Inter-American Relations Roiled -- Ouster of Several U.S. Officials Highlights Strains in Hemisphere. -ZN

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For a swath of the population in Bolivia in particular and the region more generally, the U.S. government is, at a visceral level, an enemy. It is often seen as the "empire" that for generations has pillaged natural resources or used its diplomats or intelligence services to undermine governments it opposes.

George Mason University anthropologist Mark Goodale said the current political moves must been seen in a larger historical context of Bolivia's relationship with the United States, including such episodes as the 1967 killing of Ernesto "Che" Guevara by Bolivian soldiers supported by the CIA and Morales's formative years as a union leader for coca growers fighting U.S.-backed eradication efforts.

Although "the United States is an ever-present scapegoat for the problems that continue to plague Bolivia," he said, "meddling is what the United States does. . . . This goes back to the Monroe Doctrine."

"It is embedded in the structural relationship between the United States and Latin America," said Goodale, who is writing a book about Bolivia. "One of the things that Morales is trying to do is change that structural relationship."

U.S. officials said diplomats around the world regularly meet with government and opposition officials. In Bolivia, Morales has deemed such meetings an attempt to undermine his government.