Earlier this month, the Bolivian government proposed improving fragile political relations with the U.S. That diplomatic gesture may be overshadowed by events today, however:Bolivian President Evo Morales on Monday ordered the expulsion of a senior U.S. diplomat in the country, accusing him of participating in a "conspiracy" against Bolivia's far-left government.A spokesman at the embassy at La Paz didn’t comment on the specifics of Martinez’ expulsion though he did say that Martinez was a secondary-level career diplomat.
Francisco Martinez, the second secretary of the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, was "persona non grata," Morales said in a public address at his official palace.
Martinez, he said, "was in permanent contact with opposition groups during the entire period of the conspiracy," which he said caused anti-government unrest that rocked much of the country in September 2008.
Morales’ today is one of several expulsions over the past year; Morales had previously ordered out counternarcotics DEA agents while U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg was booted out in September.
Image- PRESS TV
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Ottawa Citizen, chron.com, Reuters
I hope things clear up under the Obama administration, the Bolivian Ambassador to the UN was so correct when he stated the the US War-On-Drugs is a war of economic. I was speaking at that same forum; mine being the economic strangle hold of the potential HEMP industries & the legal US prison industries using Rockefeller Drug Laws induced slavery inside the private & governametal manufacturing system of non-rehabilitation!
ReplyDeletePhilip Gurrieri