Bolivia opens 'anti-imperialist' military school to counter US foreign policies

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Bolivia opens 'anti-imperialist' military school to counter US foreign policies

President Evo Morales said the academy will encourage ‘anti-colonial and anti-capitalist thinking’ to negate US-based schools that targeted indigenous people

Staff and agencies
Wednesday 17 August 2016 17.56 EDT

Bolivia’s president Evo Morales has opened a new “anti-imperialist” military academy to counter US policies and military influence in Latin America.

“If the empire teaches domination of the world from its military schools, we will learn from this school to free ourselves from imperial oppression,” the country’s first indigenous president said at an inauguration ceremony on Wednesday .

“We want to build anti-colonial and anti-capitalist thinking with this school that binds the armed forces to social movements and counteracts the influence of the School of the Americas that always saw the indigenous as internal enemies,” he told a crowd that included the defense ministers of Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Some Latin American officers trained at the US-based School of the Americas went on to commit atrocities under 20th century military dictatorships. In 2000, the academy at Fort Benning, Georgia, was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/17/bolivia-anti-imperialist-military-school-evo-morales-us

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[JackRiddler]

1. Now that is interesting.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Bush and Cheney knew Morales was going to win his first election,

as he was wildly popular with the Bolivian indigenous population, and they went behind the back of the sitting President at that time to his military officials who arranged for them to slip Bolivian missiles out of the country, and took them to a base in Texas. That was one of the most blatant acts of aggression toward an not-yet-elected President you could ever see!

From the Washington Post:

Bolivia's Defense Chiefs Ousted in Missile Scandal

Reuters
Wednesday, January 18, 2006

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Jan. 18 -- A scandal in Bolivia over surface-to-air missiles prompted the defense minister's resignation and the army chief's dismissal Tuesday, plunging the military into a political crisis days before socialist president-elect Evo Morales is to be sworn into office.

The outgoing interim president, Eduardo Rodriguez, said he had accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Gonzalo Mendez, and fired Gen. Marcelo Antezana over apparent irregularities in the destruction in the United States of a batch of Chinese-made missiles in October. "I have relieved the commander of the army of his duties and accepted the defense minister's resignation," Rodriguez told reporters after a cabinet meeting Tuesday.

At the height of campaigning for last month's presidential elections, Morales denounced the destruction of the 28 to 30 Chinese HN-5 shoulder-fired missiles, the only arms of their kind in the military's arsenal.

Antezana, the army chief, told reporters that Washington initiated the drive to destroy the missiles because it feared Morales would win the presidency of the South American country. He later retracted his remarks.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011800124.html

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In what world would this ever be seen as acceptable?

[Hortensis]

3. Up to something interesting again, huh? Lol.

Definitely one of those very important iconoclastic leaders, but denying him another term may be a wise move. The electorate may have already benefited from the best they could get from him. I've read that there are signs that the too-frequent slide toward authoritarianism in left-wing revolutionary governments has begun.

I would definitely have voted for him, though, at one time. His pissy attitudinal pushing against us for economic independence made me smile even from up here, but there's such a thing as being too pissy. This academy sounds promising in some ways, but it also sounds like its mandate could march right past healthy to destructive realms.

He doesn't leave office for a while, but I'm already curious about what he does next. Just hope he doesn't get boring and join the usual dark side, i.e., the money accumulators.