Bolivia: President Morales Disregards US Agency Allegations

President Evo Morales affirmed today that his administration is anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist and anti-capitalist, which comes in stark contrast to the remarks of James Clapper, director of the U.S. National Intelligence Agency.*

Morales was blunt to point out that the United States doesn’t accept presidents who question capitalism, and that it doesn’t like governments or nations with anti-imperialistic callings either.

“Of course the United States government and North American imperialism are not going to like that there are anti-imperialist governments, presidents and nations. They are never going to like governments that question capitalism,” commented the president when he was in the Santa Cruz region.

Morales refuted Clapper’s declarations affirming that Bolivia, just like Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua, commands an authoritarian and populist government.

For the head Bolivian, Clapper’s intention is to hide the fact that capitalist countries are going through a profound economic and financial crisis.

The head of state scoffed at the director of the U.S. National Intelligence Agency’s words and affirmed that the accusation of authoritarianism encourages him, remembering that imperialism initially accused labor union heads and political anti-imperialists of being communist.

For the president, “that time has passed. First they accused us of being communists, of being subversive. Then they accused us of being narco-traffickers, and in the last years I have been the victim, they have classified me as a terrorist.”

“So how is the United States government going to like anti-imperialist governments, presidents or nations,” Morales stressed, adding that “the only thing they do now is attack and say that we are authoritarians, and that there are no representative democracies here.”

The head of state considers that, “Bolivia changed from a representative democracy to a participatory democracy, to an authentic democracy.”

Morales, however, was emphatic when asked when the indigenous populations, of whom he is the representative, would have at least some representation in the Legislative Assembly or in the departmental assemblies.

“For the first time, thanks to this democratic and cultural revolution, we guarantee the participation of the smallest groups of brothers in the national territory, primarily in the Bolivian Amazon.”

The president reiterated that the people will always be anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist and anti-capitalist and dismissed the notion that messages like Clapper’s could ever quiet down the oppressed.

“They think that with those messages that they will quiet us, that we will have to give up … because now not only the people in Bolivia are starting to realize it, but also in other countries mentioned by the United States National Intelligence Agency like Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador,” he emphasized.

Finally, he pointed out that the social movements against capitalism keep growing in Latin America and in the world, because they know that the current system doesn’t provide a solution for all nations.

*Editor’s note: Clapper is the director of national intelligence and chairs an executive committee known as the United States Intelligence Community. No such National Intelligence Agency exists.