Falling For The Bait

Evo Morales, the President of Bolivia, decided to launch a cheap shot at the U.S. Government regarding our policy on terrorism (and by extension, our policy on coca cultivation), following the recent bombings alleged to have been masterminded by Californian Jay Amero in La Paz, Bolivia. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela also likes to use these kind of cheap shots. And why not? The U.S. Government falls for the bait every time!

President Evo Morales denounced the bombings as attacks on Bolivia's democracy.

"This American was putting bombs in hotels," Morales said Wednesday. "The U.S. government fights terrorism, and they send us terrorists."

Morales comments prompted an equally emphatic response from the U.S. State Department, which said the Bolivian leader's remark harmed their governments' efforts to cooperate against terrorism.

"Declarations such as these impede our efforts and block our capacity to cooperate" in anti-terrorism efforts, the U.S. Embassy in La Paz said in a statement Thursday.

In Washington, Thomas Shannon, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said he was "surprised" by Morales's comments.

Shannon said Washington had expressed its concern over the comments to Bolivia's government, according to his spokesman Eric Watnik.

Morales strongly opposes U.S.-led efforts to eliminate cultivation in Bolivia of coca, the main ingredient used to make cocaine. Coca also has traditional uses by Bolivia's Indian. Morales' close ties with Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have also strained relations with Washington.

Instead of taking the high road and carefully defending the right of all civilized societies to protect themselves against terrorist actions, the U.S. Government fired right back at Morales. Not the best of game plans. Why not state that the U.S. deplores the bombings, and that the U.S. Government will do anything in its power to assist the Bolivians, rather than state that its capacity to cooperate with the Bolivians is now blocked?

In their dumbing down of the Associated Press story, this morning's Sacramento Bee, Houston Chronicle, and I'm sure other newspapers, characterize the U.S. Goverment's statement as if the U.S. Government - the U.S. Government alone - defines what violent actions do - and don't - constitute terrorism.

The bombings Tuesday and Wednesday were denounced as "terrorist" by an angry President Evo Morales, prompting an emphatic response Thursday from the U.S. State Department, which said the Bolivian leader's remarks harmed efforts to cooperate against terrorism.

Whatever one might say about Morales' cheap shot, however, it seems pretty clear that these bombings (foreigners bombing civilian facilities for obscure purposes) qualify as terrorist actions. By attacking Morales, however, the U.S. Government seems to be indirectly defending the right of renegade, self-professed American Wiccans to murder Bolivians at random. And we wonder, sometimes, why our reputation suffers in the rest of the world?