Bolivian Prez Sets Visa Requirement for US Citizens

[High Plains]

Edited to add link:

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BFA2726A3-BFFF-4A5B-9E3B-3EA33DFDC0FB%7D)&language=EN

La Paz, Jan 1 (Prensa Latina) Bolivian President Evo Morales suppressed by decree the right of US citizens to enter this country freely, in reciprocity with a similar measure taken by the US government.

In the first hours of 2007, Morales approved the modification to the list of Exemptions and Extensions of Tourist Visas, to equal conditions for citizens of both countries. The Executive said the decision was taken in reciprocity, as it is impossible for a Bolivian citizen to enter the US without a visa. Bolivia may be a small country and considered underdeveloped, but it has its dignity as any other nation, Morales underlined. Morales added he wishes the norm be taken into account from a dignified point of view by the Bolivian people.


According to its classification, the countries whose citizens do not require visa to enter Bolivia are in list number one and in the second list those requiring the document without consultation are included. In the third list there are citizens of other states requiring visas that have to be consulted to enter Bolivia. The decree also establishes change from list one to two of Serbia and Montenegro and Cyprus Republic nationals.



The decree also transfer from list two to three the citizens of Angola, Bhutan, Chad, Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia, China and Taiwan.



Finally, from the second list are transferred to the first Croatia, country reciprocal to Bolivia, as it does not require a visa for Bolivian citizens to enter the European country.



ef apf

[High Plains]

1. Gee, thanks Mr. Bush!

Bolivia is reacting to the US imposition of visa requirements on citizens of South American nations (apparently to stop the flow of terrorists coming from there). If I recall correctly, Brazil has already done the same thing.

I have a ticket to fly into Lima on the 12th and planned to enter Bolivia on the 21st. Now, I'm not sure that will happen.

[Cleita]

3. Go to the Bolivian consulate and get your proper papers before

you go.

[High Plains]

4. I'll be on the phone to the embassy tomorrow.

I may have to rebook if the visa process takes too long. Can I send Bush the bill for rebooking? Nah, I didn't think so.

[Cleita]

18. You can try. I send bills to my Congress reps. of things I believe

they have cost me with their legislation as a protest.

[hogwyld]

37. How Long....

Until this criminals antics isolate us so much, we won't be allowed to travel anywhere???

[Cleita]

2. Good for Morales!

American companies and other interests have been trampling Bolivia down enough over the past century. I just hope he can prevent a special OPs aided coup in retaliation like our country has done in the past in Latin America.

[dipsydoodle]

5. try this link instead

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={FA2726A3-BFFF-4A5B-9E3B-3EA33DFDC0FB}&language=EN

[RogueBandit]

6. Where Bush bought land?

Is Bolivia where Bush just bought over a hundred thousand acres?

[peacetalksforall]

8. Paraguay - next to the Bush family friend - Rev Moon. nt

[Judi Lynn]

9. Here's a quick grab from google, by no means the most recent, but it contains

reference to a few of the elements of a very STRANGE situation:

Last week the Paraguayan news group Neike suggested that Ms Bush was in Paraguay to "visit the land acquired by her father - relatively close to the Brazilian Pantanal {wetlands} and the Bolivian gas reserves".

The US presence in Paraguay has been under scrutiny since May 2005 when the country's Congress agreed to allow 400 American marines to operate there for 18 months in exchange for financial aid.

At the time many viewed the arrival of troops as a sign that Washington was trying to monitor US business interests in neighbouring Bolivia, after the election of Evo Morales, a leftwing leader who promised to nationalise his country's natural gas industry.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1928928,00.html

[peacetalksforall]

7. So the CIA and Bechtel types need to use one of their fake

visas from now on?

Which list is Paraguay in? Did Rev. Moon become a Paraguayan citizen? Can he cross over without a visa? Just curious.

[mitchtv]

29. I believe a pact was signed last month

which included virtually all SA, allowing visa less movement. It even includes Suriname and Guyana

[malaise]

10. Meanwhile in Jamaica

the hotels are giving American tourists rebates for the cost of their passports. Self respect does exist in some places.

[pitohui]

13. are they really? that's cool to know

because i have a very limited budget i have to go w. the countries that do not try to soak americans for every last dollar...

[malaise]

14. Of course it's cool for you

but is it cool for the poor citizens who can't even afford a hotel vacation.
Anyway my advise to you is to avoid the Caribbean during the Cricket world cup between March 9th and April 27th because the hotel rates will be astronomical. Of course if you're a cricket fan, it sure will be fun.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20061226t180000-0500_117131_obs_jamaica_offers_us____credit_to_american_tourists_.asp
<snip>
A number of local hotels are offering a US$97 credit facility to American tourists travelling to Jamaica on their US passports in response to a new US Department of Homeland Security law requiring all American citizens returning home by air to have a valid passport.
MCNEIL... programme recognised by the Jamaica Tourist Board

The deal is further sweetened by a US$82 credit facility offered to children who travel on passports, and becomes effective January 23, 2007. Junior Tourism Minister Dr Wykeham McNeil told the Observer that the programme is one of several available and is being offered by different properties to encourage more tourists to travel on their passports.

"More than 70 per cent of the persons booked to come to Jamaica already have a passport," he said. "But it is a programme that is embraced by a number of properties, and there are others with their own inducement deals."

According to McNeil, the 'Passports Reward Programme', as it is named, is recognised by the Jamaica Tourist Board.
Jamaica and other Caribbean countries dependent on tourism had, in October, expressed disappointment at the Homeland Security mandate, which becomes effective January 8, 2007.

[pitohui]

28. no cricket fan here

i'll avoid those dates and appreciate the heads up

[Vidar]

11. Good for Morales.

[pitohui]

12. cutting nose off to spite face

i had plans to visit bolivia this year, instead i'll go somewhere else, as will hundreds of thousands of other americans -- stupid to waste extra time and money on a visa when i can travel the world to dozens of other countries without the bother

i feel bad for the people in the tourism industry dependent on outside dollars but the reality is that there are too many damn countries i can pick and choose and visit w.out any visa on the spur of the moment to take advantage of low cost airfares

i understand why he's angry but guess what there's a difference between a rich country like brazil, and poor countries like peru and bolivia where tourism makes a difference to many small self-employed people, brazil don't care if they never see another foreign tourist, bolivia can't honestly say the same, they have just handed the business to peru lock stock and barrel

[malaise]

15. Do you know that we don't only need a passport to visit

the US - we need a visa and the cost for a form with no guarantee of a visa for most citizens is $US100.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Had no idea, malaise. That's horrid. Thanks for the information.

Sure would be good to see THIS situation corrected.

[malaise]

19. One of these days I'll take pix

of Jamaican citizens lined up in the sun outside the spanking new US embassy and post them here. Everyone in the line has an appointment (months in advance) and has paid US$100 for the visa form. I think that's standard everywhere. Then they have the interview and have to present all sorts of financial details. Meanwhile US citizens used to come here on a drivers' license.

Now it's not a problem for me - I have a ten year multiple and I can actually afford the money for the form but imagine what that is for a person who wants to visit a sick relative or attend a nephew's graduation. Most people are treated like criminals who don't intend to return home. It is too sad.

[pitohui]

24. i do know that and i think it's shitty, malaise

i believe in free travel for the world's citizens

i think it's shitty what the usa is doing, the only thing still keeping the usa tourism industry alive is that bushco has destroyed the value of the dollar so that europeans come here to shop

when the dollar stablizes, our tourism industry is going to be in a world of hurt

i certainly don't recommend anyone follow the usa's shitty lead

sorry about the language but i'm quite incensed about this -- our country has set a very, very, very <expletive deleted> example

and i do not think it is right what is being done to you and your people, indeed i think it's outrageous

[High Plains]

21. I'll get the damned visa. It's just a nuisance...

...and I don't think hundreds of thousands of Americans visit Bolivia, anyway.

Whether or not I need a visa does not usually determine where I go. But this is an inconvenience caused directly by the Bush administration's effort to control everything in the wake of 911.

[pitohui]

25. yeah that was poorly phrased

however hundreds of thousands of americans do travel, and most make their travel decision based on what's easy and what they can afford

it isn't just the visa, it's all the other costs

to go to non visa countries i can grab the last minute deal and be on the plane and visit tomorrow

to go to visa countries not so much, in fact, in the end, i just don't visit them at all because i can do so much better financially at their equally beautiful competitors

[mitchtv]

30. the visa to Brazil cost $50*

Bolivia can't cost too much more. It was a matter of pride. It is worth it see Copacabana on Lake Titicaca.Also you can see the Bolivian Navy, HA





*this was 3or4 years ago

[Say_What]

32. On a limited budget and you're going to Bolivia. That's some

limited budget :)

[Spazito]

17. Good, a little payback seems to be in order

We now have to have a passport in order to visit the States which is a cost, it is interesting to see other countries making demands upon visiting US citizens as has the US upon others.

[pitohui]

26. the price will be paid by workers and employers in the tourism industry

but why should a man in bolivia be able to earn when an american can be punished instead?

:eyes:

the american won't be inconvenienced, she'll go elsewhere, there are probably 200 countries in the world

the person punished by this policy are the folks working in the tourism industry who will see diminished numbers of visitors

[Spazito]

33. Hmmm, if you care so much about the workers in Bolivia....

one would think you would find even more reason to accede to the new travel requirements instead of threatening to boycott them.

I think you will find more and more countries will be instituting new regs for US visitors as, sad to say, US tourists are often seen as "the ugly American", (I believe that to be an overstatement, only some are true to the description), loud, obnoxious, arrogant as well as the US dollar is not the prized currency it once was.

[Peace Patriot]

20. Sen. Reid and a bipartisan group from Congress just visited Bolivia on a

goodwill/fact-finding tour. I'm wondering if Morales asked them to intervene on this Bushite policy and maybe they said they couldn't, or wouldn't? It seems close upon their visit, to not be related. One of their purposes--at least publicly--was to sweeten Bolivia/US relations, after so much Bush Junta hostility to real representatives of the people getting elected in the Andes democracies and throughout South America.

I'm sure one of the purposes of imposing this hardship on Bolivians is to stop the spread of leftist and anti-neo-liberal ideas to our shores.

Bolivia--although in sync with political/economic developments throughout South America--may look like easy pickins to Bushite "death squad" types. It is quite possible that the Bushite purchase in Paraguay is a launching pad for a corporate resource war against the Andean democracies. However, I just read of a big new democracy movement in Paraguay--can't recall the leader's name right now (he's a former bishop whom the Vatican is trying to suppress)--he is ahead in the polls and likely to win the presidency. And if Peru's leftist movement succeeds in the next election cycle, too--which I think it will--we will have a solid block of populist governments in the Andes region--Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador (already with representative governments), plus Paraguay and Peru. We also have strong populist (leftist/majorityist) governments in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay--and in Nicaragua--as well as a huge social justice movement in Mexico. It's going to be very difficult for the Bushites to pull off the typical bloodshed and torture that they would like to see, and have so much experience at creating, with this many governments against them (virtually the entire continent, plus parts of central America). They may have Colombia on a $2 billion military aid string, but I don't think Columbia wants that kind of trouble with their neighbors and fellow Latin countries. (They may have accepted all that money to involve themselves in that way, but the political trend has gone fast in the other direction toward popular government and against fascism and militarism.) The Bushites cannot decapitate this revolution in Latin America. It has too many heads. But if they were to try anyway--despite how strong and unstoppable the trend is, and despite increasing political and economic cooperation among these Latin countries--strategically, the place to start could be Bolivia. Morales may have reason, therefore, to regulate the entry of US citizens to this country--for fear of Bushite chaos-makers--but I imagine that he would prefer not to require visas. He is a very straightforward individual, and I would take him at his word--that he is only doing it because the US did it first.

[Solon]

22. Interesting terminology...

La Paz, Jan 1 (Prensa Latina) Bolivian President Evo Morales suppressed by decree the right of US citizens to enter this country freely, in reciprocity with a similar measure taken by the US government.

Uhm, as far as I'm aware, not many nations recognize this "right" the United States doesn't, and most other nations don't either. Some supra-national organizations, like the EU, do recognize this right, but only for its member states, and some other nations have bi-lateral or other agreements with other nations that also extend this same right. But, there is no "suppression" going on here, sounds like anti-Morales bullshit, personally.

[Say_What]

23. Weisbrot: Doing It Their Own Way: Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador

Excellent article.

<clips>

A new wave of Latin American leaders is changing the face of the region and its relations with the United States, multilateral institutions, international financial markets and foreign investors.

While this is often seen in Washington in political terms, as the rise of populism or anti-Americanism, much can be explained by looking at the economics of these changes.

Rafael Correa, Ecuador's newly elected president, is a case in point. Correa recently sent the country's bond markets tumbling by announcing that he would seek to restructure Ecuador's foreign debt. He is looking toward a 75 percent debt reduction, and will use the savings on debt service to increase social spending.

Correa, who got his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Illinois in Urbana, understands very well that foreign capital can, in some circumstances, contribute to development. But when a country is borrowing simply to pay off debt, it may make more sense to clear some debt off the books and start over, just as someone who declares bankruptcy in the United States does.

Argentina defaulted on its debt in December 2001. The government drove a hard bargain with its foreign creditors and with the International Monetary Fund, which wanted the government to pay more to the defaulted bondholders and to follow more orthodox macro- economic policy prescriptions.

In the end the Argentines were proven right. The economy shrank for only about three months after the default; it has since grown at an annual rate of more than 8 percent, pulling more than 8 million people out of poverty in a country of 36 million.

President Néstor Kirchner of Argentina has pursued these policies outside of the international spotlight. But the way he led Argentina out of its depression of 1998-2002 is comparable to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's leadership in the United States during the Great Depression.

Like Roosevelt, Kirchner had to reject the advice of the majority of the economics profession (Roosevelt did this even before Keynes had published his General Theory), stand up to powerful interests (foreign bondholders and utility companies, the IMF and World Bank), and do what was best for the country.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1925

[pitohui]

27. relevance not immediately obvious

argentina and ecuador want tourists with dollars, apparently bolivia is so wealthy it no longer wants any such :sarcasm:

ecuador in fact has been dollarized and uses the usa dollar as its currency unless there has been a change i don't know about

i don't see how we can lump all these together in one chewy chunk just because they're all in south america

a bit like lumping usa, mexico, and haiti together in one chewy chunk and saying "north americans do this or believe that"

[Say_What]

31. Has absolutely nothing to do with currency...read more carefully n/t

[Judi Lynn]

35. Love this article, and Mark Weisbrot's grasp of Latin American events.

From the article:

~snip~.
....The dissolution of the IMF's "creditors' cartel" is the most important change in the international financial system since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates in 1973.

Now even poor countries like Bolivia can say no to the "Washington consensus," capture billions of dollars of additional revenues from resources like natural gas, and use them to deliver on their promises of a New Deal for the region's poor.
(snip/...)

Here's something else from Weisbrot which would tell some people that a lot of Bolivian citizens are interested in trying Morales' ideas, after so many years of unneccessary hardship:

Latin America Shifts Left: It's the Economy
Updated February 3, 2006

By Mark Weisbrot

Evo Morales' election in Bolivia, with an unprecedented (for that country) 54 percent of the vote, is seen and analyzed here mostly in political terms. He is a former head of the coca growers union and opposes the U.S.-sponsored attempts to eradicate the production of coca. He has talked about nationalizing the natural gas resources now owned by foreign corporations. "We're not just anti-neoliberal, we're anti-imperialist in our blood," he proclaimed at a recent campaign rally. These things will be more than enough to ensure that he does not get a fair hearing here in the United States.

But we would do well to step back from the politics for a moment and look at this election in economic terms. This explains a lot what is happening in Bolivia, and indeed across most of the region. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America -- its GDP (or annual income) per person is only $2,800, as compared to $8,200 for the Latin American region and $42,000 in the United States.

Bolivia has also been subject to IMF agreements almost continuously (except for eight months) since 1986. And it has done what the experts from Washington have wanted, including privatizing nearly everything that could be sold. Among the most notorious was the water system of Cochabamba, which led to the famous "water war" against Bechtel (the buyer) in 1999-2000 after many residents got priced out of the market. The country's Social Security system was also privatized.

But nearly 20 years of these structural reforms -- or "neoliberalism" as Morales and most Latin Americans call it -- have brought little in the way of economic benefits to the average Bolivian. Amazingly, the country's per capita income is actually lower today than it was 25 years ago. And 63 percent of Bolivians live below the poverty line.

So Morales' declarations cannot be dismissed as just populist campaign rhetoric. In fact, the economic failure of the last 25 years is both regional and unprecedented. For Latin America as a whole, income per person -- the most basic number that economists have to measure economic progress -- has grown by about 1 percent for the first five years of this decade. From 1980 to 2000, it grew by only 9 percent. Compare that to 82 percent for the 1960-1980 period -- before most of the neoliberal reforms began -- and it is easy to see that this is the worst long-term economic failure in modern Latin American history.
(snip/...)

http://www.cepr.net/columns/weisbrot/2006_01_21.htm

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

34. Brazil has had this policy for ages.

We won't require visas from you if you don't require visas for us.

I fail to see how this is that big an issue.

[Judi Lynn]

36. Ordinarily, you'd think it's easy to understand, wouldn't you?

I doubt you've ever heard anyone pitching fits about its conventional use by Brazil. It may be the belief in some quarters that poor people have to bow to every country more powerful than they are, and that only really huge ones, like Brazil get to determine their own policies.

Luckily for Bolivia, the Latin American community is pulling together and forging a new alliance. They aren't going to be nearly as isolated and helpless as before.