Bolivia’s Morales Scared of US Meddling in Latin America

The United States is using the war on drugs as a pretext to promote its own geo-political interest in Latin America, says Bolivian President Evo Morales.  

Morales spoke to reporters at the UN today in New York on the sidelines of the Bolivian led initiative to recognize water as a basic human right. 

“Lately, it is no longer communists or terrorists but drug traffickers that we are being called,” Morales told reporters through an interpreter. “There have been many accusations and attempts to involve me in drug trafficking first as a leader and now as a president, so we shall see what happens in the future,”

Before leaving Bolivia, Morales reportedly voiced concern that cocaine or bombs could be planted on his plane in an attempt to frame him. 

“I am very afraid of the U.S. government because I know their political operators. Drug trafficking is handled with geo-political interests in mind. The DEA was not struggling against drug trafficking but was controlling it with political interests in mind, and everybody knows that.”

Morales went even further in his accusations, claiming that the US was directly involved in recent attempted coups against governments in Venezuela, Ecuador and Honduras, but had only been successful in Honduras, saying Latin American governments were up 3 to 1 on the US. 

“Wherever there is a U.S. Ambassador, there is a possibility of a coup d’état,” said Morales, who in 2008 expelled former U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Philip S. Goldberg for allegedly plotting the overthrow of his government. 

Morales insisted that there is a “great desire” among Bolivians to improve relations with Americans, but they didn’t want any type of conspiracy finding its way into the country. He also said he would cooperate with the Obama administration as equal partners in the fight against drug trafficking, but doubted the Republican led Congress would allow for cooperation with his government.