A U.S. embassy cable released by
Wikileaks backs up allegations made by Bolivia in 2009 that the U.S.
government had organized a team to assassinate President Evo Morales.
The plot was discovered when police
raided a storage facility in Santa Cruz on April 15, 2009, and found
explosives, high-caliber telescopic weapons and itinerary for
Morales’ motorcade. Police battled the would-be assassins for 30
minutes at a hotel, where the suspects set off a grenade. Three
foreigners were killed, and two people were arrested.
Although the senior U.S. diplomat
Krishna Urs, denied U.S. involvement, his May 6 cable reveals that a
financier of the hit squad was a “human rights”
organization based in New York. This fictitious organization was “a
close embassy contact” according to Urs. Furthermore, the
embassy was meeting frequently with opposition leaders in Santa Cruz
who, the cable confirms, had supported and armed the squad.
Business and political elites in Santa
Cruz have waged a violent struggle to secede from the rest of the
country.
