The Pendulum Swings
I’ve had a soft spot for Bolivia ever since I was posted there from 1991-93. Beautiful country, wonderful people. Certainly the best two years of my time with State. When I was there though relations were excellent, at least to the extent that slovenly throwing cash around to your friends creates better friendships. Ahh, *sigh* the Drug War. The good ol’ days.
Sad to see how far the pendulum has swung the other way though. Personally, I didn’t think it had to happen. Sooner or later the pendulum had to swing back from craven dependency toward having some sense of national pride and self worth. There were bound to be some rocky steps with the U.S. as those relationships changed. Not sure how a reassertion of national pride could come about without some conflict with the former dominant power. But expelling a U.S. ambassador? Those were U.S. dollar investments that brought the country so far so fast in the 1990s, and I can’t see Cuban and Venezuelan companies and institutions stepping up to the plate.
How can you not love Evo “MiniMe” Morales?
The frustration is that I used to respect him a lot. If he would’ve just stayed a nationalist fighting against the WarToKeepLocalFarmersDirtPoor I think he would’ve made a decent president, but I guess when one source of largesse dries up, some people just need to start suck up to another.