"The United Nations estimates that Bolivia's coca crop increased 5 percent in 2007 - far below the 27 percent jump recorded in Colombia, a close US ally. Cocaine seizures by Bolivian police working with DEA agents had also increased dramatically during the Morales administration"
Translation: the DRUG WAR is a FRAUD!
Also see: Mexicans Protest CIA Drug Running Operation
Covering Up the CIA'S Colombian Drug Ring
Bolivians Rise Up Against U.S. Coup
"Bolivia suspends US antidrug operation amid slide in relations; Says government being undermined" by Carlos Valdez, Associated Press | November 2, 2008
LA PAZ, Bolivia - President Evo Morales suspended US antidrug operations in Bolivia yesterday as Washington's relations with his leftist government spiraled downward. Morales accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration of espionage and funding criminal groups trying to undermine his government.
I believe him!
Two DEA agents were pulled from the Chapare coca-growing region in September after Bolivian officials reported threats against them from coca growers in the area, a bastion of support for the president, who came to prominence as leader of a coca-growers union battling US eradication campaigns.
The United Nations estimates that Bolivia's coca crop increased 5 percent in 2007 - far below the 27 percent jump recorded in Colombia, a close US ally. Cocaine seizures by Bolivian police working with DEA agents had also increased dramatically during the Morales administration.
But he is a LEFTIST and a POPULIST, and therefore an "enemy."
Morales is a close ally of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who in 2005 also suspended his country's cooperation with the DEA after accusing its agents of espionage.
Oh, yeah, and he's friends with Chavez.
Chávez, who regularly accuses the US government of plotting against him, asserted at the time that the DEA had been using the fight against drugs as a pretext to gather intelligence on his country.
I believe him! See: Bolivian Back Door
Now why was this paragraph cut, readers?
US counternarcotics officials have said Colombian drug traffickers are increasing using Venezuela as a way station for smuggling cocaine to the United States and Europe.
WTF? Why cut that? Hide the fact that it is the U.S. ALLY running the coke?
Bolivia is the world's third-largest cocaine producer after Colombia and Peru. Since taking office in 2006, Morales has pursued a policy of "zero cocaine but not zero coca," which gives tens of thousands of farmers permission to grow coca on small plots for legal uses.
Morales built his political career as a leader of Bolivia's coca growers and wants to develop legal markets for coca leaves while fighting the cocaine trade.
Now why was this paragraph also cut, readers?
The coca leaf is the main ingredient for cocaine but it is also widely used by Bolivians, who brew or chew it for its medicinal and nutritional properties.
Huh? Don't want Americans knowing that for some reason?
The United States this month suspended Bolivia's participation in the Andean trade pact, which lowered US tariffs for Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, in exchange for cooperation with the United States in the war on drugs. The suspension raises US tariffs on imports of Bolivian products. --more--"
