BOLIVIA: The US government is intervening in Bolivia's choice of new president next month, warning that US aid will be withdrawn if the socialist Mr Evo Morales is appointed.
It is the latest in a series of recent interventions by the US in Latin American elections in an attempt to keep left-wing politicians from power.
The Bolivian congress will elect the president from the two leading candidates in elections held two weeks ago: Mr Morales and the right-wing ex-president Mr Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.
Mr Otto Reich, the Cuban-American appointed by President George Bush as his Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, warned US aid to the country would be in danger if Mr Morales was chosen on August 3rd. Mr Morales is opposed to the continued coca eradication programme sponsored by the US as part of the "war on drugs" on the continent.
"We do not believe we could have normal relations with someone who espouses these kinds of policies," Mr Reich said on a visit to Buenos Aires.
The US ambassador to Bolivia, Mr Manuel Rocha, had already issued a similar warning, suggesting that if Mr Morales was elected US aid would be cut off. "The Bolivian electorate must consider the consequences of choosing leaders somehow connected with drug trafficking and terrorism," said Mr Rocha in a speech last month. "I want to remind the Bolivian electorate that if they vote for those who want Bolivia to return to exporting cocaine, that will seriously jeopardise any future aid to Bolivia from the US." But the comments appeared to infuriate Bolivians and enhanced the popularity of Mr Morales, who called the ambassador his "best campaign chief".
Mr Reich's intervention is the latest in a series of controversial moves to influence politics in the region. He has come under criticism for the way the US administration was widely seen as giving a green light to the military coup in Venezuela in April against the left-wing President, Mr Hugo Chavez.
Last year, the US intervened in the Nicaraguan elections, warning that if the Sandinista leader, Mr Daniel Ortega, won, there would be disastrous financial consequences for the country. A US State Department official, Mr Lino Gutierrez, visited the country to urge the conservative parties running against Mr Ortega to bury their differences to defeat him. Mr Ortega lost the election heavily, although the US intervention was far from the decisive factor.
Mr Reich is a controversial figure in Latin-American politics. Under former president Mr Ronald Reagan, he was the head of the Office of Public Diplomacy at the State Department and used his position to promote the cause of the "contras" in their war against the Sandinistas. In an investigation in 1987 by the Comptroller-General of the US, he was found to have abused his office, which had been engaged in "prohibited, covert propaganda activities . . . beyond the range of acceptable public information activities".
He was appointed to his current post despite strong opposition from Democrats on the foreign relations committee.
The campaign rhetoric of coca-chewing indigenous leader Evo Morales included calls to kick out the "Yankees", default on debt and nationalise industry.
His second place to Mr Sanchez de Lozada was the narrowest and most unexpected election result in Bolivian history. He started his presidential campaign with an approval rating of just 3 per cent. Now he is neck-and-neck with Mr Sanchez de Lozada (72), a millionaire businessman who was president between 1993 and 1997.
The son of a peasant Aymara Indian farmer, Mr Morales (42) is the leader of Bolivia's coca-growing farmers who are fighting the US-backed effort to eradicate the crop.
At least 60 per cent of Bolivia's 8.3 million population live in poverty. Mr Morales argues that most coca grown in Bolivia is used for traditional purposes "to chew as a stimulant and to quell hunger" rather than sold to traffickers as the ingredient for cocaine. - (Guardian Service)