Bolivia Breaks Off Diplomatic Relations with Cuba
HAVANA TIMES – Bolivia’s interim government on Friday broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba, accusing the Caribbean island of having shown “permanent hostility” towards the Andean country, reported dpa news.
Bolivia has had a conservative government since November, when Senate vice president Jeanine Anez declared herself head of state. Violent protests had previously forced leftist president Evo Morales – a Cuban ally – to go into exile.
Interim Foreign Minister Yerko Nunez criticized a tweet by his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez, who on Thursday accused Anez of having staged a coup and of “servility” towards the United States.
“The Cuban government has systematically damaged the bilateral relations based on mutual respect, non-interference in internal affairs,” Nunez said at a press conference.
He criticized “the recent and inadmissible comments of Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, the permanent hostility and constant attacks by Cuba against Bolivia’s constitutional government.”
The Anez government had already severed relations with leftist Venezuela, increasing its international isolation.
Bolivians will elect a new president and parliament on May 3.
Tony Benn once said “Every political career ends in failure”. If you want to discuss success of a government you will need to define what success means. My own definition would be as follows – If a government gets elected three times in a fair election and their opponents accept a significant part of their program then that can be considered a success. By that definition Margaret Thatcher could be considered a success even though I disagree with everything she stood for. Also Tony Blair could be considered a success even though I agree with the majority of what he did. On that criteria both the Hugo Chavez and Evo Moralez governments were hugely successful.
Mr. Patterson,
Socialism did succeed in Bolivia. He has raised the standard of living of millions of Bolivians who previously lived in absolute poverty. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to give up power, but the coup was organized by USAID and other extremist right wing organizations in the US, who also financed the opposition in Bolivia. Now Bolivia is in the hands of right wing extremists, who are repressing those who belong to Morales’s MAS party.
Mr P,
US foreign policy in Latin America has had ‘mixed results’ ?
The arrogance, conceit and delusion of grandeur within this remark are of infinite proportions.
US policy in Latin America has been a dismal disgrace. An utter shambles punctuated by atrocity after atrocity, ineptitude upon ineptitude.
During the ‘cold war’ the US Jack boot stamped down in it’s ‘backyard’ like a twisted, brutal and authoritarian sledgehammer. The brutality was as least as atrocious as the Soviet brutality within its own Eastern European sphere of influence. But with an extra added level of bumbling keystone cop style failure. (eg: the hundreds of pathetically inept plots to murder Fidel Castro).
As US democratic pretensions fade at an alarming rate, it is only to be expected that some of it’s citizens will flip-flap around trying to point the accusatory finger at other political systems they regard as even worse than their own.
Go get yerselves a system with a non-politicised independent judiciary and then come back and criticise the systems of other countries……..
…could it be that Bolivia has finally shaken itself free of the moribund socialist dogma that has paralyzed Cuba for 60 years and has left the failed dictatorships in Nicaragua and Venezuela on life support. While it is certainly true that US foreign policy in Latin America has had mixed results, I challenge anyone to name even one socialist government in Latin America that has succeeded. Anyone?
Could it be ‘ El coloso del Norte ‘ influenciando la auto determinacion de otro pueblo latino-americano in how to run their destiny as a sovereign people? During The Viet-Nam War The American People after 10 years of warfare-not welfare- took to the streets and demanded to get us out of Viet-Nam. Countless deaths later a Peace Treaty was signed and The War ended.
Why do we repeat the same cycle of war and peace all the time ? Politics could be about benefiting the majority of the population and not just those that have it all. Gee! That’s Democracy in its full sense of the word.