Bolivia: Morales Says US Spent At Least $4 Million on Separatist Groups

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivian President Evo Morales, citing information sourced from WikiLeaks cables, said that the US government lodged at least $4 million dollars into anti-government separatist groups from 2006 to 2009.

The issue, based in the eastern Bolivian departments of Beni, Pando, Santa Cruz and Tarija, nicknamed the media luna (half-moon) due to the shape they form on a map, is based in gas: the wealthier region is rich in natural gases.

When Morales, of the leftist Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, was elected as the head of state in 2006, two of his main priorities were land reform and the nationalization of the country's natural resources as both issues plagued the nation since its colonization by Spain in the early 1500s.

The eastern half of the nation, the media luna, and its leaders had enriched themselves with the exploitation of the large...