Bolivia Refuses To Be U.S. Slave: VP
LA PAZ - The Bolivian government said on
Monday that it refuses to blindly cater to
the economic or political desires of the
United States.
Bolivia's Vice President Alvaro Garcia
Linera said that as La Paz wanted to reset
its diplomatic ties with Washington, based
on mutual respect, the country should not
become a slave of the United States, which
he described as "the most important power
and the market of the world."
In an interview with Radio Erbol, Bolivia's
national radio, Garcia said Bolivia had been
"the most subordinated" Latin American
country to the United States in the past.
"We do not want a market in exchange for
them (Americans) telling us who must be the
master. We do not want tax preference in
exchange for them telling us what must be
our economic policy, because that will make
us become a slave and a colony again,"
Garcia said.
According to Garcia, U.S. President Barack
Obama, like his predecessor George W. Bush,
had a "strong war policy" which did not
allow ties between the two countries to
improve.
"When he (Obama) learns to recognize that
the world is a community of sovereign
states, which voluntarily are independent,
we will have better ties with the United
States," Garcia said.
However, he added that Bolivia was open to
establishing ties with all the countries in
the world based on mutual respect of
sovereignty.
Bolivian-U.S. ties were frozen since
September 2008, when La Paz expelled U.S.
Ambassador Philip Goldberg for allegedly
interfering with internal affairs, and
Washington took the same retaliatory
measure.
This incident also had consequences in the
commercial area, as the Obama administration
decided to extend Bolivia's suspension from
tax benefits of the Andean Trade Promotion
and Drug Eradication Act.
Former U.S. President Bush suspended
Bolivia's benefits because he said the South
American country was not sufficiently
helping the fight against drug trafficking. |
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