MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivia’s Morales accuses Washington of encouraging “failed coup in Ecuador”

Three coup attempts were turned back by the people, according to Evo Morales

Bolivian president Evo Morales said that during the current decade United States intervened in four attempted coups against democratic governments in Latin America, but was only able to win in Honduras.

“Since 2002 there have been four coup attempts, in 2002 in Venezuela, in 2008 in Bolivia, Honduras in 2009 and now in Ecuador, but of the four attempts in three of them the peoples of Latin America defeated the US imperialism”, said Morales in a Sunday interview with the government financed media.

For this circumstance “I’m happy, very much encouraged because in this decade from 2002 to 2010 the peoples of Latin America on three occasions have defeated the dictatorships prepared by the administration of (George) Bush before and currently by (Barak) Obama”, underlined the Bolivian president.

Morales said he was disappointed because in Honduras “there’s a president born out of a coup” and announced that in the coming regional leaders’ summits “wherever this gentleman Porfirio Lobo is present, obviously I will not be present”.

Honduras former president Manuel Zelaya was ousted last year by a civilian coup, implemented by the military, who then called elections in November 2009 when Lobo was the winner.

Morales revealed that the coup occurred when Honduras had decided to become a member of ALBA, the regional trade and development mechanism which is contrary to the US sponsored Free Trade of the Americas Association, FTAA.

ALBA stands for Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas and is the brain child of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and its members include Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and several oil-short Caribbean islands.

“In ALBA member countries there are coup attempts but that is not going to happen in Colombia, no coup attempts in Peru, because of course these presidents are pro-imperialism, capitalists, free-market oriented, who sponsor the privatization of countries’ national resources: you can be sure that in these countries there won’t be any coup attempts” continued the Bolivian leader.

“Chavez, Morales, Correa (Ecuador), (Nicaragua) Ortega, we are accused of being totalitarian, dictators, non democratic, but all that comes and is promoted by the US State Departmen”.

Morales said that last week’s police mutiny in Ecuador against President Correa “was encouraged” by Washington.