From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Tue Jan 05 2010 - 23:33:02 EST
Bolivia Refuses to be U.S. Slave
Global Research, January 5, 2010
Xinhua News Agency
LA PAZ, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Bolivian government said on Monday that it
refuses to blindly cater to the economic or political desires of the United
States.
Bolivia's Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said that as La Paz wanted to
reset its diplomatic ties with Washington, based on mutual respect, the
country should not become a slave of the United States, which he described
as "the most important power and the market of the world."
In an interview with Radio Erbol, Bolivia's national radio, Garcia said
Bolivia had been "the most subordinated" Latin American country to the
United States in the past.
"We do not want a market in exchange for them (Americans) telling us who
must be the master. We do not want tax preference in exchange for them
telling us what must be our economic policy, because that will make us
become a slave and a colony again," Garcia said.
According to Garcia, U.S. President Barack Obama, like his predecessor
George W. Bush, had a "strong war policy" which did not allow ties between
the two countries to improve.
"When he (Obama) learns to recognize that the world is a community of
sovereign states, which voluntarily are independent, we will have better
ties with the United States," Garcia said.
However, he added that Bolivia was open to establishing ties with all the
countries in the world based on mutual respect of sovereignty.
Bolivian-U.S. ties were frozen since September 2008, when La Paz expelled
U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg for allegedly interfering with internal
affairs, and Washington took the same retaliatory measure.
This incident also had consequences in the commercial area, as the Obama
administration decided to extend Bolivia's suspension from tax benefits of
the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act.
Former U.S. President Bush suspended Bolivia's benefits because he said the
South American country was not sufficiently helping the fight against drug
trafficking.
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