on Kosovo. He was involved at an earlier period in channeling support to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). 

Amply documented, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was financed by drug money and supported by the CIA. ( See Michel Chossudovsky, Kosovo Freedom Fighters Financed by Organized Crime, Covert Action Quarterly, 1999 )

At the time of the Kosovo war, the then ambassador to Haiti James Foley had been in charge of State Department briefings, working closely with his NATO counterpart in Brussels, Jamie Shea. Barely two months before the onslaught of the NATO led war on 24 March 1999, James Foley, had called for the "transformation" of the KLA into a respectable political organization:

"We want to develop a good relationship with them [the KLA] as they transform themselves into a politically-oriented organization,' ..`[W]e believe that we have a lot of advice and a lot of help that we can provide to them if they become precisely the kind of political actor we would like to see them become... "If we can help them and they want us to help them in that effort of transformation, I think it's nothing that anybody can argue with..' (quoted in the New York Times, 2 February 1999)

In other words, Washington's design was "regime change": topple the Lavalas administration and install a compliant US puppet regime, integrated by the "Democratic Platform" and the self-proclaimed Front pour la libération et la reconstruction nationale (FLRN), whose leaders are former FRAPH and Tonton Macoute terrorists. (For further details see Michel Chossudovsky, The Destabilization of Haiti, Global Research, February 2004) 

Following the 2004 coup d'Etat which led to the downfall of the Aristide government, KLA advisers were brought into Haiti by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to assist in the country's reconstruction. (See Anthony Fenton, Kosovo Liberation Army helps establish "Protectorate" in Haiti, Global Research, November 2004) 

Specifically, the KLA consultants were to assist in restructuring the Haitian police force, bringing into its ranks, former members of FRAPH and the Tonton Macout. 

[In support of] the "Office of Transition Initiatives," (OTI) ... USAID is paying three consultants to help consult for the integration of the former brutal military into the current Haitian police force. And who are those three consultants? Those three consultants are members of the Kosovo Liberation Army." (Flashpoints interview, November 19, 2004,www.flashpoints.net )

USAID's "Office of Transition Initiatives" (OTI)

The Salvador/ Kosovo option is part of a US strategy to fracture and destabilize countries. The USAID sponsored OTI in Bolivia performs much the same function as a similar OTI in Haiti. 

It is also worth noting that there was an Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) in Venezuela, where a plot, according to reports, was recently uncovered to allegedly assassinate President Hugo Chavez. The role of the OTI office in Venezuela is discussed in Eva Golinger's recent book "Bush vs. Chavez."

The stated purpose of US covert operations is to provide support as well as as training to "Liberation Armies" ultimately with a view to destabilizing sovereign governments. In Kosovo, the training of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the 1990s had been entrusted to a private mercenary company, Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), on contract to the Pentagon.  

Pakistan and the "Kosovo Option" 

It is worth noting that in Pakistan, recent developments point towards direct forms of US military intervention, in violation of Pakistani sovereignty.

Already in 2005, a report by the US National Intelligence Council and the CIA forecast a "Yugoslav-like fate" for Pakistan "in a decade with the country riven by civil war, bloodshed and inter-provincial rivalries, as seen recently in Balochistan." (Energy Compass, 2 March 2005).

According to a  2006 report of Pakistan's Senate Committee on Defence, British intelligence was involved in supporting the Balochistan separatist movement. (Press Trust of India, 9 August 2006). The Bolochistan Liberation Army (BLA) bears a canny resemblance to Kosovo's KLA, financed by the drug trade and supported by the CIA.

Washington favors the creation of a "Greater Balochistan" [similar to a Greater Albania] which would integrate the Baloch areas of Pakistan with those of Iran and possibly the Southern tip of Afghanistan, thereby leading to a process of political fracturing in both Iran and Pakistan. (Michel Chossudovsky, The Destabilization of Pakistan, December 30, 2007)

---

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=== 2 ===

Profit and Autonomy
 
2008/10/14
LA PAZ/BERLIN
 
(Own report) - The German Ministry of Development is continuing to pursue its controversial measures of gaining influence in Bolivia. A few days ago, Berlin accorded La Paz a loan of 48 million Euros, earmarked for various waterworks projects in the country. In the past Germans have used this means to demand the privatization of the businesses involved with water, this basic element of survival - and were confronted with massive protests from social movements, which successfully drove profit-seeking investors out of the Bolivian waterworks branch - in spite of German interventions. The recent loan of German development funds takes place in a very tense situation in La Paz. The central government is being threatened by the autonomy movements of the richest provinces in the east of the country, who rely on contacts to several western industrial nations. The milieu of the autonomists, who have their contacts all the way to Germany, includes people who are violence prone, fascists and putschists.
48 Million

The German Ministry of Development is continuing to pursue its controversial activities in the Bolivian waterworks branch. David Choquehuanca, Bolivia's Foreign Minister and the German Ambassador, Erich Riedler signed a contract to this effect on October 2, providing, on the one hand, for a loan of twelve million Euros earmarked for waterworks projects for the cities of Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Sucre and Tarija.[1] This credit, according to press reports, has a term of 40 years with an interest rate at less than one percent.[2] Bolivia receives an additional 36 million Euros also for use in water projects. 23 million of this sum are earmarked for potable water and canalization programs; 2.6 million Euros are planned for emergency measures for the city of Trinidad in Beni Province. The German government's Association for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) is charged with carrying out the numerous waterworks projects in Bolivia, until 2013, according to GTZ information.
Provocations

Over the past few years, both the GTZ and the German Embassy in La Paz were implicated in serious conflicts concerning Bolivian water supply. These conflicts were settled only in 2007 - at least for the time being. The government of President Evo Morales forced the retreat of the private water suppliers, Aguas del Illimani, in which the French Suez Utility Group holds shares. This fulfilled the demands of the years of protests by social organizations against the effects of water privatization. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[3]) In the course of these conflicts, the GTZ and others had clearly taken sides for maintaining the profit-seeking private investors for Bolivian water supply. The German Embassy in La Paz even threatened at the time, to refuse future credits to the Bolivian government in the case of its rejection. "We saw these actions as serious provocations" criticized a Bolivian activist in his conversation with german-foreign-policy.com. After all, Berlin's actions were a violation of the Bolivian population's sovereignty.[4]
Acid Test

The current decision to prolong German activities in Bolivian waterworks has come at a time when Bolivia is experiencing an extremely tense political situation. The question of water is no longer the main focus of public interest and receives much less attention than it had in the past. Today the Morales government is under heavy pressure from the autonomy movement of the eastern low-land provinces, rich in natural resources that are refusing to share their revenues with the poverty stricken regions of Western Bolivia. The nation has for some time been undergoing an acid test. Over the past few weeks and months, bloody outbreaks have erupted between pro-government partisans and those of the pro-autonomy movement. The pro-autonomy side has shown their propensity for violence during these conflicts. For example at least 15 people were killed in September when the autonomists in the Pando Province attacked government loyalists. The governor of the province is being accused of having instigated these murders.[5]
Partner Organization

The principal organizations of the autonomy movement are receiving support from Western industrial nations - including Germany. It drew worldwide attention when the Bolivian government recently expelled the US ambassador. He had been strengthening the autonomists. He could draw on years of experience accumulated during the breakup of Yugoslavia, where, according to reports, he had participated in US - and German - destabilization measures [6] to promote the secession of the Yugoslav constituent republics and the province of Kosovo. The Bolivian organization FULIDE (Fundación Libertzat y Democracia) maintains relations with German and US circles promoting secession. FULIDE is close to several conservative US political foundations and propagates the autonomy of the eastern provinces. FULIDE is also a member of RELIAL (Red Liberal de América Latina), the partner organization of the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation (affiliated to the Free Democratic Party - FDP). RELIAL was founded at the initiative of the Naumann Foundation in 2003 and is its close cooperation partner. The Naumann-Foundation's representative in RELIAL expressed satisfaction, when, at a network meeting, FULIDE director Walter Justiniano spoke of the autonomy movement in eastern Bolivia. With his speech, the FULIDE leader is encouraging RELIAL "to intervene more directly in the internal affairs of this South American country" said the Naumann representative.[7]
Swastikas

One of the most controversial figures of the autonomous movement is a member of FULIDE: the large landowner Branko Marinkovic. Marinkovic is FULIDE's spokesperson and at the same time, president of the Comité pro Santa Cruz, an association of large landowners favoring autonomy. Its youth organization is known for its violence and fascist behavior. The display of swastikas has been documented at several of their political rallies. Bolivian observers point out that Bolivia has its own history with the swastika. After 1945, numerous Nazis had taken refuge in this South American country, among them the mass murderer, Klaus Barbie. Barbie had served several Bolivian dictators - in their counter insurgency efforts.[8] Barbie was in contact with several fascist circles.[9] Nazi affiliated Croatian Ustashi had fled also with him to Bolivia, including some, whose families are among the autonomy supporters. According to the media, the father of Branko Marinkovic, the large landowner and president of the autonomists had also been a member of the Croatian Ustasha before coming to Bolivia shortly after the war.[10]
Putsch Attempt

Bolivian security forces suspect circles close to Marinkovic to be behind the putsch attempt that was uncovered last week.[11] With the help of contacts to Germany, these circles continue their struggle against the Morales government, which has just been confirmed by a two-thirds majority in a referendum. At the same time the German government continues its subversive activities under the guise of its so called development policy. To what extent Berlin's privatization objectives will be reached - not only in Bolivia, but also elsewhere - will depend not least of all on the government in La Paz and the strength of its defense against foreign interference.[12] The outcome of the autonomy struggle for the Bolivian eastern provinces is therefore of direct significance also for Berlin.
[1] Alemania coopera a Bolivia con $us66 millones para obras en servicios básicos; Agencia Boliviana de Información 02.10.2008
[2] Alemania aprueba ayuda financiera a Bolivia; El Paso Times 02.10.2008
[3], [4] see also Schwerwiegende Provokationen
[5] Präfekt von Pando festgenommen; Der Standard 16.09.2008
[6] The Destabilization of Bolivia and the "Kosovo Option"; Global Research 21.09.2008
[7] Victor Hugo Becerra representante de la Fundacion Friedrich Naumann comenta sobre la participacion de Walter Justiniano; www.fulide.org.bo 17.05.2007. See also Neoliberal Networking
[8] see also Property Obliges
[9] Gustavo Sánchez Salazar: Barbie, criminal hasta el fin, Buenos Aires 1987
[10] In Bolivia, a Croat and a Critic Is Cast in a Harsh Light; The New York Times 26.09.2008
[11] Geduld am Ende; junge Welt 11.10.2008
[12] see also Tough Adjustment

=== 3 ===
The Balkanization of South America
 
2007/07/08
LA PAZ/SANTA CRUZ
 
(Own report) - Latin American critics are accusing organizations linked to German foreign policy of being implicated in the escalating South American autonomy conflicts. This is referring to controversy that, around the turn of the year, led to bloody uprisings in Bolivia. At present the conflict is being primarily sparked by the draft for a statute of autonomy presented by governors of four Bolivian departments at the beginning of the first week of June. Government circles in La Paz qualify the document as being "separatist" and "seditious." It proposes far-ranging independence for the provinces rich in natural resources. Judging from the escalation of violence, observers are drawing parallels to developments that led to wars of secession in the former Yugoslavia, in which Germany was heavily implicated. It is now being said in Bolivia that German measures of decentralization have also laid the groundwork in the country for the current demands for autonomy. Moreover a German political party foundation's affiliate organizations are directly involved. The trail of evidence also leads to the circles of German exiles, who fled to South America in the aftermath of the World War II. They benefit from the special assistance bestowed under the German government's "Deutschtum" policy [Germandom policy].
Monday July 2 the governors of the 4 Bolivian departments of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Pando and Beni, tabled a draft for the future status of autonomy. This document proposes, among other things, the right of autonomous taxation and expenditures for the lowland states of Bolivia with a majority of descendents of white immigrants. The right-wing opposition heads of the departments are attempting to play off their natural resource rich regions against both the central government in La Paz and the poorer highlands in Western Bolivia. The Bolivian lowlands have the second largest deposits of natural gas in South America (after Venezuela), the bulk of it being in Santa Cruz and Tarija. With its plans for autonomy, organizations, such as the Citizens Committee of Santa Cruz (Comité Civico Pro Santa Cruz) - an alliance dominated by businessmen and latifundia owners - seeks to torpedo the Morales government's measures of nationalization in the sector of natural resources, which is also fought so vehemently by Berlin, Brussels and Washington.
Seditious

This is why the plans for autonomy are encountering vehement resistance, particularly from the indigenous population. Simultaneous with the elections of the Constituent Assembly, in the summer of last year, a referendum was held on the autonomy status of individual departments. Whereas in the four richer provinces there was a majority who voted for more regional power of decision, the voters in the more impoverished highlands departments voted against. The results were that the autonomy plans were defeated (56% against). Still the more prosperous regional governments are clinging to their project. Juan Carlos Urenda, an advisor to the regional government of Santa Cruz, threatens to have the autonomy plans imposed by referendum. The government in La Paz classifies the entire project as "seditious" "separatist" and "anti-democratic," because it is directed "against the constitution."[1]
Decentralization

Critics of the autonomy plans are accusing German development organizations and foundations affiliated with German political parties of having nurtured the conflict. Separatist groups, such as the Citizens Committee of Santa Cruz, are linking their activities to programs sustained by German development policy in Bolivia since 2002. These were imposed within the framework of a debt relief initiative and are consolidated within the "Programa de Apoyo a la Gestión Púplica Descentralizada y Lucha contra la Pobreza" (Program in Support of Decentralized Public Administration and the Struggle against Poverty - PADEP).[2] Since 2002, within the framework of the PADEP, the German Association for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the "Kreditanstalt for Wiederaufbau" (Credit Institution for Reconstruction, KfW) - under commission of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development - have been supporting measures for the decentralization of Bolivia, a starting point for the more far-reaching current demands for autonomy.
Partner Network

In addition, the Bolivian demands for autonomy are being pushed by an international network that maintains contacts to Germany. It is the Confederación Internacional por la Libertad y la Autonomia Regional (International Confederation for Freedom and Regional Autonomy CONFILAR) founded last autumn in Guayaquil Ecuador. In a programmatic declaration, CONFILAR propagates "the system of restricted government, free markets and private institutions independent from the state (...) inspired by genuine classical liberalism."[3] The organization demands wide-ranging rights of autonomy for individual regions in South American countries. The economically strategic regions, the Bolivian department Santa Cruz, as well as Guayaquil (Ecuador) und Zulia (Venezuela) are part of the autonomy network. They are all in opposition to their central governments. Also active in the CONFILAR are organizations of RELIAL network (Red Liberal de América Latina) the Latin American partner of the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation (closely affiliated to the German FDP Party).[4]
Paramilitary

In light of the autonomy conflicts in Bolivia, that have already led to serious uprisings a few months ago and that are reinforced by organizations such as CONFILAR, observers are beginning to speak of the threat of a "Balkanization of South America.[5] Abetted by German organizations and by protagonists maintaining contacts to Germany, the tensions are a threat to the state alliance of ALBA (Alternativa Bolivariana para las Ameréricas - Bolivian Alternative for the Americas) which is still in the formative stages. ALBA seeks to achieve an wide-ranging independent policy from that of the European and North American centers. Bolivia and Venezuela are ALBA member states and Ecuador is sympathetic to the alliance. In this autonomy conflict an escalation of violence cannot be ruled out. According to the government, paramilitary groups are already organized in Pando, one of the East Bolivian secession departments. The extreme rightwing Young People's Union of Santa Cruz (Unión Juvenil Cruceñista, UJC) is functioning as the military wing of the Citizens' Committee of Santa Cruz. Its leader, Jorge Begner Hollweg, is a member of Bolivian "Germandom".[6]
Exiles

Obviously the term "balkanization" was not chosen only in view of the break-up of Yugoslavia, but is referring concretely to driving forces behind autonomy efforts in Bolivia. In the aftermath of the defeat of the fascist states in WW II, a large segment of the Nazi elites and their collaborators fled into exile in South America. Particularly the region of Santa Cruz developed into the haven for numerous German Nazis as well as Italian and Croatian fascists. Croat exile families from Santa Cruz played a non-negligible role during the Yugoslav wars of secession. They stole weapons from the Bolivian Army arsenals and smuggled them to Croatia with the aid of the Bolivian consulate in Hamburg. They are also very active in the current autonomy efforts. According to reports, they are enjoying the support of exiled ethnic German families, who can still count on Berlin's special "Deutschtum im Ausland" ("Germandom Abroad") assistance. As is heard in Bolivia "the German government, with the support of NGO's and the GTZ, is practically sustaining one fourth of the state apparatus."[7] A network of interests that is reinforcing German partiality in Bolivian domestic conflicts.
[1] Bolivia: estatuto autonómico de Santa Cruz es "sedicioso" (Gobierno); AFP 03.07.2007
[2] Modernisierung des Staates; www.bmz.de. See also Property Obliges
[3] Por la libertad y la autonomía regional en Hispanoamérica; www.elcato.org
[4] Zum CONFILAR-Vorsitzenden wurde Carlos Dabdoub Arrien gewählt, der Präsident des Bürgerkomitee Pro Santa Cruz. Neben Dabdoub Arrien zählten unter anderem auch José Luis Tapia vom "Instituto de Libre Empresa" (ILE) aus Peru sowie Walter Justiniano von der "Fundación Libertad y Democracia" (FULIDE) aus dem bolivianischen Departement Santa Cruz zu den Teilnehmern des Forums. Beide Organisationen sind Mitglieder im Red Liberal de América Latina (RELIAL), das von der Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung (FNSt) gefördert wird.
[5] Bolivia: Hoy, la derecha va por el poder; www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=43155
[6] Gobierno anuncia juicio contra integrantes de la Unión Cruceñista; www.comunica.gov.bo/cgi-bin/index.cgi?j20060704134312
[7] La verdad sobre la "media luna"; constituyentesoberana.org/info/?q=node/700

=== 4 ===

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5go2PNJvcuutp_Rqku6bVup5b7hoAD9346HMO0

Associated Press
September 10, 2008

Bolivia president asks US ambassador to leave
By CARLOS VALDEZ 


LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales said Wednesday
that he is expelling the U.S. ambassador in Bolivia
for allegedly inciting violent opposition protests.

Morales' announcement came hours after his government
said a pipeline blast triggered by saboteurs forced
the country to cut natural gas exports to Brazil by 10
percent.

"Without fear of the empire, I declare the U.S.
ambassador 'persona non grata,'" Morales said in a
speech at the presidential palace. He said he asked
his foreign minister to send a diplomatic note to
Ambassador Philip Goldberg telling the American to go
home.

"We don't want separatists, divisionists," Bolivia's
leftist president added.
....
Morales' close ally President Hugo Chavez of
Venezuela, who also calls the United States "the
empire," cheered the move, calling a two-week wave of
increasingly violent anti-Morales protests the harvest
of an alliance between Bolivia's "extreme right" and
the U.S. government.

The Bolivian leader did not offer specific evidence
against Goldberg, but he has long accused the diplomat
of conspiring with Bolivia's conservative opposition.
A share of U.S. aid to Bolivia goes to eastern
provincial governments that are the nexus of
opposition to Morales, which has angered the Bolivian
president and his supporters.

Morales, meanwhile, praised protesters who marched on
the U.S. Embassy in May and has accused Washington of
plotting to overthrow him.

In June, his government terminated USAID programs in
the coca-growing Chapare region aimed at weaning
farmers off the crop from which cocaine is produced.
Farmers there had faulted the programs as heavy-handed
and ineffectual.

Goldberg met last week with Ruben Costas, one of
Morales' most virulent opponents. Costas is governor
of Santa Cruz, Bolivia's richest province and the seat
of a pro-autonomy revolt against the nation's first
indigenous president.

Anti-Morales protests reached a crescendo on Tuesday
with the sacking and burning of government offices in
Santa Cruz in which at least 10 people were reported
injured.

Anti-government activists also seized several natural
gas installations in the east.

At one, in the eastern province of Tarija,
demonstrators triggered Wednesday's pipeline blast by
closing a valve, creating pressure that ruptured the
line near the border with Paraguay and set off a fire,
the government said.

No injuries were reported in what state energy company
president Santos Ramirez called "a terrorist attack."

The government immediately ordered additional troops
to Bolivia's rebellious eastern provinces to secure
gas and oil installations. Ramirez said both gas
plants remained occupied by protesters on Wednesday
afternoon.

The pipeline blast reduced by 3 million cubic meters
the 30 million of gas Bolivia sends Brazil each day,
he said.
....
Ramirez said it would take 15 to 20 days to repair the
pipeline at a cost of US$100 million. He said Bolivia
would lose US$8 million a day in revenues.

Morales' opponents in the east are seeking a greater
share of revenues from natural gas — Bolivia's chief
export — for the richer lowland provinces, home to the
bulk of its gas fields.

Morales has devoted much of those revenues to programs
that benefit the poor and elderly. He has called the
protests a "civil coup."

Opposition leader Branko Marinkovic, the owner of
large land holdings in soy-growing Santa Cruz, said
Tuesday that the only way out of the conflict is for
the government to cancel a Dec. 7 referendum on a new
constitution.

The proposed new constitution, which would give
indigenous groups greater control of their traditional
lands and make it easier for the government to
redistribute fallow land, was approved by a special
assembly last year amid an opposition boycott. 

Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja in Brasilia,
Brazil, and Frank Bajak in Bogota, Colombia,
contributed to this report.

---

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=69069§ionid=351020706

Press TV (Iran)
September 11, 2008

Bolivia expels US ambassador 


Bolivian President Evo Morales has declared the US
ambassador to La Paz 'persona non grata', accusing the
envoy of provoking separatism. 

"I have asked our foreign minister to send the
ambassador (a message) informing him of the decision
by the national government and its president that he
should return to his country at once," Morales said on
Wednesday. 
....
Morales last week charged that rebel governors in the
east were mounting a "civil coup" against the
government after two weeks of road blocks and other
anti- government protests in the relatively prosperous
states of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija. 

The President sent troops to guard some gas facilities
in the three states. 

Recent crisis in Bolivia stems from Morales's efforts
to change the constitution to redistribute land and
national wealth for the benefit of Bolivia's
indigenous majority, which accounts for 60 percent of
the 9-million-strong population. 

Strengthened by an August 10 referendum on his mandate
that won two-thirds support from the public, he has
announced another referendum for December 7 to approve
his revised socialist constitution. 

---

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iNBnoOu8ug-UgMFoLMZgyC2Sp-zgD934RG7G0

Associated Press
September 11, 2008

US, Bolivia, Venezuela engaged in diplomatic row
By MATTHEW LEE


WASHINGTON — The Bush administration on Thursday
ordered the expulsion of Bolivia's ambassador to the
U.S. after Bolivia expelled the U.S. envoy there in an
escalating tit-for-tat. 

Hours later, Venezuela's president, in what he called
a solidarity move, ordered the U.S. ambassador in
Caracas to leave the country.

"In response to unwarranted actions and in accordance
with the Vienna Convention (on diplomatic protocol),
we have officially informed the government of Bolivia
of our decision to declare Ambassador Gustavo Guzman
persona non grata," State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack said.

It was unclear exactly how long Guzman would have to
leave the United States but diplomats declared
"persona non grata" are generally given 72 hours to
depart. Guzman had been summoned to the department
earlier Thursday and told of the decision a day after
Bolivia expelled U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg,
officials said.

In Caracas, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez late
Thursday gave U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy 72 hours
to leave the country and said he was recalling his
ambassador from Washington. Chavez said the move was,
in part, to show solidarity with Bolivian President
Evo Morales, who expelled Washington's envoy in La
Paz.
....
Chavez said Venezuela's ambassador to Washington,
Bernardo Alvarez, would return to the U.S. "when
there's a new government in the United States."

Asked about Chavez's remarks, Jennifer Rahimi,
spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, said: "We
saw the speech and we're investigating, but we haven't
seen anything official."

Chavez warned last month that Duddy could soon be
"packing his bags" after the diplomat lamented that
U.S. and Venezuelan officials have not been
cooperating in the war on drugs.

The move by Chavez brings relations with Washington to
a new low and could impact trade. Venezuela is a major
oil supplier to the United States, which is the
country's No. 1 client.

Morales had ordered Goldberg out, accusing him of
conspiring with Bolivia's conservative opposition.
McCormack earlier had called that a "grave error" and
warned that Bolivia would face retaliatory actions for
the expulsion, which he said had inflicted serious
damage on U.S.-Bolivian relations.

In La Paz, Bolivian Foreign Minister David
Choquehuanca told reporters that he formally had
requested Goldberg's expulsion but added that he also
wrote Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to say
Bolivia "wishes to maintain bilateral relations."

A share of U.S. aid to Bolivia goes to eastern
provincial governments that are the nexus of
opposition to Morales, which has angered the Bolivian
president and his supporters.

Goldberg met last week with Ruben Costas, one of
Morales' most virulent opponents. Costas is governor
of Santa Cruz, Bolivia's richest province and the seat
of a pro-autonomy revolt against the nation's first
indigenous president.

The State Department also said the Morales government
has asked Drug Enforcement Agency employees to leave a
base camp in the coca-growing region of Chapare
"because they could no longer protect them." State
Department employees left too, the department said.
....
At least six people were killed as anti-government
protesters fought backers of Morales on Thursday in
Bolivia's pro-autonomy east with clubs, machetes and
guns, police said. 

---

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/12/content_9938615.htm

Xinhua News Agency
September 12, 2008

Latin American nations bolster Bolivia's Morales amid opposition violence 


MEXICO CITY - Countries and regional groups in Latin
America Thursday expressed support to Bolivian
President Evo Morales amid violent actions to tumble
his government. 

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
reaffirmed in a phone conversation with Morales his
support to the Bolivian government against rightist
groups. 

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro also called
his Bolivian counterpart David Choquehuanca and
extended the support of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez to the Bolivian government. 

Bolivia and President Morales have Venezuela's support
"in good and bad moments," said Maduro. 

Meanwhile, Chavez said on Thursday he is ready to
intervene in case that Morales were overthrown. 

In a TV and radio address, Chavez said that his
government would back the use of force in case of a
military coup to overthrow or kill Morales. 

"If any of our governments is overthrown, we will give
a green light to military operations of any type to
get the power back to the people," Chavez said. 

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega also expressed his
support for necessary measures to stop protests by the
opposition to demand autonomy. 

Ortega said what is happening in Bolivia is tragic,
adding that "We are with Evo (Morales), we support him
and we express our sympathy." 

The Paraguayan government Thursday expressed concerns
for the armed clashes between the pro- and
anti-government forces in Bolivia. 

Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo said in a statement
he is "deeply concerned" with the violence in many
parts of Bolivia that has shaken Bolivia for three
days. 

"Paraguay reaffirms its full support to the Bolivian
democracy and government chosen by the people, led by
President Morales. We look forward to a conciliatory
and pacific solution for the well beings of our
neighbor and sister nation (Bolivia)," said the
statement. 

Andean Community of Nations (CAN) Secretary-General
Ecuadorian Freddy Ehlers Thursday called on the
authorities and political forces in Bolivia to resolve
differences in accordance with law. 

"CAN makes a call to all regional and national
authorities and to all political forces in Bolivia to
contain their actions with a full respect to the
country's constitutional and legal norms," said a CAN
statement. 

Bolivian rightist opposition seeking to tumble Morales
attacked the security forces and occupied governmental
offices in many regions in the past few days. 

At least one person was killed and another three could
have died in violent clashes throughout the country,
Bolivia's Vice Interior Minister Ruber Gamarra told a
press conference Thursday. 

According to local media, on-going violence has killed
at least four and injured 30. 

---

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5962332/Honduras-snubs-US-envoy

Radio Netherlands
September 13, 2008

Honduras snubs US envoy 

Tensions between the United States and a number of
Latin American countries has risen further after
Honduras refused to accept the credentials of the new
US ambassador as a demonstration of solidarity with
Bolivia. 

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled the US
ambassador on Thursday. 

In response, on Friday the US government told
Venezuela's ambassador to leave the country and froze
the assets of two other Venezuelan diplomats. 

The row erupted after Bolivian President Evo Morales
accused the US of backing an insurrection by Bolivia's
prosperous regions. 

---

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/12/content_9941872.htm

Xinhua News Agency
September 12, 2008

Chavez warns of military action to quell Bolivia unrest 


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