Evo Morales responds to John Kerry: Never Again Will We Be Your Backyard

[Catherina]

95. I don't think your analogy works in this case

If you started redecorating your neighbor's backyard in Massachusetts and, when they complained, told them it was your backyard, I doubt that would have gone over very well. That's what's been going on here.

This isn't a silly matter of inadvertently using an offensive term loaded with centuries of history. The 2009 coup in Honduras, the current meddling in Latin American organizations, our actions over Venezuela elections, are a few recent examples of how we still act like it's our backyard and we have the God-given Monroe-Doctrine right to interfere in their internal affairs.

It's ok that you don't need Bolivia. They don't want us to need them. They want us to leave them alone. I know they'd love it if everyone in our government had that same attitude.

See, that's another thing. They don't want respect and better relations. The shoe's shifting to the other foot and what they're telling the US, is that if the US wants relations with them, the US needs to dump the colonial Monroe Doctrine and start respecting their sovereignty.

Morales isn't just speaking for Latin America. There are over 250,000 dead Mayans in Guatemala alone, courtesy of the backyard policy. The view's a lot different from Latin America.