Bolivia's Morales threatens to bar some US visitors

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Apr 22: Bolivia's President Evo Morales threatened to bar some US citizens from visiting his Andean nation on Friday, after Washington denied a second Bolivian official permission to enter the United States.

The US government refused to grant a visa this week to Bolivia's deputy minister of basic services, Rene Orellana, who was scheduled to travel on official government business, in the second such awkward incident.

''I am asking the (US) ambassador to provide us with a list of deputies, senators, ministers and deputy ministers that do not have a visa, so we can avoid problems,'' Morales yesterday said during a speech to Latin American indigenous lawmakers.

''But the moment they give me that list, I will also pass a list to the US ambassador naming the North Americans that have no visa for Bolivia. This is a question of defending our people's dignity,'' said Morales, a leftist and Bolivia's first indigenous president.

Currently, Americans are not required to apply for a visa to travel to Bolivia.

US Ambassador David Greenlee in Bolivia was quick to minimise the incident, emphasizing it had no political motive whatsoever.

''This is an administrative issue, it is not a political signal. We have to find out why our electronic system rejected the application, there may be a very simple answer, it could be a mix-up,'' Greenlee told local radio station Fides.

Morales also protested in February when Washington canceled a visa issued to one of his closest confidantes, Sen Leonilda Zurita. A leader of coca farmers like Morales, Zurita said the US government suspected her of terrorism.

US officials did not comment on that, but did say the visa was revoked long before Morales became president.

Reuters