Bolivia asks U.S. ambassador to leave
LA PAZ (Reuters) – Leftist President Evo Morales on Wednesday asked the U.S. ambassador to leave Bolivia, blaming him for intensified opposition protests that shut down a key natural gas pipeline to Brazil.
“The ambassador of the United States is conspiring against democracy and wants Bolivia to break apart,” Morales said during a speech at the presidential palace in La Paz.
Morales, an ally of anti-Washington leftist leader Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, said he had asked his foreign affairs minister to send a letter to the U.S. Embassy asking Ambassador Philip Goldberg to “urgently return to his country.”
The U.S. Embassy said it had no comment and had not been formally informed of Morales’ decision.
Anti-Morales protesters continued an occupation of government buildings in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, an opposition stronghold, for a second day on Wednesday and also attacked energy facilities, forcing the country to reduce natural gas exports.
Bolivia’s state energy company YPFB said it had to reduce overall natural gas exports to neighboring Brazil by about 10 percent after anti-government protesters attacked a pipeline in what the government described as a “terrorist act,” forcing the closure of the pipeline.
“(Natural gas) exports to Brazil have been reduced by 3 million cubic meters,” the head of YPFB Santos Ramirez told reporters in La Paz.
Brazil’s energy ministry, however, said shipments of Bolivian natural gas were steady at 31 million cubic meters a day.
The protests stem from a power struggle between Morales and the governors of five of the country’s nine provinces, who are demanding more autonomy and a larger share of the country’s booming energy revenues.
