Senators seek better Bolivian relations

LA PAZ, Bolivia – A delegation of six U.S. senators led by incoming Majority Leader Harry Reid began on a visit to Bolivia on Thursday, seeking to smooth relations with the South American country’s left-leaning government.

Relations have been tense partly because of President Evo Morales’ friendship with Presidents Fidel Castro, of Cuba, and Hugo Chavez, of Venezuela, and by Morales’ background as the leader of coca growers fighting U.S. attempts to eradicate their crops.

Sen. Ken Salazar said in Spanish to reporters that the trip “signals a different direction” for U.S.-Bolivian relations.

“I believe all of us want the same thing, to help lift up the people of Latin America so that they can achieve the human dignity they deserve,” Salazar said, a Colorado Democrat.

Like Chavez, Morales has railed against U.S. foreign policy and occasionally accused the Bush administration of plotting to overthrow his government or even assassinate him. But he also sent Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera to Washington twice to negotiate an extension of a key trade agreement with the U.S. – which President Bush himself eventually backed and Congress passed earlier this month.

The six-member delegation travels next to Ecuador where it will meet Saturday with populist President-elect Rafael Correa, also a U.S. critic and ally of Chavez. The senators will then travel to Peru for talks with center-left Peruvian President Alan Garcia.

Joining Reid and Salazar are incoming Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; and Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah.