Bolivia rebukes US Embassy spy recruiter

This is an update to my previous post about the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia ordering Peace Corps volunteers and at least one Fulbright scholar to spy for them.

After being caught ordering three PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) to spy on Venezuelans and Cubans providing free medical care in Bolivia, Vincent Cooper was told not to do again (allegedly) by the State Dept.
A few months later, however, he was reported doing the same thing to Fulbright scholar. Cooper justified his orders to the PCVs and scholars as "part of the war on terror". Providing free medical care to desperately poor people is terrorism?

At no time did Cooper see fit to mention that following his orders could land these people 30 years in the dismal, brutal, utterly abysmal Bolivian prison system. Were he not an Embassy official, Cooper himself would probably have been inside that prison system.

story from Xinhua

Bolivia declares U.S. diplomat undesirable person

Bolivian President Evo Morales declared U.S. embassy official Vincent Cooper an "undesirable person" Monday, citing charges that Cooper was trying to organize a spy ring, according to news reaching here.

"This man has not only violated the rights of his own citizens, but is also violating, offending and attacking a nation like Bolivia," Morales said during a speech to start the academic year at a school for sergeants in the Bolivian province of Cochabamba.

Morales said Cooper had asked scholarship holders and Peace Corps volunteers to spy on Cubans and Venezuelans living in Bolivia.

"From the moment that this mistake was discovered, he became an undesirable person for Bolivia and for the Bolivian government," he said.

Fulbright Foundation scholar Alexander Van Schaick told Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca and a U.S. broadcaster that during a November meeting at the U.S. embassy, he had been asked to become a spy.

"They told me to give them the names, addresses and activities of any doctor or worker from Venezuela or Cuba that crosses my path during my stay here," Van Shaick said.

The U.S. embassy in the Bolivian capital La Paz said that a member of its security staff had met U.S. volunteers and made what it described as "an inappropriate suggestion." It added that more senior staff had immediately corrected the official.

Bolivia's armed forces have the obligation to safeguard the nation's integrity and image and also the nation's dignity, Morales said, adding that Bolivia would continue its foreign relations but was strongly opposed to those nations that use students and volunteers as spies.

Source: Xinhua