No Somos Espias

So you may have heard about the recent scandal with PC Bolivia. If not, I´ll fill you in quickly: A Fulbright Scholar studying in Bolivia reported to the press that an official at the American Embassy had instructed him to report information about Cuban and Venezuelan doctors and their activities in Bolivia (asked him to spy, more or less). It was then revealed that this same official had instructed 30 Peace Corps Volunteers to do likewise at their swearing-in ceremony -- a Peace Corps director was present, and interrupted the official to contradict what he had said. Peace Corps is supposed to be apolitical and PCVs are never supposed to be associated with this kind of work. Word is that the embassy guy is going to lose his job. Nonetheless, Evo Morales, Bolivia´s president, gave a speech yesterday in which he condemned the official and seemed to suggest that Americans in Bolivia were spies.

First, I just want to assure everyone that I am safe.

Second, I am furious about all this. The possibility of the government having ulterior motives with PC was something I thought seriously about before deciding to join. Obviously, I have no interest in participating in any intelligence-gathering activities, directly or indirectly.

I have gotten to know many of Peace Corps/Bolivia´s employees, both North Americans and Bolivians, and I trust them. I trust Peace Corps, moreover, and believe that its motives and our work is positive and worthwhile. If I did not, I would not be here represting the organization and, for better or worse, the USA. But when we get this kind of publicity it reflects horribly on us in the minds of Bolivians, whose trust and friendship we must gain if anything positive is to be accomplished. So I´m pissed off, at the US Embassy official, and at his superiors for not firing his ass after the first incident.

Hopefully this will just blow over... that depends, of course, on whether the US government´s agents of foreign policy can still remember how to issue a sincere apology. One is certainly in order.

Other than that, it´s a beautiful day in Cochabamba.

More soon, after (hopefully) this embarrassing incident has been resolved. Peace.