Behold the glory of nuance!
Bolivian President Evo Morales expelled a U.S. development agency from his country on Wednesday, marking the latest confrontation between Washington and a bloc of left-wing governments in Latin America.
Morales said he was kicking out the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as a "protest" after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently referred to Latin America as Washington's "backyard." The term evokes strong emotions in the region, which experienced several U.S.-backed coups during the Cold War.
Morales is needlessly taking offense. No mansion that Kerry lives in even has a "backyard," so Kerry probably had no idea what it meant in any context.
The whole kerfuffle is kind of funny, too. Morales kicked out an outfit that attempts to spend money to assist Bolivians. And Kerry made his comment in attempting to get more funding for Latin America initiatives. So naturally, America had to be punished by denying us the chance to help Bolivians. That'll teach us.
If Morales loves Venezuela so much, we should just keep USAID out of Bolivia and let Venezuela pick up the tab, and instead spend the money on countries whose leaders don't spit on us. Because being a jerk to us should evoke strong emotions in our State Department.
UPDATE: Oh, and to be clear, I'm not actually attacking Kerry for this affair. As much as I have no respect for Kerry, his utterance did not justify the reaction by that left-winger Morales.
Sometimes it just doesn't matter what we say or do--people who don't like us don't like us. Even when we are under a left-wing President with a left-wing Secretary of State who infamously accused American troops of routine war crimes during the Vietnam War.
