Evo Morales: Obama 'Lied' About Cooperation

LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales on Wednesday accused Barack Obama of lying by pledging to change America's historically heavy-handed relationship with Latin America and then halting $25 million in annual trade benefits for Bolivia.

The U.S. on Tuesday said it is ending the import duty waivers because world's No. 3 cocaine-producing country is not doing enough to reduce "unconstrained" cultivation of coca.

Morales said the move contradicts Obama's promise at the Summit of the Americas in April to be a peer rather than an overseer of countries in the region. "President Obama lied to Latin America when he told us in Trinidad and Tobago that there are not senior and junior partners," he told reporters.

The former coca-growers' union leader, who expelled U.S. drug agents from his country last year, said the U.S. trade representative used "pure lies and insults" to justify its decision.

The trade office said there has been "explicit acceptance and encouragement of coca production at the highest levels of the Bolivian government."

Bolivia, which considers coca a sacred crop that has many traditional uses other than cocaine, says the U.S. move will cost the impoverished country about 20,000 jobs, particularly in textiles and leather. The country has had only limited success in developing alternatives to U.S. markets, said the of the Bolivian Foreign Trade Institute, Gary Rodriguez, told The Associated Press that Bolivia has had limited success in trying to compensate for the anticipated loss of U.S. markets and that he expected Tuesday's announcement to lead to layoffs.

"Neither Venezuela, Iran, Argentina or even Brazil have so far worked as alternative markets," he said.

Venezuela had promised to buy $13 million in goods over the past year but the La Paz exporter's association, CAME, said Venezuela lacks the U.S. dollars to pay for them.

The U.S. is extending tariff exemptions for Ecuador for another six months as part of the Andean Trade Preference Act, but Ecuador, Peru and Colombia will see those duty-free privileges expire at year's end. The region's cocaine-producing and transit countries have been allowed to export thousands of products to the United States duty-free since 1991 in hopes that income from legal exports will help wean peasants off selling coca, but that hasn't happened.

The U.S. government estimates Bolivia's potential cocaine yield at 195 metric tons, and Morales himself said Wednesday that coca cultivation is up in Bolivia _ by 6 percent last year by U.N. survey. But he said his government is making a good-faith control effort.

U.S. drug agents say landlocked Bolivia exports most of its cocaine to Europe through Brazil and Argentina. The trade office said the DEA previously had 57 employees in four Bolivian cities. Now those agents are spread elsewhere across the region, leaving what U.S. law enforcement officials call a black hole in Bolivia.

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Associated Press Writer Frank Bajak in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.

Comments

[SimianNation]

It's our money! We have every right to forgo tariffs if we choose. You don't like, create other industries, and cease with the coca production.

Plain and simple.

[Pegi]

have a coke and a smile and wait your turn.

[20090120]

"The U.S. government estimates Bolivia's potential cocaine yield at 195 metric tons, and Morales himself said Wednesday that coca cultivation is up in Bolivia _ by 6 percent last year by U.N. survey. But he said his government is making a good-faith control effort."

So...Evo..­.you lied when you said Boliva would make "good faith" efforts to constrain the production of cocaine. Evo, how do YOU measure "good faith"? Is this how?

"The trade office said there has been "explicit acceptance and encouragement of coca production at the highest levels of the Bolivian government­."

So Evo, you are a liar as is your sham of a corrupt government.

[slaxx]

what do you expect from the former leader of the coca producer's union?

[Synnerman]

He's fixing our country first. After he's wrestling with the Republicans and eventually bailing out dying states with Republican governors, he'll tend South American hand outs.

[ObamAtomic]

Evo que pasa chico?

Tu quieres mas dinero(cooperation) pero que estas haciendo para disminuir la
produccion de drogas y tus relaciones con Chavez.

Evo what is wrong with you?

You want more money(coop­eration)bu­t what are you doing to stop drug production
and you friendship with Chavez

[zaz33]

Chavez still has an approval rating over 60%.

Lula Da Silva in Brazil is a close friend of Chavez,

Friendship with Chavez is a plus in Latin America.

[zenmonkman]

and nancy pelosi is elected by san francisco ... do you see the problem???

[tailgateshirts]

A Raise of 6% doesnt sound like they are combating much, coming from the former head of the Coca Growers Union.... Spare me the sadness

[SteamRanger]

This is a problem with the American tradition of trying to buy respectability around the world instead of earning by example.. When is enough ever enough? We've held ourselves to be superior to all other countries and tried to be the world's sugar daddy. You can expect them to start getting aggressive when the money stops coming in.

[zaz33]

SteamRanger - Are you saying that third world countries have ripped us off more than we have them?

[Bexstarr]

No, the leaders of third world countries have ripped us off and do nothing for their citizens. A lot of their citizens live in extreme poverty.

[SteamRanger]

Not at all, but when you make a policy of "buying friends" as the US has around the world, you can count on running into some opposition when you try to tighten the purse strings. For decades, the US Government has been spending money like a drunken sailor on shore leave. It's given us the notion that we can pretty much buy anything. Now it's becoming apparent that respectability wasn't on the list. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost.

For too long we've been on the wrong end of the "give a man a fish..." proverb. We've given out a lot of fish, but have come far short on the teaching part.

[barackobama4prez]

Obama's a good guy. Not a dumb guy.

[noneIn2008]

Welcome to standard USA politics. They lie all the time about everything. Get accustomed to it. Why should you be treated any different than the USA people.

[marecek]

Oh, excuse me, Pres. Morales, but do you honestly expect us, not only to just sit idly by while you fail to stop the cocaine from flooding our domestic market, but also to hand over lots of no-strings-attached aid. Otherwise we are considered heavy handed. Get real!

[JiminNC]

He didn't say we were going to take you to raise ... Evo

[trinity]

If he wants the U.S. to be more of "a peer rather than an overseer", why do they want $25 million in trade benefits from us? Do we get any trade benefits $$$ from our peer Bolivia?

[zaz33]

trinity - keep in mind that there are always strings attached. We don't give anything away for free.

That's why China is doing so well in Africa and Latin America.

They don't have the "this is the way it's gonna be" attitude.

Their foreigh policy is completly different from their domestic policy.

[FebM]

China may be doing "so well" but has any African country developed from China's ripping off their raw materials? By now Zambia would be an emerging economy with all the copper China is draining, but guess what? they pay the leaders huge bribes and pay the workers less than minimum wage. And they are not building any processing units there everything goes to China,

With such arragments, Africa is better off with her raw materials in her belly until future generations are in a position to make better use for them.

[foxbat]

Actually, China pays better and offers arms to Third World countries. US doesn't traffic in arms, at least not in the open to the Third World, unless they might have Bin Laden somewhere in their borders.

[HeavyHitter]

Did he really think Obama meant that he would not do anything without Bolivia's approval? What a chump!

[NYC123]

Listen, if a country grows coce, for internal consummption and it is legal, I agree with Bolivia's president! But, if they are exporting.­.......for­get it!!!

[abouttime]

No. They use it unprocessed in organic industrial products - and have done so for centuries, if not milinea. The corporates process it into white poison nad the CIA controls the flow. If you don't pay, you don't play!
Jeeze, Rememver Vietnam, Iran contra cocaine?
Jeese, leave them alone - time to clean out our prisons of drug uasers who didn't pay the right people for their fix. The Pharamaceuticals push their drugs on the NY Stock Market and TV sets and America becomes "comfortably numb" while the tax-payers give billions to the Insurance companies and call it "Health care reform"!
Oh, yes... One man's export is another man's import!
follow the money.
Follow the money... It is all around, but dispersed quite unfairly!

[bosha]

There exporting.

[305Rider]

Bolivia is using it for internal consumption.

It's the CIA-sponsored cartels that are exporting it.

[LeeCalif]

The Obama is getting very strict with Bolivia and yet keeps giving Israel a pass

AND MORE MONEY.

Hypocritical administration.

[zaz33]

Venevuela and Bolivia threw out the Israel Ambassadors because of "cast lead"

That explains some of the negative comments here.