Bolivia Versus Fox?

The new political map of Latin America continues its development in this 2006, focusing on yet another controversial leftist leader in South America: Evo Morales.

Since his election, he has gone off on a tour to Europe and various Latin American countries among which figured his visit to his "comrade" Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Right now, Morales is in China where he has continued to associate himself with socialist icons; this time declaring his admiration for Mao Tse Tung. It is no surprise, that Morales has adopted and proved to have a similar style of rhetoric as Chavez. Which, once again, makes it no surprise that at the first chance his soon-to-be-born government had, it lashed out at our President, Vicente Fox, declaring him to be a "bad charro" for his declarations on Bolivia and its stand on the export of their natural gas. His party and key figures, then continued to demean Fox and outright said that Bolivia's foreign policy towards Mexico would not be negotiated with Fox.

What was Fox's crime?

Fox declared in a Mexico City radio station that "the new government of Bolivia, apparently, would not be exporting its natural gas...they'll apparently have to consume it inside the country or perhaps eat it. It's really their problem... they have too much gas to not export it."

So all right, it might sound spiteful (negotiations for natural gas imports from Mexico to Bolivia have been quagmired since Morales's election) and perhaps a bit meddlesome, but an insult???

Tags: Current events, International, In the News, News and Politics, Mexico, Bolivia, Latin America, Evo Morales, Vicente Fox