POLITICS: A New South American Enemy For The US?

Bolivian presidential candidate Evo Morales has called himself "A nightmare for the United States". In his campaign he has promised to end the free market in Bolivia and legalize the growing of coca, although he has not explicitly promised a legalization of coc aine production. Morales holds a slight lead in polls, but may not win the required 50% in the eight candidate race, which could place the election in the hands of Bolivia's congress.



This guy sounds like another Hugo Chavez waiting to happen. I'm anxious to see just how much of the fallout may or may not be avoided in the event that Morales is elected. Bolivia has been through 5 presidents in the last 4 years; the US might not find it difficult to dispose of this man if he becomes a problem.

Anybody want to take bets on how long this guy lives if elected?
And while we're at it, does anyone know what the current distribution of seats in the Bolivian congress is (and whether or not the new congressmen would take office before congress had to select a president, in the event of no candidate winning 50%?

this guy has won the backing of Bolivias Military chiefs, which is a big plus as they have a nasty tradition of supporting popular uprisings, so getting them on side would help.

Also, he would be the first indiginous President, which can be a good thing for the up until now oppressed Native people in Bolivia.

Im willing to bet he gets assassinated wether he wins or loses the election.

USA needs to build the "great wall of America" along the mexican border i feel ..

Nope, it probably won't be to long now. We'll be getting up in the morning here in the US and the first thing on the news will be, "Morales has been killed."

They have been through 5 presidents in 4 years. Is that a record or what?!

Originally posted by CelticHeart
Nope, it probably won't be to long now. We'll be getting up in the morning here in the US and the first thing on the news will be, "Morales has been killed."

They have been through 5 presidents in 4 years. Is that a record or what?!

It will probably be the 10th story when we wake up. They might get to it after weather and before sports. The fact is that our uneducated populace has never even heard of Bolivia or Morales, nor do they care. I'm willing to bet that if asked, the majority of Americans would say Bolivia is in Europe!

Well, I think that's largely unfounded, but whatever...

This is typical news from South America, in my opinion. I'm extremely disappointed with certain South American progressions, but it's not unexpected. It's just unfortunate.

Bolivians are mejor de las razas. Y otros del sur.

Zip

Sorry TheVagabond but I posted this story on the 13th December:

NEWS: Front Runner In Bolivian Election Claims He'll Be A "Nightmare" For US

Frankly I doubt he can garner the 50% needed to get elected.

I also recall reading an article where morales would stage a coup d'état, just to get elected. Not a very savory character if you ask me.

LA PAZ, Bolivia - (AP) -- A politician allied with presidential candidate and Indian leader Evo Morales faced harsh criticism after he appeared to suggest that Morales would become president of Bolivia through force if not elected Dec. 18.


www.thestate.com...

Typical comunist if you ask me. When you can't win honestly just cheat.

Originally posted by CelticHeart
They have been through 5 presidents in 4 years. Is that a record or what?!

Exactly.

The entire country changes it's political structure every 2 or 3 years.
Notice I didn't say that they change politicians .. they change their
entire structure. It's a very fluid government, always changing,
never stable. This guy probably won't last long.

If he truly thinks he's "the biggest nightmare" for the U.S., he's a delusional megalomaniac.

He's just toking anti-American feelings among those who are upset that North America is so rich while South America is quite poor. Unfortunately for those people, these feelings help keep corrupt South American governments, the root cause of their problem, in power.

[edit on 12/18/2005 by djohnsto77]

If Bolivia is going to be a enemy of the US is going to be one of the weakest ones ever. Bolivia has no real economic or military power the country has a purchasing power parity of - $22.33 billion (2004 est.)

It really has no important exports to the US

LINK

Bill Gates is more of a threat then Bolivia. Venezuela could be a thorn in the United State's side since they have some decent amounts of Oil. Bolivia is a joke.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
If Bolivia is going to be a enemy of the US is going to be one of the weakest ones ever. Bolivia has no real economic or military power the country has a purchasing power parity of - $22.33 billion (2004 est.)

It really has no important exports to the US

LINK

Bill Gates is more of a threat then Bolivia. Venezuela could be a thorn in the United State's side since they have some decent amounts of Oil. Bolivia is a joke.

Its also the only landlocked country in the world with a Navy.......

Pointless fact of the day

Didnt know that stumason. Where the heck do they dock their naval ships? Peru or Chile?

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
Didnt know that stumason. Where the heck do they dock their naval ships? Peru or Chile?

From the CIA Fact Book

Ports and Harbors

Puerto Aguirre (on the Paraguay/Parana waterway, at the Bolivia/Brazil border); also, Bolivia has free port privileges in maritime ports in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay

www.odci.gov...

Surprised the heck out of me however I doubt their navy is of any real significant size to pose a problem should he win. Some additional material can be found here and it would appear it is mostly small partol boats.

www.angelfire.com...

Perhaps if he wins he may be planing on using them for shipping drugs who knows.


My guess is there is going to have to be a run off election and either side will attempt a coup on the other.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
Didnt know that stumason. Where the heck do they dock their naval ships? Peru or Chile?

Funny you should mention that. Bolivia, in the 1800's, used to have an outlet to the sea. But in a war against Chile with Peru, they lost their outlet. This is also a route cause for alot of animosity between Peruvians and Chile:

Peru Vs Chile

They argue over everything, even down to who makes the best seafood.....

But, back to the Bolivian Navy....

Bolivia has an awful lot of navigable rivers, which where most of their Navy resides. These rivers are big enough for large container ships, so they use them alot for trade, hence the need for a Navy. Probably the only "Freshwater" Navy in the world.....

The Bolivian Navy has about 3,800 personnel, which includes 2,000 Marines. It is not known how many lyrics there are in the Bolivian Marine Hymn are but I doubt there are many. The "fleet" includes dozens of boats, including some river patrol boats bought from the U.S. Indeed, river patrols seem to be an important mission of the Bolivian Navy. Bolivia has also got a couple of light patrol aircraft. The Bolivian Navy resembles a coast guard without a coast, and being prone to seasickness obviously isn't a problem if you want to join.
The intrepid Bolivians do have a single sea-going vessel, the Libertador Bolivar, but it is kept docked in Argentina. The ship goes up and down the Plate River between Argentina and Uruguay and has apparently never been NEAR Bolivia. But that makes about as much sense as anything else in the Bolivian Navy.

Bolivian Navy

[edit on 18/12/05 by stumason]

From the same site I linked to (it is very tongue in cheek, I must add )

_Other countries have lost annex to the sea thanks to territorial changes brought on by war (Austria comes to mind) but none have been as stubborn as Bolivia. The unfortunate country renewed its claims to Arica (or as they call it, the Atacama Department) and the lost coastline in 1918, using the argument that their country has a navy and now it needs somewhere to put it. The Chileans told them where they could put it but did not give back Arica.
______The Bolivians still did not give up (they still had their navy, remember) and pressed the issue in 1962, leading to Chile breaking off diplomatic relations. In 1975 and 1991 new talks were opened between Bolivia and Chile regarding a possible swap of territory that would give Bolivia sea access (although what Bolivia could have possibly exchanged for it is unclear) and in 1976 talks were opened with Peru about the possibility of giving up some of its territory so that Bolivia could once again rule the waves, all to no avail.

In 1932 Bolivia picked a fight with Paraguay over the Chaco region, at least partially out of a desire to get access to the Atlantic. If this was indeed the intention it must have been part of a long-range plan because the Chaco (indeed, NONE of Paraguay) has access to the sea either. In any case, the Chaco War also ended disasterously for Bolivia.

That made me chuckle quite a bit........

As a follow on from the above:

Some wars have been started by pretty trivial things (like when Saddam didn't like Kuwait's attitude back in 1990) but it's hard to come up with a more petty reason than a postage stamp. Yet, that was one of the factors leading to the Chaco War.

Both Paraguay and Bolivia claimed an uninhabited desert region called the Gran Chaco. Bolivia, landlocked after war with Chile, wanted the territory in order to give it river access to the Atlantic. Paraguay, having lost most of its territory to its neighbors during the War of the Triple Alliance, needed the Gran Chaco just to stay on the map. Both sides believed there were rich oil reserves in region as well.

The dispute heated up considerably when Bolivia issued a stamp featuring a map of Bolivia... a map that included the Gran Chaco, now marked as Chaco Boliviano. Paraguay didn't take this sitting down, and soon issued even bigger stamps than Bolivia, with an even bigger map of the Gran Chaco, but this time marked as Chaco Paraguayo.

Bolivia had no intention of allowing Paraguay of getting away with this postal raid, and so moved forces into into the Gran Chaco. And Paraguay, for its part, couldn't wait to get it's licks in as well and did the same. Soon, Philatelic Warfare gave way to the real thing and in 1932 both sides were shooting at each other in earnest.

The Chaco War saw the use of armor and aircraft on both sides. British, American, French, and Italian arms makers took the opportunity to export some of their newest weapons to the combatants. German and Russian veterans of the First World War were on the staffs of both sides, advising the armies of Bolivia and Paraguay
In the end the Paraguayans won. It was just as well... the Paraguayans got the Gran Chaco but it turned out that the oil everyone thought was there didn't exist.
Source

I'm betting if this guy is seen as a serious threat, either the Christians In Action will use a 50 calibre sniper rifle from a mile away to deal with him.

If that isn't what they do, President Bush will declare drug dealers as "Terrorist" as another way to deal with it.

I am not now, nor have I ever condoned either of those actions, that's just what I'd bet on happening.



[edit on 18-12-2005 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

Just saw Subz' post. If you'd all be so kind, let's move the discussion to his report.

If the powers that be should happen by here, a lock would be appreciated in the interest of fairness