ABC News: Peace Corps, Fulbright Scholar Asked to 'Spy' on Cubans, Venezuelans

[sabra]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4262036&page=1


U.S. Embassy Official's 'Spy' Request Violated Long-Standing U.S. Policy

In an apparent violation of U.S. policy, Peace Corps volunteers and a Fulbright scholar were asked by a U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia "to basically spy" on Cubans and Venezuelans in the country, according to Peace Corps personnel and the Fulbright scholar involved.

"I was told to provide the names, addresses and activities of any Venezuelan or Cuban doctors or field workers I come across during my time here," Fulbright scholar John Alexander van Schaick told ABCNews.com in an interview in La Paz.

Van Schaick's account matches that of Peace Corps members and staff who claim that last July their entire group of new volunteers was instructed by the same U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia to report on Cuban and Venezuelan nationals.

The State Department says any such request was "in error" and a violation of long-standing U.S. policy which prohibits the use of Peace Corps personnel or Fulbright scholars for intelligence purposes.

"We take this very seriously and want to stress this is not in any way our policy," a senior State Department official told ABCNews.com.

[Judi Lynn]

1. It's not their policy? What do you think the odds are that US news media will follow up on this

article?

People have discussed the use of Peace Corps workers by the CIA for YEARS. At the same time, US news sources have always looked the other way concerning covert ops on other countries.

I'm looking forward to finding even a word about this ahead, and I'll be looking hard.

If anyone has any doubts about what has been going on in Latin America since the 1950's, just get in there and start researching US interventions, starting with Guatemala, to get a frame of reference for the current situation: it has been one unbroken tradition of astonishing cruelty and every effort spent creating "plausable deniability."

Because some documents have been made public due to the Freedom of Information Act, Americans are able to know a hell of a lot more now than they were allowed to know when this filthy action started.

Here's how we involved ourselves during the 1970's, as illustrated through a thumbnail sketch of fascist dictator, Hugo Banzer:

COLONEL HUGO BANZER
President of Bolivia
In 1970, in Bolivia, when then-President Juan Jose Torres nationalized Gulf Oil properties and tin mines owned by US interests, and tried to establish friendly relations with Cuba and the Soviet Union, he was playing with fire. The coup to overthrow Torres, led by US-trained officer and Gulf Oil beneficiary Hugo Banzer, had direct support from Washington. When Banzer's forces had a breakdown in radio communications, US Air Force radio was placed at their disposal. Once in power, Banzer began a reign of terror. Schools were shut down as hotbeds of political subversive activity. Within two years, 2,000 people were arrested and tortured without trial. As in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, the native Indians were ordered off their land and deprived of tribal identity. Tens-of-thousands of white South Africans were enticed to immigrate with promises of the land stolen from the Indians, with a goal of creating a white Bolivia. When Catholic clergy tried to aid the Indians, the regime, with CIA help, launched terrorist attacks against them, and this "Banzer Plan" became a model for similar anti-Catholic actions throughout Latin America.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

I might add, that in the late 1990's, after this article was written, Hugo Banzer was once again put in power, and he remained in office until his struggle with cancer finally sidelined him.

[L. Coyote]

2. We Returned PCV's know this stuff first hand

George Bush Sr. May Face Charges: Conspiring to Kidnap and Murder Political Activists
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2459135

Italy: Judge issues 140 arrest warrants in "Plan Condor" case. Bush NOT YET indicted.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2528536