Bolivia's Morales has influential allies regarding drug policy.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
For the eighth year in a row, the US government has condemned the Bolivian government's anti-drug fight. The move has sparked a global debate, with The New York Times and the European Union (EU) supporting President Evo Morales' immediate and logical reaction against the US action (NotiSur, Sept 17, 1991, and Sept 23, 1994).
While Morales argued that the White House "lacks the ethical and moral stature to judge" his country, TheTimes and the EU denounced the inefficiency of the anti-drug trafficking model pushed by the While House and implemented by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In contrast, they praised Bolivia's approach and its policy of dialogue, which they described as more effective that the US approach, one basically sustained with repression. The problem for Bolivia is that--beyond the possible political impact of the US action--a negative certification has an immediate economic consequence, because it keeps it on a list of countries excluded from tariff benefits under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA).
On Sept. 12, the Obama administration formally notified Congress that Bolivia and Venezuela had demonstrably failed in the fight against production and trafficking of drugs. Thus the US put both countries, as well as Myanmar, on the dreaded black list that brings on (or perpetuates) sanctions. That same day, El Nuevo Herald, a Spanish-language newspaper in Miami, reported that Venezuela has been on the White House's annual report since 2007 and Bolivia since 2008, perhaps not coincidentally the same year that the La Paz government expelled US Ambassador Philip Goldberg and the US DEA mission, accusing them of "meddling in internal affairs." The newspaper explained that the administration is required by law to submit a list of countries involved in either the production or trafficking of illicit drugs and not in compliance with US standards; the list is used to write the budgets for the fight against drug trafficking and the distribution of aid to allied countries.
Newspaper backs Morales
Even before the Bolivian government reacted, it was The New York Times that stepped up to criticize the Obama Administration in an editorial published in its online Spanish-language edition. "The yearly condemnation of Bolivia has been futile," it wrote. "So far, that country's experience with its drug strategy is showing more promise than Washington's forced-eradication model. Over the past decade, the...
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