Peace Corps pullback in Bolivia upsetting to many

Source: Associated Press

Peace Corps pullback in Bolivia upsetting to many
70 members resign, say U. S. overreacts
By Andrew Whalen - ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 10/12/08 7:05 AM

~snip~
The hasty pullout came directly on the heels of Bolivian President Evo Morales’ Sept. 10 expulsion of the U. S. ambassador for allegedly inciting opposition protests. Arnstein was among disappointed volunteers who believe their government overreacted, hurting U. S. interests with the blanket withdrawal. True, some parts of Bolivia were dangerously unstable, but most volunteers felt no security threat, several of them told the Associated Press.

“Peace Corps, unfortunately, has become another weapon in the U. S. diplomatic arsenal,” said Sarah Nourse, 27, of Mechanicsville, Md., another volunteer who opted out.

~snip~
The top U. S. diplomat for Latin America, Thomas Shannon, told the Associated Press that security was the only reason behind the “saddening” pullout.

“We don’t politicize the Peace Corps,” he said.

“Remember, the Bolivians on at least two occasions that I’m aware of said that they thought the Peace Corps was part of a larger intelligence network that they thought we had constructed in Bolivia. Those kind of statements we find very worrisome,” Shannon said.

In fact, a U. S. Embassy security officer suggested to a group of Peace Corps volunteers during a briefing last year that they report any sightings of Venezuelan or Cuban activists. After the incident was publicized, the embassy said the officer had not been authorized to make such a request and he left the country.




Read more: http://www.buffalonews.com/nationalworld/international/story/461238.html

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Look at the same story, run in the Houston Chronicle, and compare the impact if the paper opts to omit the last part of the story:

Peace Corps pullout angers former Bolivia volunteers
At least 70 quit rather than go to a different country
By ANDREW WHALEN
Associated Press
Oct. 12, 2008, 12:02AM

It took Ellen Arnstein the better part of two years to win the trust of the people of Camargo, a farming town of 5,000 in southeastern Bolivia.

The mayor agreed to help fund the Peace Corps volunteer's proposal to have children plant fruit trees at their school.

Arnstein, 27, was about to be interviewed by a local TV crew when she got the call: The Peace Corps was pulling all 113 of its volunteers out of Bolivia.

"I just started crying. I was like, I don't want to go!" recalled Arnstein, a native of Monroe, N.Y., as she sat in a cafe in Lima, Peru.

She is among more than 70 volunteers who left the corps, having nearly completed their two-year stints, rather than start over in a different country.

The hasty pullout came directly on the heels of Bolivian President Evo Morales' Sept. 10 expulsion of the U.S. ambassador for allegedly inciting opposition protests.

More:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/6053647.html

and that's a huge understatement.

Fucking republicans!

It is a lot less obvious than simply printing an outright lie, but it still has the same effect of misleading loyal readers.

he had to be accepted by the people of his village and the local growers. after the first year he was invited back by the people because they were pleased with him and what he did for them.
my friend fron ghana was schooled by both the russians and the us corps during the 60`s. he liked the american`s a lot because they treated him and his friends with respect. the only thing he had to say about the russians is that they had "bad shoes".

the peace corp is one of the best programs that we have ever created to help those who want and need our guidance.


why am i not surprised that this happened in boliva.....

Once it was known he'd be winning in a landslide, _Bush had Rumsfeld go behind the back of the sitting Bolivian President and make arrangements with the Bolivian military's top officers to hand over their surface-to-air missiles which he had delivered to a Texas airbase. Removed them permanently from Bolivia's tiny arsenal of self-defense weapons.

The Bolivian President and Evo Morales were FURIOUS about this:

Bolivia's Defense Chiefs Ousted in Missile Scandal
Reuters
Wednesday, January 18, 2006; Page A11


LA PAZ, Bolivia, Jan. 18 -- A scandal in Bolivia over surface-to-air missiles prompted the defense minister's resignation and the army chief's dismissal Tuesday, plunging the military into a political crisis days before socialist president-elect Evo Morales is to be sworn into office.

The outgoing interim president, Eduardo Rodriguez, said he had accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Gonzalo Mendez, and fired Gen. Marcelo Antezana over apparent irregularities in the destruction in the United States of a batch of Chinese-made missiles in October.

"I have relieved the commander of the army of his duties and accepted the defense minister's resignation," Rodriguez told reporters after a cabinet meeting Tuesday.

At the height of campaigning for last month's presidential elections, Morales denounced the destruction of the 28 to 30 Chinese HN-5 shoulder-fired missiles, the only arms of their kind in the military's arsenal.

Antezana, the army chief, told reporters that Washington initiated the drive to destroy the missiles because it feared Morales would win the presidency of the South American country.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011800124.html

And they don't care about the bridges they burn in the process. It's horrible. :(

We backed the fascist core of European-descended elites who seized all the useable land, and passed laws which prevented the indigenous people from voting and from walking on the sidewalks, until their revolution in 1952.

Richard Nixon moved behind the scenes during the ugliest part of Hugo Banzer's first run as Bolivia's President ( this article was written before he had another run at it in the late 1990's, and died before completing his term, after privatizing Bolivia's water ):

COLONEL HUGO BANZER
President of Bolivia

In 1970, in Bolivia, when then-President Juan Jose Torres nationalized Gulf Oil properties and tin mines owned by US interests, and tried to establish friendly relations with Cuba and the Soviet Union, he was playing with fire. The coup to overthrow Torres, led by US-trained officer and Gulf Oil beneficiary Hugo Banzer, had direct support from Washington. When Banzer's forces had a breakdown in radio communications, US Air Force radio was placed at their disposal. Once in power, Banzer began a reign of terror. Schools were shut down as hotbeds of political subversive activity. Within two years, 2,000 people were arrested and tortured without trial. As in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, the native Indians were ordered off their land and deprived of tribal identity. Tens-of-thousands of white South Africans were enticed to immigrate with promises of the land stolen from the Indians, with a goal of creating a white Bolivia. When Catholic clergy tried to aid the Indians, the regime, with CIA help, launched terrorist attacks against them, and this "Banzer Plan" became a model for similar anti-Catholic actions throughout Latin America.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

manually.

From OP: "Remember, the Bolivians on at least two occasions that I’m aware of said that they thought the Peace Corps was part of a larger intelligence network that they thought we had constructed in Bolivia. Those kind of statements we find very worrisome,” Shannon said.


I smell a rat.

We should be smelling a whole colony, not just one rat. :(

"humanitarian" org called The Red Cross which was used as a spy base by the US government in WWI as well as for transporting Nazi loot during WWII. This sounds like a similar thing. Thanks. :hi: