{"id":4579,"date":"2009-08-18T16:44:42","date_gmt":"2009-08-18T16:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=4579"},"modified":"2016-09-15T15:53:24","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T15:53:24","slug":"bolivia-halts-us-anti-drugs-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2009\/08\/bolivia-halts-us-anti-drugs-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Bolivia halts US anti-drugs work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">President Evo Morales has announced he is suspending &#8220;indefinitely&#8221; the operations of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Bolivia.<br \/>\nMr Morales accused the agency of having encouraged anti-government protests in the country in September.  He did not say whether its staff would be asked to leave the country, as coca- growers have been pressing him to do.<br \/>\nBolivia&#8217;s first indigenous president once served as the leader of the country&#8217;s union of coca-growers.  Relations between Bolivia and the US have been strained since Evo Morales won presidential elections in January 2006.<br \/>\nCoca is the raw material used in the production of cocaine and is widely grown in Bolivia.  The country is a major producer of cocaine, but millions of Bolivians poorest people also chew coca leaves as part of their daily routine. Many believe the leaf offers health benefits.<br \/>\n&#8216;Defending Bolivia&#8217;<br \/>\n&#8220;From today all the activities of the US DEA are suspended indefinitely,&#8221; the Bolivian leader said in the coca-growing region of Chimore, in the central province of Chapare. <\/p>\n<p>Coca is widely used by Bolivian Indians<br \/>\n&#8220;Personnel from the DEA supported activities of the unsuccessful coup d&#8217;etat in Bolivia,&#8221; he added, referring to the unrest in September which left 19 people dead.<br \/>\n&#8220;We have the obligation to defend the dignity and sovereignty of the Bolivian people.&#8221;<br \/>\nUS officials have denied any wrongdoing.  In recent months, a string of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats and agencies increased tensions between both countries, the BBC&#8217;s Andres Schipani reports from Bolivia.  Bolivia&#8217;s government expelled the US international development agency and the US ambassador to La Paz.<br \/>\nWashington retaliated by expelling its Bolivian counterpart, while last month President George W Bush himself put the Andean country on an anti-narcotics blacklist that cuts trade preferences.   Making his announcement, Mr Morales also declared that his government had eradicated more than 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres) of illegally planted coca.<br \/>\n<em>Source:  BBC News Sat.1st Nov.2008<\/em><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Evo Morales has announced he is suspending &#8220;indefinitely&#8221; the operations of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Bolivia. Mr Morales accused the agency of having encouraged anti-government protests in the country in September. He did not say whether its staff would be asked to leave the country, as coca- growers have been pressing him [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-others"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}