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 News from Around the Americas | December 2005 
Evo Morales: US, Respect Sovereignty
 Prensa Latina
| | Presidential candidate Evo Morales gives a news conference accompanied by vice presidential candidate Alvaro Garcia Linera in La Paz, Bolivia on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2005. Bolivia's caretaker government on Tuesday prepared to hand over power to Morales, the leftist coca grower who will be the Andean nation's first Indian president, marking a historic turning point in a country traditionally governed by the non-Indian elite. (AP/Dado Galdieri) |
La Paz - Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales publicly demanded Tuesday that the US respect the people´s decision, and made it clear that the time of submission diplomacy and subordination had ended.
In an extensive news conference, Movement to Socialism (MAS) leader Morales challenged the US to make a pact against drugs without damaging Bolivian sovereignty, farmers and coca used for a legal purpose.
On US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice´s remarks slamming the democratic nature of the next Bolivian government, the MAS leader called for respect for the sovereign will of Bolivians, who believe that talk is the best way to work out domestic and foreign problems, and that if the US bets on diplomacy, so will his government.
Translating the Quechua slogan "Huaiñuchum yanquis" (Down with Yankees), with which he closed a Sunday address to celebrate his landslide win in elections; the president-elect said it is a slogan of struggle, resistance and defense of dignity and sovereignty.
It is also a condemnation of the policies of hunger, abject poverty and submission we must raze to dignify Bolivians, Morales pointed out.
Nationalization of hydrocarbons and natural resources based on the property rights of the State and suspension of deals that grant them to multinationals were platform promises ratified by the president-elect and contracts will be reviewed and revised.
Keeping the door open to conversations with corporations, he made it clear however that he would be severe with transnationals that smuggled oil and committed other crimes, as their contracts will be promptly cancelled.
He said the firms will operate under new conditions to ensure profit and recovery of their investments, and he will support the collaboration of regional state-run companies to promote the PETROAMERICA energy project in Latin America.
Defending the coca leaf as beneficial for health, Morales said he would strive for its international legalization by promoting removal of that plant from the UN list of prohibited substances.
There cannot only be legalization for Coca Cola, he remarked about the famous soda containing Andean coca as an ingredient.
The MAS leader asserted the drug fight can no longer be the pretext for US geopolitical interests to increase dominion over nations such as Bolivia and to install military bases.
On the presence of the US Drug Enforcement Agency in Bolivia, which even has authority over Bolivian army members and the police, he described this as unacceptable and vowed to fight drug traffic without foreign military intervention. |
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