Morales Charges U.S. Conspiracy to Force Bolivia onto Daylight Savings Time

[Judi Lynn]

Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Morales Charges U.S. Conspiracy to Force Bolivia onto Daylight Savings Time

President Evo Morales, equipped with a wall clock as a prop, charged Tuesday that the U.S. Embassy in La Paz is engaged in clandestine effort to coerce Bolivia to adopt Daylight Savings Time, moving the nation's clocks forward and backward an hour in coordination with the U.S.

To back his claim Morales released a set of intercepted e-mail messages between the Embassy and State Department officials in Washington.

"We have seen the government of the U.S. try to undermine our democracy, block us from the lawful export of coca products, and smuggle in munitions. But now we see that these conspirators also have their sights set on changing our clocks. We denounce this before the world community."

Morales also declared an Embassy clerical worker, Lindsey Phillips, to be persona-non-grata, making her the fourth Embassy official to be sent home by the Bolivian government. Citing the intercepted e-mails, Morales charged that Phillips was leading the effort to change his nation's clocks, and that she had "clear and ongoing contact" with regional opposition groups to gain their support to promote the plan.

Morales also charged that USIAD was using its funding to engineer support for the change from domestic political organizations, and demanded a full accounting from Embassy officials.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Susan Richards denied the charge. "The United States has always maintained that the decision of what time to keep is a sovereign one that must be made by each nation according to its own values."

She added that the latest charge by Morales seemed to be an attempt by the Bolivian government to distract public attention from recent charges of corruption against his administration, as well as a potential loss Wednesday by the Bolivian national soccer team in a World Cup qualifying match against Argentina. "The Morales government's proclivity to link these charges to key sporting events, unfortunately, is well-known."

More:
http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/2009/04/morales-charges-us-conspiracy-to-force.html

So Bolivia won against Argentina 6-1.

Smooth move, "State Department spokeswoman Susan Richards." Keep on dishing out that clean, honorable, dignified diplomacy. :sarcasm:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. It may seem trivial, but DST makes no sense

for a country that close to the equator.

[Judi Lynn]

2. You've got a point! Never thought about that. Good one.

However, even if Bolivia actually were close to the Arctic Circle, it STILL wouldn't be the business of the American Embassy to butt into their nation's own right to its own life without interference. We surely wouldn't accept that from another country ourselves.

This government may have to learn the hard way the common rules of courtesy ALL people respect outside the trolls, orcs, ogres, and other fascists who see the world and all the people therein as their own property. That makes life so horrible for others.

[Bacchus39]

5. Bolivia sets the time it follows not the US. doesn't Evo think he has control???

dumb claim but the info does reveal Bolivia is spying.

[Bacchus39]

3. so a Bolivian official hacked the State Department computer

interesting. The claim by Morales is dumb though. the US officials are just whining about the time difference and making excuses for their irresponsibility. the really important thing is how the Bolivian hacked the computers. spying.

[EFerrari]

4. It's not trivial insofar as every one of these efforts strengthens

a subversive network inside of Bolivia. I don't know why Morales doesn't just kick that embassy out.

[Bacchus39]

6. it was Bolivia who was spying and downloaded the emails

and the US can't change Bolivian time. someone needs to tell Evo who runs his country.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Bush ushered in an era of flamingly hostile ambassadors in leftist led countries.

The very idea of calling themselves "diplomats" is outrageous. They are mercenaries. Provocatuers. A-holes.

They should LEAVE. If they can't be civilized like ALL other countries, why should ANY country allow them the use of land, anyway?

[Bacchus39]

7. makes no sense at all making Evo's claims the more ridiculous

Guatemala and Puerto Rico both tried that. it was dumb, they switched back.