Evo Says the US is Sneaking in Soldiers Disguised as Students and Tourists

Several of my readers have asked me what I might have to say about this odd bit of news from Bolivia, courtesy of an AP dispatch. President Evo Morales evidently announced before an Aymara audience this week that the “US soldiers disguised as students and tourists are entering the country [Bolivia]."

I have to say; I think the claim is just a little strange.

First of all, what exactly would the US government do in Bolivia with secret stashes of disguised soldiers? Armed overthrow of the Morales government seems like a bit of a stretch. That would take one really large influx of fake students and tourists to pull off and I think that people might notice a hundred thousand or so extra Americans walking around. Heck, Burger King would be packed!!

Second, if the aim isn’t armed overthrow, what is it? Contact and influence with the Bolivian military? The US already has military advisors, a DEA fortress, and a scholarship program to bring Bolivian troops up for torture training to the School of the Americas in Georgia. What more influence and contact does the US want?

I also have to say; it is pretty darn hard to hide US soldiers here in Bolivia, especially as tourists and students. The haircut gives them away, first off. I get sought out by a lot of the US tourists, students, Peace Corps volunteers and others that pass through Bolivia and I can testify that what’s in fashion is scruffy not buzz cut. Just to grow hair that long the Pentagon would have started to do planning on this months before Morales’ election last December – and as we know from Iraq, planning is not the Pentagon’s strong suit.

Now Morales, assuming the press reports are accurate, might have all kind of reasons for making the claim (his press spokesman says that evidence is forthcoming). My guess is he is just flinging wild accusations back in the face of charges from his critics that he is allowing a flood of Venezuelan soldiers into the country. I am not sure how they are disguised. The Bolivian Ministry of Defense, by the way, took out a large newspaper ad this week categorically denying all of the Venezuelan soldiers are flooding the border claims aired on TV by PODEMOS.

I tired to look on the Internet for photos of US tourists and students in Bolivia, to see if I could find any suspicious evidence for myself. I do think I may have found something. Here is a link to a photograph purportedly taken of some US Peace Corps volunteers in some, to be frank, highly suspicious disguises. I am sure, dressed as this, they have been able to pass into highly secret areas throughout the country, without notice. Those Pentagon types under Rumsfeld are wily indeed.

If our readers catch any sightings of these hidden soldiers, secretly reading military instruction manuals stuffed surreptitiously into the pages of Lonely Planet Bolivia, please let us know.