In Cuba, Bolivian leader scolds US, seeks ‘dialogue’ with Europe

HAVANA, Sunday (AFP)

Bolivia’s socialist president-elect Evo Morales wrapped up a visit to Cuba slamming the US drug policy for his Andean nation and Washington’s military presence in the region, while saying he wants a new “dialogue” with Europe.

Morales, 46, also reiterated his desire to nationalize Bolivia’s large natural gas industry.

He said his planned trip to Europe, due to start in Spain, would seek to “spark a fundamental dialogue directed at seeking solutions to the grave social and economic problems in my country.”

Morales told reporters late Friday that he would not be asking Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero how to repair the “damage” of hundreds of years of colonization but would rather be urging joint efforts to alleviate social and economic woes.

“It’s important to understand the economic situation of my country, and so there will be a message of how together the countries of Latin America, Europe and other continents can seek democratic solutions through dialogue to resolve the grave problem of the majority of peoples in all countries, not just Latin America,” Morales said.

He took a harsher line toward Washington. The United States “constantly accuses me of everything: being a drug trafficker, a coca leaf mafia man and a terrorist.“There will not be zero coca, but there will be zero cocaine,” stressed Morales, ending a 24-hour visit to Cuba and meetings with communist President Fidel Castro.

Coca is the raw material from which cocaine is processed, but it has also been used in traditional medicine in Bolivia.Morales wants to end the US-sponsored coca eradication program that he says has failed to curb drug trafficking in Bolivia.

As a coca farmer and activist, Morales developed ties with Castro and has pledged to support leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s aim to defeat a US-proposed free trade area.

“I have never had good relations with the US government, but I have with the people of the United States,” he said.

Morales, who has vowed to nationalize Bolivia’s natural gas industry, said “the Bolivian people had chosen to exercise the right of ownership over their natural resources”.

“Investors have the right to recoup their investments and a right of earnings, but under equal principles, and the state, the people, ... the owners of these natural resources should also benefit,” he said.