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Bolivian Nightmare?

You don’t have to be Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be concerned over the recent election of yet another Latin American leftist in the person of Evo Morales of Bolivia. Fred Foldvary, for one, has expressed his belief that the Morales Administration will be an unmitigated disaster for his nation and I’d tend to agree on economic grounds. Morales has already vowed to nationalize his nation’s natural gas supply and as a disciple of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, his economic policies are likely to follow the same failed path as Venezuela and Cuba.

The more interesting issue, and one on which I disagree with Fred, is the coca issue. Foldvary appears resigned to the U.S. sponsored drug war and simply states that Morales – who in the past has spoken favorably of liberalizing his nation’s coca industry – should “cooperate” with U.S. policies. As an economist, Foldvary should know better than that.

The drug war being fought by the U.S. is doomed to failure. As long as two willing parties want to engage in economic activity, there is nothing a government can do to stop them. The U.S. can’t even keep drugs out of prisons, how do our leaders expect to keep drugs out of the country?

For too long, though, politicians in Latin America have been willing to do whatever the “yanquis” told them to do when it came to fighting drugs. The U.S. has been fighting in Colombia since the Clinton Administration to little effect and we have been defoliating vast tracts of Amazon Rainforest despite unknown health and environmental impacts.

These policies have only deepened our unpopularity and mistrust in the region. Morales simply rode the wave to victory. It will be interesting to see how firm he stands up to the U.S. on the coca issue and what the reaction in Washington will be if Bolivia legalizes coca farming and kicks U.S. agents out of the region. I wouldn’t be surprised that if Morales does what he says he plans to do that the U.S. doesn’t accuse him of terrorism-related crimes and attempt to invade. We’ll just have to wait and see though.

--Paul Gessing

Posted by Paul Gessing on December 29, 2005 03:33 PM |

Free-for-all (frfr-ôl) -- n. A disorderly fight, argument, or competition in which everyone present participates.

from Dictionary.com



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