Bolivian President Evo Morales shows his ballot before casting

it during a referendum on a new constitution, in a village called

Villa 14 de Septiembre in a coca growing area, January 25.

Opposed by a majority of the middle and upper classes, voters

approved the new constitution, but opposition leaders, like the

author of this article, say they'll try to block its implementation.

La Razon, Bolivia

Insults and Coca Growing Will Not Please Obama

"How can President Morales hope to carry on a good relationship with Obama if coca farms are expanding indiscriminately and the production of cocaine continues to poison half the world?"

By Manfredo Kempff Suárez*

Translated By Liz Essary

January 24, 2009

Bolivia - La Razon - Original Article (Spanish)

It seems that tomorrow could be a day of mourning for many Bolivians, because those of us who don't accept that mess of disjointed papers that they've named the constitution hold that we're gambling with the future, and embarking on it with a handicap. For years now - since 2003 - we've been warning against a Magna Carta that's been drawn up by pastors, coca producers and resurrected leftists, joined by some of the ignorant statesmen who revolve around the president at the palace. So going back over the text of this huge and delusional tome is neither appealing nor useful. Tomorrow we might add just a little more bile, since mine is running short. [Bolivians did indeed pass the new constitution on the day this article was published ].

It is preferable, then, to comment on other topical issues that are linked indirectly to the referendum [on a new constitution]. One issue is, for example, the furious and ill-mannered attack on the United States that President Morales launched the day before yesterday in Congress, obliging U.S. Chargé d'affaires Kris Urs, with true dignity, to walk out of the legislature. Another issue puzzling to those with the patience to have listened to over four hours of nonsense and falsehood was the discourteous reference that President Morales made in regard to the European Union, which likewise brought displeasure to its representative, and who also abandoned the chamber before the conclusion of the president's soporific address.

[Editor's Note: Urs, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Bolivia since President Evo Morales expelled Ambassador Philip Goldberg last year, walked out on the third anniversary of his taking office. Morales repeated accusations that the U.S. Embassy conspired with separatist-minded politicians in east Bolivia to 'foment the disintegration of the country.' The United States vigorously denies the charge].

Didn't the president announce that after the triumph of President Obama, he would improve relations with the United States? Doesn't he consider the consequences of his words when he attacks the E.U., knowing that the greater portion of cooperation comes from over there? Why in a report about his three years as the executive, should he create such an unnecessary provocation? The only answer is that President Morales doesn't have much to say with respect to his administration, and thus touches upon the cost of police cots, ambulances, and from then on moved to relations with the U.S. and E.U.

But what's more, with absolute tranquility, he repeatedly spins his lies about what the North Americans want to overthrow, that ambassador Goldberg was an expert in dividing up nations, and because of that, they [Washington] sent him to Bolivia. And that the gringos paid $10,000 to each member of Congress who voted for his expulsion from Congress in 2002. Why does our head of state lie? Is it that he believes we are all asses and that we'll accept with patience, the load of nonsensical charges that are becoming the custom to send out from Chapare? [Chapare is a major coca-growing region and base of support for Evo Morales, the nation's first indigenous leader ].

THE COCA LEAF: DANGEROUS OR THERAPUETIC?

PART II

PART III

PART IV

PART V

The president has failed to obtain every commercial advantage that Bolivia could have gained with the U.S. and Europe. He was caught up with Hugo Chavez in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas [ALBA - an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement offered by the United States ]. His false gas nationalization has failed. Forty eight hours before the referendum, he pressured the Chaco Company by deploying the military and getting them involved, which has become his habit. [Empresa Petrolera Chaco is the Bolivian arm of Argentine giant Pan-American Energy]. More than 100 soldiers took over Chaco's facilities in Santa Cruz, in a show of strength, along with the MAS-FFAA co-government [MAS is the Movement Toward Socialism  and the FFAA is another party we have been unable to identify]. Will he complain to the United Nations that because of its poverty, no one wants to bring their money to Bolivia? Does he expect further investment given all he's been doing?

And what of UNASUR? [The Union of South American Nations ] Didn't we warn you that this Rodolpho Mattarollo was a dangerous and corrupt leftist [See editor's note below]? Doesn't he see the results? How is it that our president took the bait that [Chilean leader] Mrs. Bachelet tossed out? Because everyone knows that this Mattarollo was recommended by the Kirchners - or in other words, by [Argentine President] Cristina Kirchner. And now you see, your excellency: Three of the reported dead in the UNASUR report are alive. A bit frieghtened, but actually alive. How embarrassing!

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[Editor's Note: Rodolfo Mattarollo is Argentina's secretary of human rights. The report that the author refers to was published by UNASUR on anti-government violence that broke out in Pando, Bolivia, on September 11, 2008, which was provoked by anti-Morales protesters who opposed his plans to redistribute land and wealth. The author, who clearly favors the opposition, charges that the report was false and orchestrated by those who favor the left-wing Morales. According to the report, the Bolivian opposition participated in a "crime against humanity" that left at least eighteen people dead, dozens wounded and a number of others missing."].

And what about the coca? What about this harmful by-product is so profitable? How can the president hope to carry on a good relationship with Obama if coca farms are expanding indiscriminately and the production of cocaine continues to poison half the world? Why do they mock Law 1008 and thereby increase the “taste [demand for coca].” [Editor's Note: Law 1008 is a law that restricts what Bolivians can make with their coca leaves ]. Why does the president continue to chair Chapare's six federations of coca growers if we know that this is where the greatest quantity of “white stuff” is produced? 

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[Editor's Note: Law 1008, passed in 1998, recognizes only 12,000 hectares in Bolivia's Yungas region as sufficient to meet legal demand of coca. Law 1008 also explicitly states that coca grown in the Chapare is not needed for meeting traditional demand for chewing or for tea, and calls for the eradication, over time, of all "excess" coca in Chapare and elsewhere ].

This is a bad “change,” Mr. President. Bad government, and on top of that, corrupt. There are many people who no longer think this is serious. That is why, if tomorrow the “yes” vote wins, three or four departments [provinces] will turn their backs and this constitution will be headed for the garbage bin.

*Manfredo Kempff Suárez is a writer and diplomat

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[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US January 28, 6:25pm]