An indiginous Bolivian wears the 'Maskaypacha', the Inca sign of authority, at a ceremony welcoming the New Year of the Aymara people. While it was the indigenous who first put Evo Morales into office, dissention within the ranks of indigenous ranks is giving him trouble. The Morales government is blaming the United States.   BBC NEWS VIDEO: Fruit factory decision results in violent protests in Bolivia, May 9, 00:01:31

La Paz: President Evo Morales has accused the United States of trying to buy off union leaders to generate resistance to his administration. From all sides, official authorities pointed to the United States Agency for International Development [USAID] as being responsible for all the anti-government politics.

 

“We have detected - we're not sleeping - that behind the scenes through USAID, the gringos are again going after some of our leaders in the country and city. Since we can cope with the traitors among us… they want to suborn our leadership to confuse the people with any excuse or argument,” the president complained during ceremonies with indigenous leaders [for Aymara New Year 5,518], carried out Thursday at Murillo square.

 

Morales added, “I have met many officials from CONAMAQ (the National Council of Ayllus and Markas of the Qollasuyo), some of our bother mallkus and former officials of Conamaq - and later I found them working with the U.S. Embassy. These aren't our principles. I'm not mentioning any names, but they are there, and many brothers have also identified them.”

 

[The National Council of Ayllus and Markas of the Qollasuyo is an indigenous federation of communities that originally backed President Morales' rise to power. Now that he's in office, Morales is having trouble addressing the demands of indigenous people in eastern Bolivia].

 

President Morales' onslaught against USAID emerged two days after Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera warned that the president could make a determination that the U.S. agency has been meddling.

 

Meanwhile, Vice Minister of Coordination with Social Movements Cesar Navarro, and the Autonomy Minister Carlos Romero, accused USAID of causing division within labor unions.    

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

Navarro told the Bolivian Information Agency that, “the purpose of USAID is to delegitimize indigenous organizations and create a climate of conflict and confrontation between the government and indigenous and social groups; this demonstrates highly political behavior which damaged the process of unification that we Bolivians are going through right now.”

 

PROOF

 

Romero asserted that leaders of the Indigenous People’s Federation of La Paz (CEPILAP), “has approved of and given me this document (a book entitled Strategic Institutional Plan of CEPILAP), which shows the USAID funding reached the group through the Wildlife Conservation Society.”

 

Romero also said that in Beni, there are accusations that CEPILAP received funding from the Friends of Nature Foundation operates with funding from USAID.” According to the minister, these NGOs are “influencing” the mobilization of the Confederation of Indigenous People of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB), which has broken off dialogue with the government and is organizing a protest march.

 

The government’s allegations arose following the conflict in Caranavi in May, in which two people died after police intervention [the police opened roads that had been blocked for 12 days by protesters after complaints by farmers.] The president accused USAID of infiltrating labor unions to generate mobilization against the government, as occurred in the region when there were demands that a citrus-processing plant be built there [instead of in a neighboring town]. On Friday, the vice president said that, “we have been very patient, very tolerant with the U.S. agency, about conspiracies and ideology.”

 

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[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US June 24, 6:55pm]