US Embassy Asked Peace Corps and Fulbright Scholars to Spy in Bolivia

ABC News went public today with a story that has been circulating privately in Bolivia for several months – at least one U.S. Embassy official in La Paz has been asking U.S. Fulbright scholars and Peace Corps volunteers to provide the Embassy with intelligence on Cubans and Venezuelans in Bolivia. The story, written by reporter Jean Friedman, centers on the testimony of John Alexander van Schaick, a Fulbright scholar who spoke in detail about the request from an Embassy official during a required "security briefing" in November 2007. Here is a link to the story.

According to van Schaick, Assistant Regional Security Officer Vincent Cooper asked him during the interview to provide the Embassy with any information he stumbled across, during his time in Bolivia, about Cuban or Venezuelan nationals doing work in the country. ABC News was able to corroborate similar requests from the Embassy with testimony from managers and volunteers in the U.S. Peace Corps.

Such requests are in direct violation of U.S. policy prohibiting the use of Fulbright scholars and Peace Corps members for any such intelligence gathering. ABC quotes an unnamed State Department spokesperson affirming that the request was not a part of any State Department policy.

The story, justifiably, is likely to gather significant attention in Bolivia, with Morales administration officials already publicly pledging to investigate. The "Spy for U.S." story follows months of charges by the Morales administration (and denials by the U.S.) that the Bush administration has been using USAID funding and other financing to back Morales opponents. It also has echoes of another incident last year when a relative of the senior U.S. military advisor at the Embassy was detained at the La Paz airport bringing in 500 rounds of 45 caliber ammunition for the Embassy official. This latest incident, as did that one, raises serious questions about whether U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia has directed the Spy requests, suffers from serious lapses in political judgment, or just has no control over his staff.

Either way, Goldberg's string of political headaches is likely to turn into a phenomenal migraine over this one.

A serious concern here is whether the fallout from the "Spy for U.S." story will have repercussions for Fulbright Scholars and the Peace Corps program. At an individual level, these young visitors to Bolivia rely significantly on the goodwill of the communities and people with whom they operate. If the Bolivian government and press label them as spies, that goodwill and their ability to work in Bolivia will be in jeopardy. The Peace Corps was already kicked out of Bolivia by the government there in 1971, following allegations that the program gave sterilization treatment to indigenous women without their knowledge. The Corps returned to Bolivia in 1990 after a nearly 20-year absence.

The object of anger over this incident should not be directed at either Fulbright scholars or Peace Corps volunteers. Bolivian anger over the Spy request ought to be directed at the incompetent U.S. officials who have put playing James Bond over the interest and safety of the hundreds of young people from the U.S. serving in these programs. This time public apologies alone will not resolve anything.

It is clear that Mr. Cooper should be dismissed from his post and the State Department immediately. It also seems that the time has come for Mr. Goldberg, his supervisor, to leave Bolivia as well.