BOLIVIA: On 30 June the Bolivian
government announced that the US had frozen US$657m in aid from the Millennium
Challenge Account (MCA) to Bolivia. Bolivia's planning minister Graciela Toro
told the local media that the decision to freeze the funds from the MCA - a US
cooperation initiative launched in 2002 “devoted to projects in nations that
govern justly, invest in their people and encourage economic freedom" - had
already been taken in December 2007. She said that the decision not to renew
access to the funds was based on three reasons; the “treatment" of US ambassador
to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg; the situation of the US Agency for International
Development (USAID) in the country and ongoing uncertainty over the new
constitution. Goldberg who returned to Bolivia on 2 July - had been recalled to
the US on 16 June after violent protests outside the US embassy in La Paz,
caused by revelations that former Bolivian defence minister Carlos Sánchez
Berzaín had been granted political asylum by the US over a year ago. Meanwhile
USAID was expelled from Chapare after local coca growers accused the agency of
backing opponents of President Evo Morales - who subsequently praised the coca
growers for their decision.
COLOMBIA/MEXICO: US
Republic presidential candidate John McCain recently visited Colombia where he
met Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and various members of the cabinet
including defence minister Juan Manuel Santos and foreign minister Fernando
Araújo. Issues discussed include free trade; progress made against the leftwing
guerrilla group, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc); human
rights and drug-trafficking. McCain then went to Mexico on 2 July for a two day
visit, where he met
Mexican President Felipe Calderón; businessmen and security officials and discussed issues
such as trade, immigration and efforts to combat drug-trafficking.
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