Click here to read the full text.  http://ain-bolivia.org/2003popularprotest.pdf

Former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada is the fourth elected president in
Latin America to be forced from office as a result of popular outrage in just four years. His fall
from power in October should serve as a wake-up call to Washington, which has largely ignored
the crisis brewing in its own backyard. Across Latin America, polls show increasing frustration
with continued poverty and unemployment as economic growth, more often than not, has failed
to trickle down to the poor majorities, while privatizations have led to lay-offs and higher
prices. The socio-economic situation in poor countries like Bolivia is further exacerbated by
rigid U.S. drug control policies. U.S. inflexibility on meeting coca eradication targets has left
many rural Bolivian families without income, has generated social conflict and violence, and has
contributed to Sánchez de Lozada’s increasing lack of legitimacy. Ultimately, Sánchez de
Lozada was viewed as “out of touch with a poor and angry country.” His successor, Carlos D.
Mesa, inherits a delicate and potentially explosive situation. The U.S. government should not
repeat the mistakes it made during Sánchez de Lozada’s term.