Clickit.

President Evo Morales of Bolivia announced his disapproval of U.S. intervention in the Bolivian coca crop and drug trade last Saturday, rejecting American requests to fly anti-drug aircraft over Bolivian territory. Morales feels that the DEA's periodic flights over Bolivia are, along with the rest of US efforts to combat the Bolivian drug trade, equivalent to espionage.

"It's important that the international community knows that here, we don't need control of the United States on coca cultivation," the president told a gathering of coca farmers. "We can control ourselves internally. We don't need any spying from anybody."

Eric Watnik, spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy, denies that these flights are used for surveillance. Regardless of this claim, U.S-Bolivian relations are souring over the issue, with the Bolivian capital La Paz growing increasingly distant from an amiable status with Washington.

The deterioration of relations with Bolivia has sparked up just recently, starting last month with Morales' expulsion of the U.S. ambassador, whom he accused of supporting violent protests organized by Morales' conservative opposition. Washington's response was parallel; Bolivia's ambassador was consequentially ousted, while the nation itself was blacklisted for its failure to cooperate to American standards with U.S. anti-drug efforts.

"We've certified Bolivia twice before under the Morales government, even though they have taken a very different approach to counterdrugs, especially to eradication, than previous governments," said Tom Shannon, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

"But what we've noticed over the past couple of months," he added, "was a declining political willingness to cooperate and then a very precise attempt by the part of some of the government ministries to begin to lower the level of cooperation and try to break the linkages" between U.S. and Bolivian anti-drug efforts.

Bolivia is the third largest producer of coca in the world. Coca is used to make cocaine, among other things, so it's understandable why this nation is such a priority for the American anti-drug effort. Still, it seems a matter which we are not fully equipped to regulate, as drug use and trade in our nation is very high and continues to grow regardless of any strategies we have laid down to combat it. When we've made literally zero progress in our own war on drugs--which has technically persisted since Nixon first used the term in 1971--it doesn't seem so wise of us to be attempting to globally perpetrate these failed strategies.

It's a blow for Bolivia, most of all. They are South America's poorest nation; it's predicted that up to 20,000 jobs will be lost as a result of this blacklist.

Is this America's business? Does the DEA ever actually accomplish anything, ever?

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