One Step Forward, Two Steps Back Written on February 22, 2006, by Eddie.
Over the past couple of weeks, the relationship between the U.S. and Bolivia has been steadily improving and some common ground had been found. However, a recent event could set the relationship back a bit. The MAS senator and cocalera (coca-growers leader), Leonilda Zurita had her visa revoked, which she found out as she she attempted to travel to Miami to speak at various universities.
Leonilda Zurita, who is seen as one of the leftist president’s closest confidantes, told local media U.S. consular officials had told her she was considered a terrorist, something she dubbed “an offense against Bolivian women”.
According to a statement from the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Zurita had been to the U.S. four times previously.
She had planned to travel to the U.S. for a three week speaking tour, accompanied by COHA Senior Research Fellow and longtime Cochabamba resident George Ann Potter. The trip would have included speaking appearances at Stanford University, the University of Vermont, and the University of Florida at Gainesville, among other academic institutions, culminating in a speech at the Kennedy School of Harvard University. This would have made her the first ranking official from the new MAS government to visit the U.S. This, despite the fact that until the previously unannounced cancellation, she had held a valid visa and had flown to the U.S. four previous times, most recently to participate in engagements backed by a number of U.S. grass-root movements, including an appearance at Harvard University.
Terrorism is a word rarely uttered in Bolivia in recent times and using that word could turn the tide in the relationship with the country to the north. The “T” word changes everything. The COHA press release also speculates that the revocation may be related to the “long live coca, death to the yankees” political rhetoric often seen at cocalero rallies.
The opposition party, PODEMOS, is jumping all over this. Oscar Ortiz said,
“The accusation against the Senator should be investigated and verified. Surely she and her party (MAS) need to explain to the Bolivian people,” said Ortiz.
The Congressman also said that “many militants from MAS have roots in violent attitudes, including relationships with terrorist groups. The Vice-President (Garcia Linera) was in jail for terrorism,” said Ortiz.
Note: Garcia Linera was in jail, but never charged, nor found guilty of terrorism.
At one time, the ex-president Jaime Paz Zamora and his confidant Oscar Eid also had their visas revoked due to the presumed and proven relationship with narcotrafficking, respectively.
However, the reasons for her revocation was stated as terrorism and not anything related to narcotrafficking. In addition, unlike Eid, Zurita has not been charged nor found guilty of such offense. If the terrorism label sticks and she is not allowed to travel to the U.S., the thawing of relations between the two countries could be short lived.
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I thought Garcia Linera’s membership & participation in EGTK was never in question. I thought many of his own supporters (and himself) referenced it at times.
Though I concede that revoking the visa was poorly timed and probably either (at best) a snafu, if not some tit-for-tat political move (and a bad one at that).
Garcia Linera’s participation in EGTK is out of the question. In fact, he still has money stolen from the universities from this time, I believe.
The visa was revoked at a bad time, when the US should rather be exploiting the administration fears of Chavista backstabbing, but I also think that most Masistas, due to their cocalero beginnings may have had some contact to guerrilla groups in the past. Let’s way for tomorrow’s paper to see the backlash.
I don’t dispute Garcia’s participation in the organization of EGTK, however, he has repeated that he never was involved in any terrorist activities. Everytime he speaks of those times, he always states that he was involved in the intellectual part of the movement. The government never charged nor found him guilty of any terrorist activities. Whether he associated with others who were guilty is another thing.
Zurita’s visa may have been denied in connection to the ransacking and destruction of alternative development (USAID) offices in El Chapare (especifically the Estrella complex), when US personnel had to be evacuated under threat to their lives, in late 2004 or early 2005, I don’t quite remember the date, but it’s the first time I heard this lady’s name.
My guess on Garcia Linera is that he was accussed and jailed for terrorism, the same way Jose Padilla was acussed and jailed for terrorism here in the States. Of course Linera had the benefit of a trial.
He was an ideologue and organizer, but never participated in any violent activities. Another important distinction is the nature of EGTK’s violence.
Especially for foreign audiences, “terrorism” and Bolivia probably conjure images of Sendero Luminoso, or the MRTA who hijacked a good part of Lima’s diplomatic corpse at the Japanese Embassy.
But EGTK never contemplated, planned, or executed violence against human targets. They blew up electric towers and at most, I believe, a few bridges.
Sure, illegal, but never any human victims. As opposed to the AIRPLANE blown up in Venezuela by Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban terrorist who is currently being granted “asylum” in the United States.
I don’t have a big problem with denying someone a visa who says she wants to kill me. When someone says she wants to kill me, I would be stupid to not take her literally. This is not an offense to all Bolivian women, it is payback to any clown with the malice to say ‘death to yankees.’ Next time she might want to think about what she’s saying because she’s gotten my, and my government’s attention by it. She needs to stay out of my country and cool off until she can moderate her thinking into something resembling civilized action. Disagreements about policy are fine. Killing me or any of my countrymen just because of policy reasons (or racism or whatever)is NOT fine.
As certain terrorists in other parts of the world very well now know.