Keep opening up a big mouth Evo, there is a cell in Miami with your name on it.
Posted on 01/24/2006 6:50:00 PM PST by MillerCreek
Posted on Tue, Jan. 24, 2006
LATIN AMERICA
Bolivian praises coca and CastroEvo Morales' first day as president of Bolivia included meeting leaders of Cuba and Venezuela and the swearing-in of a leftist Cabinet.
BY JACK CHANG, Knight Ridder News Service LA PAZ, Bolivia -
Newly inaugurated Bolivian President Evo Morales began his historic, five-year term Monday by meeting with leaders from Cuba and Venezuela, two of Latin America's harshest critics of U.S. policy, before swearing in a Cabinet largely made up of political radicals.
His Cabinet choices included a former housekeeper turned union activist as justice minister and a hardline advocate of nationalization as energy minister.
At one point, he gave Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez a portrait of South American independence hero Simón Bolívar constructed from coca leaf, the main ingredient in cocaine. Despite U.S. objections, Morales has long defended its cultivation.
"Let's strengthen together and grow powerful together," Morales told Chávez. "For these Bolivian people let's fight together."'
And in an interview with Univisión anchor Jorge Ramos, Morales said he "admires and respects" Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Asked if he considers Castro a dictator, he shot back: "Fidel is a democratic man."
The day was one meeting after another that seemed destined to increase U.S. anxiety over Morales, a peasant leader who has promised to be a "nightmare" for the United States.
Morales woke before dawn, then sat down at 7:30 a.m. with Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, who attended the president's inauguration on Sunday.
FIGHTING ILLITERACY
The men discussed how Cuba, which has exported thousands of teachers around the world, can help Morales' government fight illiteracy, which runs about 20 percent in the impoverished Andean country.
Morales didn't specify whether he reached any agreements with Lage.
Around 10 a.m., Morales walked down to the cavernous atrium of the presidential palace and swore in his 16-minister Cabinet, using the same raised-fist salute he used in his inauguration.
Morales' Cabinet includes Bolivia's first indigenous foreign minister, David Choquehuanca Cespedes, who, like Morales, is an Aymara Indian.
MILITANT ACTIVIST
Also sworn in were Abel Mamani Marca, a militant activist who helped bring down two previous governments over privatized water contracts, who will become water minister, and Walker San Miguel Rodríguez, a prominent Bolivian attorney without previous military experience, who will be defense minister. A former mining union leader was selected as minister of mines.
Andrés Solíz Rada, a former socialist member of Congress who as a journalist often wrote disparagingly of the U.S. role in Bolivia, was named energy minister. He will be in charge of renegotiating Bolivia's contracts with foreign companies that are exploring Bolivia's vast natural gas supplies.
NOT WIDELY KNOWN
The head of the domestic workers' union, Casimira Rodriguez, a Quechua Indian, was named justice minister. Rodríguez, a former housekeeper herself, led street protests that culminated in the enactment of the Household Worker Law, which grants domestic workers protection from mistreatment and near slave conditions. Few of the Cabinet members are widely known, even in Bolivia.
With thousands of admirers outside the presidential palace chanting his name, Venezuelan President Chávez arrived around noon and signed a series of bilateral agreements with Morales, including a deal to trade Bolivian soy for Venezuelan diesel fuel.
Both leaders, who hugged each other several times, said they were united in fighting "neoliberalism," meaning U.S.-backed economic policies promoting free trade and tight fiscal policy.
Venezuela is the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, while Bolivia claims Latin America's second biggest natural gas reserves. Venezuela's state-owned oil company opened an office in La Paz on Monday.
FIRMS WORRIED
Although the 46-year-old Morales has worried energy companies by threatening to "nationalize" Bolivia's natural gas resources, some observers expect a more measured approach from the new government, said Chris Garman, the Latin American director for the Eurasia Group, a New York-based consulting firm.
"His rhetoric is going to vary according to the audience he speaks to," Garman said.
Another reason to put up fences at the border.
(A.) co - ca n.
(1.) Any of certain Andian evergreen shrubs or small trees of the genus Erythroxylum, especially E.coca, whose leaves contain cocaine and other alkaloids. (2.) The dried leaves of such a plant, chewed by people of the Andes for a stimulating effect and also used for extraction of cocaine and other alkaloids. [Spanish from Quechua kuka.]
(B.) co - coa n.
(1.) a. A powder made from cacao seeds, after they have been fermented, roasted, shelled, ground and freed of most their fat. b. A beverage made by mixing this powder with sugar, hot water or milk. (2.) Color. A moderate brown to reddish brown. [Alteration (influenced by coco, coconut palm; see COCONUT) of CACAO.
(C.) Co - co n.
A river rising in northern Nicaragua and flowing about 483 km (300 mi) Northeast along the Nicaragua-Honduras border to the Caribbean Sea.
(D.) choc - o - late n.
(1.) Fermented, roasted, shelled and ground cacao seeds, often combined with a flavoring or a sweetener or flavoring agent. (2.) A beverage made by mixing water or milk with chocolate. (3.) A small, chocolate-covered candy with a hard or soft center. (4.) Color A grayish to deep reddish brown to deep grayish brown. ... [Spanish, from Nahuatl xocolatl : xococ bitter + atl water
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Therefore, the plant origins are DIFFERENT, as to from what "cocoa" is made (chocolate, the cocoa seeds) and from what "cocaine" is manufactured (coca, an evergreen plant, which cocoa is not). Not the same plant origin, although similarly spelled.
I'm sure this English-language confusion about the manufacture of COCAINE sure helps the "poor" coca farmers such as Evo Morales. Most of North America and probably Europe gets to think they're making sweet chocolate while they're actually making the evil cocaine.
In my estimation, Evo Morales (and Hugo Chavez, while I'm on this issue) lend a whole 'nother terrible dimension to the definition of "peasant:" act poor and continue to deal the drugs.
Yes, among other things which I'm sure you're aware of already.
Evo Morales defines himself as a PEASANT FARMER.
I have no sympathy for the pervasive cocaine problem that originates almost all of it in South America (it's probably noticable from my comments that I feel this way).
The ongoing attempts to blame the U.S. for the woes of South American druggies for harming their crops does not fly with me, nor with many others.
I think what you've written is amusing, also, since you're ignoring the definitions, AND that the coca plant is an evergreen. Which means it's not -- by a long shot -- involved in producing chocolate.
Go find me the plant species information otherwise and then maybe I'll believe your funny imaginings there. Until then, I find the Dictionary (and an Encylopedia here) far more reliable than "LOL!"
Cocoa is A product from the SEEDS from the cocoa plant. Did you read the rest? Coca is an evergreen -- there are varieties of them -- that produces leaves that are used to produce cocaine (or chew, whatever, because they're chewed by people in S.A. as a stimulant, just as cocaine is used there and everywhere else for a stimulant).
There's a plant called the coca plant and then there is chocolate that is derived from the seeds of the cacao plant. Two different plants.
Your Coca-Cola recipe includes both chocolate and coca derivatives. It is not, however, a plant, if that helps clarify this silly ongoing issue here, this thread.
As to Morales and Chavez, both those wealthy drug dealers promote themselves as peasant farmers and/or peasants. That means, they rely on the sympathies of others, somewhat like you, to extend them sympathy and to blame the U.S. for (whatever they can here) inorder to continue to make and traffic their narcotics to the greedy, reviled Norte.
I think Morales and Chavez would be the first to laugh at you, at me, at the entire website. And, probably all the cocaine that is available today in the U.S. is their product. So, no, I feel not so much as a tad of tears for either of them. In fact, I'd go so far as to allege that both of them are responsible for ~harming~ Americans, especially those who ~harm~ their crops. These are drug dealers, in office today because their cartels put them there.
Get real about this issue. People lose their lives and have already and will continue to and they rely on the "LOL!" silliness of unreality about what they do and what their product/crop is, so they can sell you more.
You're making the communist/marxist argument that rationalizes narcotics and marijuana.
That argument removes references and any acknowledgement, recognition of personal responsibility.
You, as do the decrepit Castro, as does psychotic Hugo Chavez and quite corruptly stupid Evo Morales, allege that, "hey, people in the U.S. USE drugs, so, hey, drugs are THEIR problem; we just grow crops."
People kill themselves. Does that make it just fine and dandy for you to commit murder?
No, of course not but that's how Castro, Chavez, Morales and countless nuts in Mexico including Vicente Fox and a few on this thread, allege. They are DEVOID OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY and justify all that they do, which includes anything they can do, based upon the wrong actions of others.
Enough people will jump off a cliff and laugh at the idea of dealing drugs -- some here have as to the latter -- if given the word, "go." So, as this nonsense goes, yelling the word, "go" does not make you responsible for inciting mass suicide, because, well, you're just over there yelling "go" and it was THEY who jumped. So, on you go, yelling "go" while more people hear you and continue on the jump over the cliff.
An element in the U.S. just as in Mexico City and Havana and Bolivia and Venezuela and Rome and London and wherever else use heroin and cocaine. That does not mean that because they WILL and DO use it, that participating in that process bears no responsibility.
I realize that this is speaking sense to nonsense. I've yet to ever read or speak with a druggie who didn't rationalize the drug cartels and blame "America" for whatever.
It's incredibly awful that you would allege that Bolivia has no "druggies." And that "blaming farmers" (WHO MANUFACTURE COCAINE and DEAL COCAINE INTERNATIONALLY) is a sad, bad thing.
I hope for you that one day you, too, can be sober.
Do you know what the income is for the drug cartels in South America from the world market? And you think that the United States is the one and only market? Or even the leading market?
I hardly think so. I know that Canada has a substantial heroine problem. That Mexico does, too. So do Italy and France. So does...it's a global problem.
People are responsible if and when they use, yes. But I consider, just as does the U.S. Justice Dept., that those who manufacture, transport and deal in drugs to be far more culpable for the ghastly problems created by narcotics (mostly) (but all street drugs, specifically) than I do the individual user.
The individual user has to deal and contend with their addictions and ruined lives (if they are lucky enough to try to). The manufacturer and transporter and dealer have to deal with corrupted souls: their own. They get the heaviest hand of the law when penalized because they deserve it.
South America had/has greater natural resource wealth than has/had North America and yet look what they've not developed but have opted, instead, to do: growing coca plants and chewing their product (hey, no "druggies" in Bolivia, just entire generations over centuries who are addicted to chewing coca leaves and now have taken to drinking a brew made from them). They sound like the epitome of, poster children of, "druggies." All they can manage is being slaves to the drug, grow that drug, haul that drug, use that drug, sell that drug, make more of that drug, eat more of that drug, smoke that drug, haul that drug, sell it again, go home and boil some more up, smoke it, eat more, grow more, sell more...
And that's been going on down there for generations. No "druggies" in Bolivia?! Hey, think again. What do you think their one and only item is on the international market? Drugs.
Bolivia is the epitome of just what it means to be "a druggie." A nation of them. A leader of them. Bolivia should just change it's name to "DRUGSAREUS." I bet they can't spell it without laughing at "the stupid Americans."
I bet Cindy Sheehan is packing her bags now to visit and smooch this new commie president. President Peanut probably booked a plane reservation today, also.
Leni
Please if you are ignorant of the facts don't go on attacking the people in Bolivia who don't use coca or support Evo Morales. If you didn't know, the coca leaf is not considered a drug but an ailment to many poor people who live not only in Bolivia, but other parts of South America. Poor people in these countries use only natural remedies because they can't afford a doctor or dentist. Of course there are people who abuse the coca leaf. There are "druggies" in every country, including the U.S. Don't be ignorant to go on thinking that every Bolivian uses coca. They don't. I've been there and other parts of South America and can stand by what I say.
I feel strangely un anxious.
Now if I were a Bolivian, I would be feeling very anxious about now, especially if I had a business or owned any property.
Keep opening up a big mouth Evo, there is a cell in Miami with your name on it.
Um... no. Coca in its natural state is a non-narcotic plant with many legitimate uses. In Bolivia something like 80% of the population chews coca, drinks coca tea, and uses medicinal balms made from coca -- among other things. Other than rotting teeth, it's quite healthy in its natural state.
Cocaine is made by heavily processing coca to separate out a single alkaloid. You need hundreds (possibly thousands) of leaves to get one line of cocaine.
Your statement is like saying that growing apples equals producing cyanide, just because apple cores contain trace amounts of cyanide.
Morales grows coca. There is no allegation (much less evidence) that he has ever produced cocaine.
No they are two separate plants. The cocoa plant gives chocolate, the coca plant contains cocaine. Despite their names being similar, the plants are not related species.
Oh, please, the people of Bolivia have been chewing the coca leaves for STIMULATING EFFECT since they've been growing the very plants.
It's you who is being "ignorant."
I am also not, blanketly, "blaming the people of Bolivia" for drug cartels and the product that they sell.
Those on this thread who are attempting to make this an "you're blaming the innocent coca farmers of Bolivia/people of Bolivia" are being nonsensical.
No where have I done that as to an entire population of any nation or area. However, the point here is that it is wrong and fantastical in nature to attempt to promote some passover as to evaluating much of the culture there, that is and has been for many generations now, dependent upon growing, harvesting, using and selling products derived from their coca plants.
And who also use those products themselves.
The days of the "he's just a peasant farmer so don't hold him accountable" days of giving passes to those who grow the source of narcotics is over. Look at Afghanistan...the militants from among the "poor peasants" there by majority use heroine -- which they grow -- they grow what's easiest to harvest.
Bolivia has just been growing and relishing in growing what's easiest for them and that's the coca plant. There is no mystery as to what it's used for. Even among those who grow it.
Since Bolivia is among the world's highest producers of cocaine, it's then pretty straightforward a conclusion to make that the "people" who are growing coca plants in Bolivia are also instruementally involved in the industry of cocaine.
Everyone here who is trying to make the message the problem is defending the problem. Poor people, peasantry, being poor, does not inherently make one righteous and the poor can and do engage in criminality, too.
The point I'm making is not to generalize all of Bolivians as "bad," but to point out that as a nation and OVERALL CULTURE, Bolivia and Bolivians ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR PRODUCING MUCH OF THE COCAINE that they then EXPORT TO THE REST OF THE WORLD.
Not like the 'poor peasants' do not understand what they are doing. And to suggest that they use the coca plant in Bolivia "as medicine" is stupid given that most of them laugh about it as being used for stimulant effect. They chew the leaves as a stimulant. Nothing innocent about that, given that they recognize the "drug" effect.
Someone ELSE on this thread used the word, "druggie," which is not in my vocabulary except in response to someone who used the term. However, in effect, those who use coca as a stimulant are, in fact, using it for that purpose: as a drug. They aren't seeing doctors with pains and infections before chewing it and drinking it down from boiling. No, they readily chew it every day, day in, day out and give it to children, culturally encourage the practices. They use the leaves AS DRUGS and understand what they're doing when they sell the leaves for purposes of making cocaine.
I'm not sympathetic.
Wow, what insanity. You're completely crazy.
Let's see...opinions to your view are "rantings" and by exposing drug cartels and the "leaders" they "elect" indicates someone is "an alcoholic," I hardly know where to begin other than to write I think you need some help.
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