George Bush and Dick Cheney may be gone, but it looks like we're still not very popular in some places. In the last week, the government of Ecuador has expelled two United States diplomats. They said the diplomats in question were interfering in the internal affairs of the South American country.
Last week, customs attache Armando Astorga was kicked out. Ecuador's President said Astorga was "insolent and foolish", and had tried to dictate Ecuador's choice of a commander for an anti-drug unit in exchange for $340,000 in U.S. aid. Yesterday, first secretary of the U.S. Embassy in Quito, Mark Sullivan, was given 48 hours to leave the country for the same thing.
The U.S. State Department has said the charges were unjustified, but they also claimed the right to vet any candidates for the post (created with American "war on drug" dollars). That sounds like the U.S. wants to have it both ways -- claim they're not interfering and then interfere.
Stop and think, would we let another country pick the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency -- even if they gave us a boatload of money? Of course not! So why would we think it's OK to do that to another country? Does our government still think rules don't apply to us -- just to all the other countries?
The State Department needs to make a decision. Do we trust Ecuador or not? If they trust them, then give them the money. If they don't trust them, then don't give them the money. It's as simple as that. But either way, they don't get to pick the officials of another country.
The "war on drugs" has been a massive and expensive failure. We shouldn't let it destroy our relationship with a friendly country in our own hemisphere.
