This NY Times article is very misleading. As Adam Isacson reports here, a full picture of the budget proposal shows that total military aid to Bolivia is only going down by eighteen percent compared to the previous year. Most of Bolivia’s military aid was cut off two years ago along with eleven other nations of our América when those governments refused to sign a document promising immunity from prosecutions before the International Criminal Court to any U.S. military personal working there. Also, foreign policy projects all over the world are getting their budgets slashed to pay for the giant bloody mess also known as Bush’s mideast policy.

At the moment, I think it’s safe to say that most folks working on these things in Washington and the U.S. embassy in La Paz want to try to charm Evo and buy him off, at least on drug policy, before giving him the Chávez treatment.

EFE reported on Feb. 8:

Bolivia and the United States have wide possibilities for reaching an understanding to continue the joint fight against narco-trafficking, U.S. ambassador to La Paz David Greenlee said today. The diplomat expressed this conviction after meeting with the Vice Minister of Social Defense in charge of the fight against drugs, Felipe Cáveres, with whom he exchanged criteria for plans on anti-trafficking interdiction in Bolivia.

Ecuador’s CRE Radio reports:

The Bolivian government’s antidrug chief, Felipe Cáceres, reported today that he had agreed on a “strategic alliance” with the United States in order to fight against drug trafficking.

Cáveres held a meeting with the U.S. Ambasador, David Greenlee, this afternoon. There they resolved to include Bolivian’s coca producers in the alliance, to achieve a more efficient campaign against illegal crops.

“It was a very positive meeting, and I am very satisfied with the results. There is a very large field of understanding about certain bases to move forward from,” said Greenlee.

This meeting was a response from Evo Morales’ government to U.S. President George Bush to cut antidrug assistance to Bolivia by 20 percent.

Again, all signs point to the fact that proposed foreign aid reductions, such as the twenty percent cited above, are part of a general trend across Latin America due to the expenses of the Iraq war and other Middle East adventures, and are not aimed specifically ay Bolivia. The only country not receiving a major cut is the Colombian narco-state.

So, despite all the hysteria in the media over Evo’s pledge to be “America’s nightmare,” his speeches in front of banners reading “Long live coca, death to Yankees,” the Embassy in La Paz seems to be quite optimistic at this point about working with him. Evo also seems, on the surface, to be quite eager to please.

With this in mind, I don’t find it surprising that, as Stephen reported, the State Dept. feels confident enough about continuing aggressive interdiction operations in the Chapare to be planning transfers of heavy equipment already.

We’ll see where this goes… Evo has a long term ahead of him and we’re not going anywhere…