Foreign policy of the Evo Morales administration
‘The United Nations should be aware that scientific studies have been carried out in American and European universities that have shown that the coca leaf has no negative effects on human health.
I was pleased to hear that the United Nations report recognizes the honest and responsible effort that has been made to combat drug trafficking.
On April 28, 2008, again he addressed the United Nations at the inauguration of the UN's VII Indigenous Forum UNPFII - United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, with his proposed 10 Commandments to save the Planet, summarized as: A further boost with grassroots cross-South American support came when social organizations meeting in Lima supported Bolivia's negative by Colombia and Peru to bypass collective bargaining with the European Union.
The said organizations also gave support to Bolivia for not having given up to transnationals the negotiation on strategic topics such as the national control over foreign investments and other issues.
As it stood, at the time Brazil was the main destination for exports from Bolivia, having bought, in 2007, 35.7% of the products that Bolivian companies sell to other countries.
Bolivian Vice Minister, Huáscar Ajta said at the first round of the Bolivia-Venezuela Business Fair in La Paz that the nearly $47 million in sales was agreed to "double what is being exported in textiles and manufacturing to United States via ATPDEA."
Ajta also noted that total trade—the agreement would be signed within the framework of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and the Trade Treaty of Peoples (TCP) – "is three times what Bolivia [had previously] exported to Venezuela in textiles and manufacturing."
In like measure, the Venezuelan Minister of Production, Susana Rivero said that Venezuela "is not a substitute" for the United States, but "a new market with new conditions, with many facilities.
The Hydrocarbon Minister, Saul Avalos, said deliberations would begin upon his return from Buenos Aires on December 1 to agree on the terms, including the volume and payment commitments.
[17] In summer 2013, Morales was returning from a summit in Moscow where he made comments that he would consider giving political asylum to U.S. citizen Edward Snowden.
On his trip to Europe, his plane was forced to land for 14 hours in Austria after Italy, France, Spain and Portugal denied him access to their airspace on fears that Snowden was aboard the airplane.
The following week, at a summit in Cochabamba, five Latin American leaders, Argentina's Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Uruguay's José Mujica, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Suriname's Dési Bouterse and Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro, denounced Morales' "virtual kidnapping" and the United States pressure they believed resulted in the action.
A statement at the end of the summit demanded answers from France, Portugal, Italy and Spain, but did not mention the U.S. Morales also later said "We don't need a United States embassy in Bolivia.
"[18] Though France apologised in a statement to the Bolivian government with French President François Hollande saying that there was "conflicting information" over the passenger manifest,[19] Morales said "apologies are not enough because the stance is that international treaties must be respected."
[24] However, there were hurdles when Bolivian Mines Minister Jose Pimentel said that an addendum may have been required for the Mutun iron ore reserves, amidst Morales' protective provisions in the new constitution to ensure foreign entrepreneurs do not gain an unfair advantage over underdeveloped resources.
Iranian business attache Hojjatollah Soltani said his country planned to use Bolivia as a base for future Red Crescent medical programmes across the continent.
In Libya he secured support for his government and for democratic change in Bolivia, more active trade, energy cooperation and improved diplomatic relations.
The secretary of the Popular Congress, Muftah Queepe, said Libya ratified its support for the revolutionary and democratic process Morales was applying in Bolivia.
Along with Iran, he also secured Libyan investment in Bolivia's hydrocarbons industry which, despite substantial energy reserves, was struggling to meet a commitment to pump natural gas to Argentina and Brazil.
Ambassador Leonid Golubev told The Associated Press that he would like to see Russia's ties to Bolivia one day "approach the level" of its growing partnership with Venezuela.
[33] [34] In 2009, amid improving relations between the two countries, Bolivia and Russia signed various agreements pertaining to energy and military ties, mining activities and illegal drug eradication.
Still, his government announced it would send a delegation to Washington to lobby for the country's continued participation in the ATPDEA, a regional trade pact with Andean states offering lowered import tariffs for cooperating with U.S. anti-narcotics efforts.
Morales told police officers in the administrative capital of La Paz that, "Some politicians say that with the withdrawal of the DEA, drug trafficking will increase ...
This followed moves earlier in the year where the presidents anti-drug czar Felipe Caceres said Bolivia should "nationalize" the fight against the drug trade, and that the government was ready to invest about $16 million to achieve this.
Morales upped the ante and condemned the United States in saying that it has no such authority to certify whether other countries are successfully fighting drug trafficking.
He added that his government would set up a new intelligence operation involving the military and police to fight drug trafficking in place of the DEA.
After the meeting Richard Lugar (R-In) said that the United States rejected any suggestion that it did not respect Bolivia's sovereignty or the legitimacy of its government.
[47] Evo Morales wrote an open letter to the EU criticizing the new restrictions, published in the British Guardian newspaper as an opinion-editorial on June 16, 2008.
On EU immigration law, Morales said: "We, too, could say that we are going to expel those who have looted and stolen from us, those who imposed policies of hunger and misery, those who exported illness, exploitation, discrimination.
