Bolivia: USAID Expelled From Chapare

Written by Granma International

Tuesday, 08 July 2008 05:06

Also see Undermining Bolivia: A Landscape of Washington Intervention by Benjamin Dangl

Bolivian President Evo Morales has expressed his support for the decision by coca growers in the Chapare region of Cochabamba to expel the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and reaffirmed that he would not "kneel down before the empire".

"I salute the decision by the growers' movement, by the Cochabamba area mayors. I now feel, and I hope it is so, that Chapare is not only free of illiteracy but also a territory free of US imperialism", the president said.

During a gathering of campesinos in Alcantari, in the southern region of Chuquisaca, celebrating the delivery of ambulances donated by Spain, Morales again denounced USAID and the US embassy in Bolivia for the destabilisation efforts they are leading against the elected government.

In the meantime, Bolivian defence minister Walker San Miguel rejected the decision by authorities in the departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija, as well as Cochabamba, not to submit their mandates to a vote in a recall referendum and instead to request early elections.

The minister asserted that behind the desperation of the governors in these regions is the intention to carry out a coup. Proposing general elections early is an attack on democracy, San Miguel said.