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01/21/2006:

"Bolivia's Evo Morales faces major military crisis hours before his inauguration"

Hours before his inauguration as the first Bolivian president of indigenous origin, Evo Morales has to deal with a major crisis in the country's military. Following a denounce made public by Morales's Movement To Socialism Party, the incumbent president Eduardo Rodriguez Tuesday sacked the army chief and ordered a probe into the destruction in the US of 28 missiles in October.

Following military advice, Mr. Rodriguez had authorised American help with the decommissioning of the missiles as he had been told the ageing Chinese missiles posed a safety risk. At the time, Evo Morales - who will take office on Sunday - had called it a US plot to weaken Bolivian defences. President Rodriguez now admitted the mistake and said he would seek clarification from Washington about the issue.
english.pravda.ru


Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela will assist Bolivia
Brasília – Following a meeting with the presidents of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, and Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, yesterday in Brasilia, the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, declared that the three countries are preparing an urgent program to assist the new president of Bolivia, Evo Morales. Chavez said he wanted something on paper by Sunday (January 22), in time for Morales' inauguration. Chavez said that, among other things, Bolivia could be given assistance in dealing with the problem of robberies on highways in the form of police or military units from its three neighbors.

Chavez said economic assistance could take the form of loans from state-run development banks. "We consider Evo Morales an important player in the effort to achieve South American integration (união). We want Bolivia in Mercosur. I believe Bolivia will join Mercosur."


In Bolivia, a $100 Million Question
ETERAZAMA, Bolivia -- At a muddy camp in the vast tropical lowlands known as the Chapare, about 150 Bolivian soldiers and policemen responsible for destroying the area's illegal coca plants have done little in recent weeks but kill time. They chat outside crude tents built of tree limbs and sagging tarps, haul water from a nearby river and sweat through the fatigues the U.S. government bought for them.

"We're not doing anything these days," one soldier said, ignoring the mosquitoes alighting on his exposed forearms. "We're just waiting to hear what's going to happen next."

It's the $100 million question in Bolivia: What will become of the U.S.-financed program to eradicate coca, the plant used to make cocaine, now that the longtime head of the coca growers' union, Evo Morales, is about to become the country's president?

Morales, 46, who will be inaugurated Sunday, said during his campaign that he might withdraw Bolivia's support for the eradication program, a keystone of the U.S.-backed anti-drug and alternative crop development campaign here. He has hinted at decriminalizing the cultivation of coca, which is legally chewed as a stimulant and used in traditional medicines, and he has criticized regional U.S. anti-drug programs as false pretexts for establishing a military presence.

But Morales has toned down his rhetoric since being elected in December, suggesting that the government might maintain current limits on cultivation, at least until a study assessing the potential demand of the legal coca market is completed. He consistently reminds people that he is committed to fighting cocaine, but not at the expense of the farmers who want to make a living growing coca for legal use.