The Goldberg Variation

Here's the latest from "Change only a dumbass can believe in".

Philip S. Goldberg, Nominee for Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of State

Philip S. Goldberg, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, is the United States Coordinator for Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions on North Korea. Mr. Goldberg has served as Ambassador to Bolivia; Chief of Mission in Kosovo and Charge d’affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission in Chile. He is currently coordinating implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, an assignment he will continue pending confirmation by the Senate when a successor will be designated. His earlier assignments include: acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs; Executive Assistant and Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State; Bosnia Desk Officer and member of US delegation at Dayton Peace Negotiations; Political-Economic Officer in South Africa, and Consular and Political officer in Colombia. Mr. Goldberg is a graduate of Boston University.

If you've never heard of this turd previously, check out previous posts on the guy and see what he tried to do to Bolivia. Apparently Billary is a big fan of his and upped him for the job. Figures.

Wow, Buffalo

A mighty surprise this morning. Some dude at the Buffalo News called Newton Garver has written this note on Bolivia under Evo Morales, the US role in the destabilization plan of the half moon states, the eventual Morales victory and the state of play today.

Newton has obviously done plenty of homework on this, as it's pretty darned accurate (bar the mis-spelling of Oruro, but that's very easily forgiven) and really is a very good potted history of the country since Evo came to power. Refreshing to see some accurate journalism on Bolivia from the pen of a US citizen. Go have a read yourself...here's the link again.

Rule one in politics: Never, ever, ever admit you're wrong

And so with a flourish of the pen, President of the United States of America George W. Bush suspends Bolivia's ATPDEA trade advantages and, according to those that know these things, puts around 25,000 people out of work in the urban sprawl of La Paz and El Alto. The suspension takes effect on December 15th, just in time for Christmas.

Look, it's his right to do this and Bolivia cannot impose its sovereign will over this. When the man says "No Soup For You", there's no arguing. But the USA just makes itself look stupid by denying it has anything to do with the expulsion of US Ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg and insisting, as they did once again this afternoon, that it was all about the lack of effort in Bolivia's "war on drugs" (my how I hate that phrase). To put it in context, here's a link to an important report that hits times, dates, names and everything to prove that there was no great problem between Bolivia and the US DEA up to the moment that Goldberg was thrown out. Here's an excerpt from this very well-written report:

President Morales took office in January 2006. The Bush administration did not decertify the Morales government in September 2006, nor in September 2007. Nor was there any indication, prior to Ambassador Goldberg’s expulsion, that things would be different in September 2008. As recently as March 2008, the State Department noted in its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INSCR) that

“Bolivian and U.S. officials meet regularly to coordinate policy, implement programs/operations, and resolve issues.” Moreover, the March 2008 INCSR noted that in 2007 Bolivia had “surpassed its own coca eradication goal of 5,000 hectares”7 (one hectare equals 2.47 acres) and that “[a]ll seizure and interdiction statistics increased in comparison to 2006.” Even with regard to the Bolivian government’s policy of pursuing coca reduction through negotiated, voluntary eradication, the 2008 INCSR highlighted close cooperation:

“Despite challenges in transitioning to a new policy environment, bilateral cooperation in Integrated Alternative Development (IAD) remains strong. In the early part of 2007, the U.S. Mission, in consultation with Government of Bolivia counterparts, adjusted its IAD program to more strategically support the GOB’s net coca rationalization strategy and diversified development with declining budget resources.”

Another good link on this subject (and a little more accessible) is Jim Schultz's Blog from Bolivia's recent report here (it features the same WOLA report). But hey...we don't need no stinkin' facts.

Meanwhile, have a wild guess about the fate of those 25,000 soon-to-be unemployed workers in Bolivia. Let's play a quick round of "if it were me" and see if you can spot another basic problem with Dubya's grand plan. Question: If you were a Bolivian manual worker who had just been laid off from your job in a texiles factory and couldn't find any other employment would you:

a) Hang around a cold dusty urban sprawl that sits nearly 13,000 feet above sea level with no job and no money? Or maybe you'd choose to......

b) Get on a bus and five hours later get off in the semi-tropical Yungas to tend a smallholding of coca plants that had been "donated" by a sponsor, the only condition being you sell him your harvest at the market rate. The job wouldn't take more than 6 hours of your day and the pay, although not great, would easily keep you and your family fed, clothed and watered.

Tough choice, huh? But hey.....you just KNOW that Bush's policies will cut cocaine production and help his godforsaken war. And you know it wasn't just tit-for-tat spite that has brought him to suspend the trade deal. And you know how loved the USA is in Latin America. Hearts'n'minds? Nah, leave that for the Russians..............

If you are a US citizen reading this post, I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.



UPDATE: Bolivian authorities today made two big smuggling busts, and both were strangely half a metric tonne in weight.

The first was over half a tonne of cocaine seized by the Bolivian FELCN anti drugs squad. Six Bolivians and three Peruvians have been arrested in the swoop.

The second half a tonne was a consignment of contraband ammunition, bullets and shotguns shells that had been sent from....roll on the drums....yes, you guessed it, the USA.

Yep....happy Thanksgiving folks. You have a lot to be thankful for.

The DEA in Bolivia

So come on, riddle me this one dudettes and dudes:

What were the 37 US Drug Enforcement Agency agents in Bolivia doing with 1,000 (one thousand) M-16 machine guns?

Below is an excerpt from this fascinating report written by Roger Burbach and published in Upside Down World. Will the US keep insisting on Evo's paranoia? Go click that link and read for yourself. Unmissable.

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Then on November 1, Morales released a bomb shell by announcing the indefinite suspension of the activities of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Bolivia, and the expulsion of the 37 DEA agents from the country. “Agents of the DEA carried out political espionage, including the financing of delinquent groups,” Morales declared. He pointed to a key U.S. operative involved in these activities: “Steven Faucette, the regional agent of the DEA in Santa Cruz, who on a diplomatic mission of the U.S. embassy made trips to Trinidad and Riberalta [cities in the Media Luna provinces of Beni and Pando, respectively] with the objective of financing the Civics who were committed to carrying out a civic coup.”

Morales went on to disclose that a plane with North American registry called Super King had flown to airports in the Media Luna without registering flight plans or providing notification of “the cargo it transferred to pick up vehicles when it landed on the runway, in clear violation of our national sovereignty.” Bolivian intelligence also discovered seven security houses run by the US “that carried out political espionage,” including telephone surveillance of political, police and military authorities (19)

The DEA and its 37 agents were expelled from the country. The Bolivian government appropriated what amounted to a DEA military arsenal, including airplanes, boats, ground transport vehicles, communications equipment and one thousand M-16 machine guns.

Is this the worst ever note on LatAm from The Economist?

The Economist has always been lacklustre in its regional coverage, but this note linked right here, full of half-truths and revisionist history (example " Mr Goldberg’s offence was merely to have met opposition governors.".........LOL!!!) on the state of play between Bolivia and the USA really takes the biscuit. Don't they know that Goldberg is in the caca in his own State Dep't due to the way he cocked it up in Bolivia? Even this humble blogger knows more than The Economist about the latest developments, it seems. The Economist may cover other parts of the world well, but in LatAm it has royally sucked for years and there's nothing to suggest the pattern is about to change, either.

The thing that annoys is that there are plenty of informed people all over the globe that trust The Economist implicitly; it never crosses their minds that their fave magazine would try to unduly spin and influence their opinion. Nah...these clowns actually think the tail wags the dog; they think they can read The Economist then form their own informed opinion a posteriori.

Delusion.

If you want to know what has really been happening in Bolivia and the dirty tricks being used by the US and its propaganda machine, just click the name "Philip Goldberg" on the tagline under here. Or better still, click here and go to Abiding In Bolivia because El Duderino knocks spots off the MSM when it comes to Bolivia coverage.

PS: corvad, otto.rock1 (AT) gmail (dot) com

Breaking: Spooks After Bolivian Peace Corps Mutineers

So here's the screenpaste of an interesting visit I had this evening. At 7:11pm EST some outfit called the "Central Intelligence Agency" from a place called 'Fairfax, VA' came a-visiting. Well that's very nice of them (please call again, or maybe take out an RSS feed, guys), but the interesting bit is where they came from.

If you notice the referral link below, it says "peacecorpssarah at blogspot dot com" which is the blog of that Peace Corps worker who quit the service to protest the way she was pulled out of Bolivia by her country and was then interviewed by AP. Here's the post on it I wrote yesterday with the link to her blog, just in case you need a reminder.

Domain Name		(Unknown)
IP Address		198.81.129.# (Central Intelligence Agency)
ISP		ANS Communications
Location		Continent : North America Country : United States (Facts) State : Virginia City : Fairfax Lat/Long : 38.849, -77.3165 (Map) Distance : 3,849 miles
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution : 1024 x 768 Color Depth : 32 bits
Time of Visit		Oct 14 2008 6:11:22 pm
Last Page View		Oct 14 2008 6:11:22 pm
Visit Length		0 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://peacecorpssarah.blogspot.com/
Visit Entry Page		http://incakolanews....ce-corps-munity.html
Visit Exit Page		http://incakolanews....ce-corps-munity.html
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Oct 14 2008 7:11:22 pm

Now it could just be me, but it does seem a little strange to suddenly get The Man snooping round a young Peace Corps worker's blog just days after she kicks up a fuss and makes it into the public forum via Associated Press. So Sarah, if you start seeing a lot of dudes hanging around your house wearing dark glasses and fedoras you know what the story is, yeah? They're just making sure....you're....errrr......protected.

Like............ errrrrr.......... safe............... y'know?

As for Bolivia, it's kinda strange that the CIA should be so interested, no? I mean, it probably has nothing to do with the secret meetings between opposition leaders and the US Embassy in August that were immediately followed by uprisings that tried to destabilize the Morales gov't by fascist autonomists and a successful massacre of indigenous people in the area.

Just a coincidence, you know.......move along now......nothing to see here.


UPDATE Wednesday AM: MGrace at Bolivian blog 'Down South' has had the spooky visitors, too

US Peace Corps Mutiny

Abiding in Bolivia has all the details on the Peace Corps Mutiny so go read it on this link, but to give the quickflash outline á la Otto;

1) On Sept 10th Evo Morales kicked out the US ambassador to Bolivia for interfering in domestic affairs. More evidence of his messin' and a meddlin' has recently come to light on that one, too.

2) As part of its foot-stomping fit of pique, the Bush administration pulled out the 113 US Peace Corps workers in Bolivia, ostensibly citing safety concerns.

3) (And this is the doozy): Of the 113 members of the Peace Corps who were pulled out, 70 have quit the service and have gone back to their town and villages in Bolivia to continue their work.

4) As part of its report on the Peace Corps Mutiny, AP proves quite clearly that the US assistant secretary to Latin America, Tom Shannon, is lying through his teeth.

Here's that link again (and you can see the AP report over there, too). It's certainly refreshing to know that the subversive, underhand ways of the US government and its regional diplomats as regards LatAm are not necessarily reflected in its citizens. Peace corps volunteers are people that all US citizens should be proud of, and now they have 70 more reasons to feel doubly proud.

UPDATE: But hey, don't bother hearing it from me, get the story from the people that really matter. Here's a link to the blog of Sarah Nourse (Otto clever for finding this one, no?) the Peace Corps volunteer that was interviewed by AP. In here latest post she makes it clear that she's back in the States now (for the time being at least) and gives us more background about just what went on from her point of view, including;

"I stand by what I said, and every time I think about the Bolivians we've left behind or the dashed hopes of good-hearted volunteers, I want people to know that there could have been a better outcome. "Tough talk" foreign policy has done us all a disservice. I'd like to reiterate that I believe the primary motivator for our evacuation was safety concerns. But there is no doubt in my mind that there were additional motivators, both political and financial.

Whatever the reasons, the effect is the same. I am very disappointed to leave the Bolivian people without examples of real Americans doing good work just when they're starting to hear more messages about bad we are. It would be so much easier to nip Anti-Americanism in the bud. But you know us....why practice prevention when we can let it fester"

.......which goes to prove that Sarah is articulate and smart as well as being a credit to her country. Now stop reading my junk and go visit her blog.

Bolivia: Look who came to dinner

So what was that again about the US non-interference in other country's domestic affairs? The lid has been blown off the US Embassy in Bolivia once and for all by this investigation published at the blog Bolivia Matters (with Hat Tip to Abiding, doing a great job as always).

Sweetly, leaked e-mails from the US Embassy in La Paz explain how ex-US Ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg (the one Evo kicked out for meddling in Bolivian politics, supporting the medialuna fascists, working to subvert the democratically elected government etc etc) would decide on dinner guests for Embassy receptions based upon how much they supported the US cause. Here's a little sample of just one of the seven clear cases of US intervention in Bolivia listed. Go click the link to see the rest (including more evidence on how USAID is still subverting from its La Paz HQ):

"....the litmus case for being invited (to the dinner receptions) is the organization's situation as opposed to the MAS government (Ottonote; MAS being Evo's party) etc, as well as being allies of ours. The staff member goes on to discuss the indigenous organizations that USAID programs fund and how their principal demand is to strengthen those grassroots organizations to confront MAS."

When Philip Goldberg was kicked out of Bolivia he made a heart-rending speech about being innocent of all charges of political intervention. He also pointed to his expulsion as a sign of weakness in the Morales presidency. I beg to differ; it stands to reason that Evo is stronger after saying 'bye bye Goldberg', as Goldberg's sole intention was to make him weaker while he was there. It's really simple; Goldberg got caught red-handed. He got kicked out. He then continued to lie through his teeth to the world. End of story.

Message to US Citizens: If you don't like Bolivia's politics or attitude, don't go there. That's all. What's a country of 9m people stuck in the middle of nowhere gonna do to you anyway? Threaten to destabilize democracy by halting supplies of alpaca knitwear? Just quit it one time with all these world domination plans, yeah?

To the disappointment of many, peace breaks out in Bolivia

Bolivian Veep, Alvaro Garcia Linera, with the
agreement he sent to the separatist leaders.
They signed. KowTow! KowTow!

I've spent extra time following the Bolivia situation recently, and I'm happy to say that I believe this will be the last in the series of posts, at least for a while.

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It's just bizarre coincidence after bizarre coincidence.

We hear today that the US is withdrawing its Peace Corps spies....sorry, workers from Bolivia. This from the White House Daily Briefing today:

QUESTION: So the withdrawal of the Peace Corps volunteers has nothing to do with any reduction measure?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, we want to have a good relationship with Bolivia and the people of Bolivia, and the Peace Corps is an important part of trying to help the people of Bolivia. That’s what they’re there trying to do. But of course, we have to look at the situation on the ground, and it’s our obligation to take those steps that we think are necessary to ensure that our people are able to accomplish the long-term goals of that mission. And we believe that this was a prudent step based on the situation on the ground in Bolivia.

We hear how the US gov't recommends its citizens leave the country and is laying melodrama on with a trowel by arranging evacuation flights out of Bolivia to Peru tomorrow. (Hint to those US citizens thinking about climbing aboard; El Alto airport to Peru/Bolivia border is two hours by bus and costs U$1.50. If you're that scared make a run for it now, dudes).

We hear how today, of all days, the USA decides to put Bolivia on its narcotics blacklist. No matter that, for example, Peru produces 290MT of cocaine per year. According to the USA experts, the 120MT potential of Bolivia (whatever potential may mean) makes them far, far naughtier.

We hear from US-based press reports how today's arrest of Pando prefect and alleged brain behind last week's massacre, Leopoldo Fernández, was going to set it all off again;

"....The arrest today of opposition leader Leopoldo Fernandez, governor of the remote Amazonian province of Pando, abruptly ended efforts by the president and opposition leaders to talk about compromises after..."

And then just as the world waits for the serious fighting to start, the Evo gov't sends a piece of paper over to the autonomy rebels and says "If you want to talk, stop the shenanigans and sign this". What do they do? To the disappointment of many an editorial writer up North, they sign. Reuters reports;

""We have decided to sign this accord for peace to return," Santa Cruz Gov. Ruben Costas told reporters."

The talks are scheduled to start Thursday in the city of Cochabamba (symbolically around midway between La Paz and Santa Cruz). The autonomy leaders will arrive in a position of considerable weakness, but let's hope Evo doesn't make them squirm too much (not on the first day at least) and they can sit at the same table for long enough to make some real dialogue progress.

As for the region's attitude towards the United States of America? Down here we all know that the US (ex) Ambassador to Bolivia was caught in a secret meeting with the separatist leaders. That's not party politics, that's a plain boring fact. And when the USA was caught red-handed on the diplomatic front (not to mention embarrassing scenes with US special ops forces in Santa Cruz), its show of foot-stomping has been non-stop ever since.

Unfortunately for the USA, it isn't going to get its wish for a country falling apart, no matter how hard it screams and stomps that foot. Bolivia isn't "on the brink", it's totally under the control of its legitimate and democratically elected government that has 100% support from all the region's states.

Dear reader; if you're in North America, reading this and thinking about a loved one with a US passport somewhere in Bolivia right now, let me tell you that the average Bolivian on the street has no ill-feeling towards the USA. Quite the opposite, in fact. Along with the rest of South America, the present reaction is the same all over. They're laughing at you guys. So don't worry, because apart from a few taunts of "whuss" your people are perfectly safe.

Just for the record (and eyewitness report of the Pando massacre)

I've just noticed today's site figures have been very strong for this note I wrote a few weeks back. It went by the title "Those Crazy Crazy Santa Cruz Nights" and detailed the secret meeting of (now ex) US ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg and the Santa Cruz prefect Ruben Costas. It also had a write-up on how a ranked officer of the US army was arrested for drunken and threatening behaviour in a Santa Cruz club that same night and was pulled out of the jail by countrymen who said he had diplomatic immunity.

At the time, el duderino mentioned there was plenty in this story for MSM to get their teeth into, and the events of the last 48 hours seemed to have confirmed that. So if you see a bit of this background popping up somewhere else soon remember where you saw it first, yeah? Hopefully the story of how the US has been in the shadows of the Santa Cruz insurgency will get deserved light poured on it.

Meanwhile, Abiding in Bolivia sadly reports that the eight people dead by extremist ambush yesterday in Pando, Bolivia is now fourteen. The following is an extract quoted from an eyewitness report of yesterday's massacre that is on the wires; I personally guarantee its veracity but all the same, as soon as a link is available I'll add one. It's not very pleasant reading.

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"The road was blocked with trucks from the Prefecture, and there they started to shoot at us. Those that escaped towards the river were chased and were killed at the water's edge. Some of the survivors that arrived at the Riberalta hospital were (immediately) murdered," said one of the survivors.

(The survivors) also reported that several women were kidnapped, including old aged woman and mothers with babies or pregnant, and were forced to strip naked and were then tortured.

There is a lot of concern for the wellbeing of Professor Víctor Choque de El Chivé, member of the Cooperativa Intergral Agroextrativista de Campesinos de Pando, who was tortured inside the hospital but is believed still alive.

UPDATE SUNDAY 14th: There are now 30 confirmed deaths from the Pando massacre, and the latest eyewitness reports tell how the unarmed group, men, women, children of all ages, machine-gunned at point blank range.

Breaking: Venezuela kicks out US Ambassador to Venezuela

One of these people is P. Duddy, the other isn't

Fifteen minutes ago, Hugo Chávez ordered the US ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, to leave the country in the next 72 hours. The move in apparently in support on Bolivia's move to kick out the US ambassador to Bolivia (as reported here yesterday).

Chávez said, "The Yankee ambassador in Caracas has 72 hours from this moment to leave Venezuela, in solidarity with Bolivia and the Bolivian people." He also said, "That's enough shit from you, Yankees" (kinda of true to form), and said that he was also recalling the Venezuelan ambassador to the USA.

This is...errr.....big news.

UPDATE: this is now being reported on Bloomberg wire service

UPDATE 2: here's a Reuters Spanish Language link to the story.

UPDATE 3: It's all over the English-speaking press now, so this will be the last update. But here's the youtube of Chávez tonight telling the crowd about his decision to expel the US ambassador.

Philip Goldberg, persona non grata

Evo Morales has done the right thing today by kicking out the US ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg. In his speech today, Evo kicked out the US diplo by saying, "We do not want separatists or divisionists who conspire against unity, we do not want people who attack democracy (here)". He also told his people to go tell Goldberg immediately that he is on the next plane out.

.

The root of all this (aside from the case of Fulbright scholars being recruited as spies by the US embassy in La Paz) is Goldberg's recent secret meeting with Santa Cruz officialdom. Goldberg's visit and 90 minute closed door conversation with Santa Cruz prefect and racist shit Ruben Costas (documented in this post) would never have come to light if local TV hadn't caught Goldberg on candid camera. Only after the images showed up on TV did Goldberg even admit to meeting Costas.

.

Since that visit, violence has increased in the Santa Cruz area. Not content with simply attacking police or raiding government buildings in "symbolic" protest, the racist thugs now taking over Santa Cruz have in the last 48 hours stormed gas pumping installations and reportedly turned off supplies to Argentina and bombed the pipeline running to Brazil.

.

You think it coincidence that violence escated after Goldberg's visit to Costas? Well, could be, but do you suppose it's also coincidence that Goldberg was the diplo in Kosovo when that small state imploded too? And last week's flying and low profile visit of Branco Marinkovic (rich landholder and the other racist pig in charge of Santa Cruz) to Miami is coincidence too?

The USA's days of mischief-making in Bolivia are certainly not done with, but from now on they'll have to use more clandestine communications lines than ambassador Goldberg. Today's decision by Evo is not something to celebrate, but it was necessary.