Here's the Washington Post giving us all the facts we need about Bolivia:
... Mr. Morales launched another of his anti-American campaigns. He ordered U.S. aid workers to leave a coca-growing province where they had been working on development programs ...
And here's the CBC adding some seemingly-related yet obviously completely irrelevant background information:
Earlier this year, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Bolivia was caught instructing 30 American aid workers and a scholar to spy on Venezuelan and Cuban medical workers volunteering in the country.
The State Department said the requests to collect information on the medical personnel were made "in error" and violated policy. The diplomat involved, assistant regional security officer Vincent Cooper, was recalled to Washington.
Now, you may feel a little misled here, but really: would the US government even think of treating spies so rudely? I think the answer to that question is obvious.
Here's another example of helpful editing of ponderous reality by the Post:
One of the five provinces that have rejected the president's policies is now occupied by the army under martial law after fighting that has killed as many as 30 people in the past few days. Militants on both sides are resorting to force. In the province of Santa Cruz, anti-government demonstrators have sacked and occupied government offices. Anti-Morales forces have also interrupted deliveries to Brazil of natural gas, the country's most valuable export.
"Militants on both sides are resorting to force," yet the only examples they give involve the right-wing secessionists; apparently they just forgot to include the numerous examples they surely have of force on the part of the non-secessionist indigenous population. And that "fighting that has killed as many as 30 people"—what could have happened there?
Last Thursday, a thousand peasants marched toward Cobija to protest the violence driven by the Prefect Leopoldo Fernández, when they were ambushed on a bridge located 7 kilometers from the town of Porvenir, in the department of Pando. This was the scene of a massacre, executed by civilian groups who’d received weapons training by the government of Leopoldo Fernández.
Initially on Thursday there were 8 deaths reported. The figure was rising steadily, to 9 dead, then 14, later 15. This Saturday evening, the government minister Alfredo Rada confirmed that there were 30 dead. But other officials fear the figure could reach 50 or even 70.
The lack of exactness in the figures is due to the fact that the Prefect Fernández and the armed gangs he commanded prevented the arrival of humanitarian organizations at the scene of the massacre.
So by saying that "fighting" killed as many as 30 people, the Post actually meant that "armed paramilitary assassins trained and commanded by the opposition governor" killed as many as 30 people. I'm sure you'd agree that all those tiresome details in the longer version just distract from the main point, though. And what is that point, exactly?
...Mr. Morales remains Bolivia's chief provocateur.
Yes, if he didn't want his country to get raped he shouldn't have had it wear that slinky dress and walk down a dark alley.
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