Taunting Secretary Gates: A Red Card for Bolivia’s Morales

Ray Walser / November 24, 2010

On the way to a defense ministerial in Bolivia, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was asked about Iran’s growing presence in South America, particularly in Bolivia and Venezuela. He answered most cautiously:

Bolivia, obviously, can have relationships with any country in the world that it wishes to. … But I think Bolivia needs to be mindful of the number of United Nations Security Council resolutions that have been passed with respect to Iran’s behavior.

Gates said exactly what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last year. Nevertheless, at the defense ministerial—designed to advance inter-American security cooperation—Gates, in the best Obama Administration manner, offered an olive branch to his Bolivian hosts.

As a hemisphere, we are more tightly linked than ever; never before has our collective well-being depended so much on one another. As Peru’s recent Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa once said, “one can’t fight with oneself, for this battle has only one loser.” (more…)