The Secret Hand Behind Secession
If political tensions were not high enough, Morales escalated matters
further when he accused the U.S. of backing eastern secessionists.
Warning that he would take =93radical decisions=94 against foreign
diplomats who become involved in Bolivian politics, Morales remarked
=93I cannot understand how some ambassadors dedicate themselves to
politics, and not diplomacy, in our country. That is not called
cooperation. That is called conspiracy."
Meanwhile, Vice President =C1lvaro Garc=EDa accused the U.S Embassy of
financing "publications, trips, and seminars" to help Morales'
opposition develop "ideological and political resistance" to the
administration.
Morales has some just reason to be paranoid. As I do***ent in some
detail in my current book, Revolution! South America and the Rise of
the New Left (Palgrave-Macmillan), Morales=92s socialist agenda, coca-
style nationalism and hostility to economic neo-liberalism has hardly
succeeded in ingratiating himself amongst the Beltway elite. The
Bolivian leader=92s increasingly close ties to Venezuela and Cuba have
similarly set off the alarm bell for U.S. diplomats.
In an effort to rollback social and political change in Bolivia, the
U.S has funneled millions of dollars to opposition groups through
USAID and The National Endowment for Democracy. What=92s more, USAID
explicitly sup****ts demands of the right wing for greater regional
autonomy in the east.
It=92s not the first time, however, that the U.S. has sought to
encourage secessionist sentiment within South American regions
possessing rich natural resources.
Flashback: Venezuela
In 1908, the US helped to sup****t a military coup d'etat in Venezuela
launched by Juan Vicente G=F3mez. G=F3mez's primary goal was to establish
a strong, centralized state. To achieve this, he would have to head
off secessionist sentiment in the westernmost state of Zulia.
G=F3mez, a brutal dictator, could ill afford political problems in the
west. Measuring 63,100 square kilometers, with 178,388 inhabitants in
1908, Zulia was not only large in terms of sheer land mass, but also
economically im****tant. When G=F3mez took power, Zulia had the most
substantial budget of any Venezuelan state. The largest city,
Maracaibo, had a population of about 39,000 at the turn of the
century.
The discovery of vast oil deposits in Lake Maracaibo complicated
matters somewhat for G=F3mez. U.S. President Warren Harding attached
singular im****tance to promoting the expansion of U.S. oil interests
abroad, and the State Department was riddled with officials
compromised by conflicts of interest.
For example, William T.S. Doyle, the resident manager of Shell Oil in
1919-1920, was a former head of the State Department's Division of
Latin American Affairs. Jordan Stabler, another State Department
official, went on to work for Gulf Oil. Francis Loomis, a powerful
State Department official, later worked for Standard Oil.
Full:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3416
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