Morales says U.S. soldiers should leave Bolivia

LA PAZ, Bolivia: President Evo Morales said he expects U.S. military aid to Bolivia to stop soon, as his government plans to bar U.S. troops from assisting in anti-drug operations.

"Happily, it's ending," Morales told reporters at a news conference Tuesday night. "No foreigner in uniform will be operating here."

Bolivia is the world's No. 3 producer of cocaine, after Colombia and Peru. Washington last year provided US$91 million (€64 million) to help fight cocaine production and encourage Bolivian coca farmers to switch crops.

U.S. aid has paid for everything from Bolivian troops' uniforms to the gasoline in their trucks since the 1980s. But U.S. soldiers have not been directly involved in anti-narcotics efforts, leaving that task to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration personnel and State Department contractors instead.

It's not clear if Morales would ban their involvement in Bolivian anti-drug efforts, too.

The U.S. Embassy had no immediate response to Morales' statement, and declined to say how many U.S. military personnel or contractors are now in Bolivia. The number is believed to be no more than a few dozen.

Morales, who allied himself with Cuba and Venezuela following his December 2005 election as Bolivia's first indigenous president, has spurned his country's traditionally close ties with the U.S. military.

While his government has supported efforts to halt cocaine exports, Morales, a former advocate for coca farmers, defends age-old medicinal and religious uses of the coca leaf, which is a mild stimulant when chewed or consumed as tea.

Morales also suggested on Tuesday that Bolivia's new constitution, now being drafted by a popularly elected assembly, should include a clause banning foreign military bases on Bolivian soil.

It's not clear how that rule would affect a handful of border military posts due to be built in Bolivia with Venezuelan aid, according to a military pact reached between Morales and President Hugo Chavez last year.

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AP writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report from Bogota, Colombia.