Wikileaks Unveiled U.S. Strategies to Destabilize Bolivia and Latin America

by Lady Michelle-Jennifer Santos, Founder and Publisher

August 18, 2012 (TSR) – The mechanisms that the US government use to damage the image of the progressive governments of Latin America have been identified in Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina and Bolivia now, thanks to the book called “Wiki Media Leaks”. The book written by two Argentine authors, Martin and Sebastian Becerra Lacunza, exhibits “the relationship between media and governments of Latin America the prism of the WikiLeaks cables.”

The work shows how U.S. ambassadors in La Paz had contacts with the media and big business, as they were unhappy with the change of time with the full supporting millions of Bolivians to their President Evo Morales.

On page 152, it reveals how similar discourses, styles and patterns were used to attempt to damage the image of the Bolivian head of state.

For instance, based on the cables of November 27, 2007, it reported that when sending texts on freedom of expression, including definitions like those signed by Ambassador Philip Goldberg, he said “Although Bolivia still has a vibrant press and is independent, but we see that freedom of expression has deteriorated under President Morales “.

This same release was recycled and quoted as a report by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) on March 2007, and appeared as “it is undeniable that the climate of fear has been installed after the President called and mobilize the masses of supporters to intimidate the journalists and the media. ”

In addition, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID, for its acronym in English) and other international agencies have been the political and financial support of certain private media and groups that oppose governments like Bolivia.

The diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks confirm that U.S. State Department initiated the ‘incentivized’ media campaigns against Evo Morales.

The collected data also show that in May 2006, the U.S. diplomatic mission in La Paz claimed that three Venezuelans were hired by USAID to work in Bolivia “on democracy.” Later, in November 2007, the then U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, said in another cable, his distaste for the Bolivian government was investigating the financing agencies like USAID to certain sections of the press in that country .

Goldberg even said that Evo Morales was making a show and reported that the journalist Carlos Valverde, whom he identified as one of its sources, had assured him that the Bolivian president was preparing “the way for a coup.”

On this issue, President Rafael Correa spoke today in Loja and shared his disappointment to these manipulations and agreements between commercial media owners, businessmen and diplomats living in Latin America in order to harm the dignity of peoples.

Finally, the Ecuadorian president said that as commercial media in Ecuador became political actors.

COMMENTARY:

Bolivia’s large indigenous population is ruled by Latin America’s first indigenous president Evo Morales, who was elected in 2006. Morales is serving his second term in office. His first election, December 18, 2005, he won with 53.7% of the popular vote. Two and a half years later he substantially increased this majority; in a recall referendum on August 14, 2008, more than two thirds of voters voted to keep him in office. He won presidential elections again in December 2009 with 63% and continued to his second term of presidency.

Morales is an outspoken critic in the UN of countries which are not prepared to limit climate change by holding temperatures to a 1C rise. Bolivia’s ambassador to the UN, Pablo Salon, says his country seeks to achieve harmony with nature, and hinted that mining and other companies would come under greater scrutiny.

In April 2011, the Bolivians drafted a law called the Law of Mother Earth. According to The Guardian:

“The Law of Mother Earth, was agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country’s rich mineral deposits as “blessings” and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry”.

The draft then states: “She is sacred, fertile and the source of life that feeds and cares for all living beings in her womb. She is in permanent balance, harmony and communication with the cosmos. She is comprised of all ecosystems and living beings, and their self-organisation.”

Bolivia’s 11 new rights for nature include:

• the right to life and to exist;

• the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration;

• the right to pure water and clean air;

• the right to balance;

• the right not to be polluted;

• the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered;

• the right of nature “to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities.

President Evo Morales, one of our allies, was the loudest voice, together with the Bolivians present, at the UN General Assembly denouncing privatisation of water last year. He is America’s favorite because the Bolivians rebelled against water privatisation by US corporation Bectal in 2000. At the UN, Morales slammed corporatists and hammered a point that needed to be said: “Water is a basic public need that must not be managed by private interests, it should be available to all the people,” and in challenging the notion that water management by private corporations will  accelerate the process of development, he said “Without water, there can be no food, no life,” he said, “Competition of any sort cannot resolve the issue of poverty.”  He also critisised ‘developed’ countries for failing to adopt a rights approach for mother earth and linked the struggle for environmental and social justice ”If we don’t respect the rights of Mother Earth, we cannot respect human rights.”

Morales also drew up a draft UN treaty which would give Mother Earth the same rights as humans, including the right to life, to pure water and clean air.

The South American country wanted the UN to recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to ‘dominate and exploit’. It aims to establish 11 new rights for nature which include: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.

With a sound mind and caring heart for Humanity and our planet, is it any wonder why the American corporations with their government need to remove him? Where else can they make that cocaine they put in Coca-cola?

Bolivia, a landlocked south American country, has come through decades of economic and political strife for more than two centuries — and despite colonization, war, and heavy exploitation of the land and people by industry, it is a country that has the vision to chart a brave course of respect for the planet, not a “resource”.

While I do not promote worship on Gaia (Bolivians call her Pachamama), I believe we can all agree that we must love, cherish, honor, respect and care for our planet. We cannot allow greed to continue. For what Evo Morales has done and continue to stand against those who wish to cripple Humanity, Bolivia is an entity worthy of my deepest respect and care.