Operation Naked King

The U.S. government has long been upset that Bolivia booted out the Drug Enforcement Agency and turned to Brazil for anti-narcotics assistance. I've been writing about that for a while. Now the DEA has taken it a step further with a sour-grapes, silly-named effort to undermine Evo Morales. The Huffington Post reporters who cover it do a good job of providing all the context.

High-level Bolivian officials have in the past been caught trafficking (one even blamed the U.S.!) and so we should not be surprised if others are also corrupt. However, this particular effort appears to have a grander claim, as at the same time the Obama administration once again says it will "decertify" Bolivia for...well, doing things its own way. In particular, the State Department emphasizes the U.S. demand to decrease the amount of legally grown coca.

So we'll see once evidence makes its way into the public eye. What we should remember is that there has been a constant trickle of U.S. hyperbole aimed at Bolivia, most of it ridiculous.