VZCZCXRO2893
PP RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHTM
DE RUEHLP #0185/01 0281306
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 281306Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY LA PAZ
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6311
INFO RUEHZI/WHA POSTS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 LA PAZ 000185 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM BL OAS
SUBJECT: BOLIVIA:  INDIGENOUS OUTREACH 
 
REF: SECSTATE 4241 
 
¶1. (U) Summary:  The U.S. Mission in Bolivia has for many 
years reached out to Bolivia's indigenous communities through 
a series of innovative and successful programs.  USAID 
Bolivia has always focused its significant assistance 
programs on the poorest and marginalized groups, which are 
usually indigenous. The Public Affairs Section (PAS) attempts 
to ensure that indigenous communities benefit from all PAS 
programs.  The Embassy and USAID have also begun initiatives 
to include indigenous Bolivians in Mission operations, with 
two ongoing indigenous internship programs and hiring 
indigenous experts into key professional positions.  MILGROUP 
medical missions treat indigenous Bolivians, and the 
Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS) has programs aimed at 
preventing drug-use by indigenous youth.  End Summary. 
 
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USAID: Helping Poor and Indigenous Bolivians 
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¶2. (U) To highlight the USG's role in providing increased 
opportunities for Bolivia's traditionally-marginalized 
indigenous communities, USAID identified key messages and 
ramped up its public outreach strategy to ensure that the 
messages were being delivered throughout the country. 
Averaging two per week, USAID events communicate positive 
messages on how USG assistance is effectively helping the 
Bolivian people, in particular the poor and indigenous.  For 
example, at one school event in the indigenous city of El 
Alto, the Ambassador showed how nutritious USG-supported 
Integrated Alternative Development fruit reaches over 180,000 
students twice per week in La Paz and El Alto.  USAID also 
helped create PROSALUD, a health service provider that 
currently serves more than 600,000 poor, mostly indigenous, 
Bolivians each year. 
 
¶3. (U) To publicize post's assistance programs, in 2007 USAID 
organized five "Project Fairs" to deepen the understanding of 
USG assistance programs in Bolivia, highlighting the programs 
that USAID, NAS, PAS, MILGROUP and the Peace Corps carry out 
across the country.  At each Project Fair, project 
beneficiaries (typically indigenous) come from the far 
reaches of the Amazon Basin, Altiplano communities and Santa 
Cruz lowlands to describe firsthand how USG assistance has 
benefited their families and communities.  In one 
particularly successful outreach program, USAID and PAS 
brought together USAID partners from all over Bolivia to 
present a project fair for participants of the April 2007 
Organization of American States (OAS) working group in La 
Paz.  Through this fair, USAID and PAS were able to 
demonstrate valuable 'in the field' cooperation between the 
USG and indigenous communities in Bolivia.  OAS participants 
were able to learn more about various projects and had the 
opportunity to buy partner-organization products. 
 
¶4. (U) Through its Integrated Alternative Development 
program, USAID funds annual workshops conducted by PAS for 
indigenous community radio journalists to improve local 
capacity to report on alternative development projects and 
their impact on local communities.  USAID also funds program 
segments produced by an independent radio journalist that 
highlight the benefits of USG assistance to rural communities. 
 
¶5. (U)  USAID also initiated a highly-successful indigenous 
intern program, selecting exceptional young indigenous 
leaders to work at USAID for six month periods.  These 
interns gain valuable work experience while also learning 
more about USAID and its programs that directly help 
indigenous communities in Bolivia. 
 
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MILGROUP:  Military Medicine for Marginalized Majority 
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¶6. (SBU) The MILGROUP focuses its humanitarian assistance 
programs, totaling over $3M for FY07, on outreach to 
populations with little access to basic needs, often 
indigenous Bolivians.  The grassroots support earned through 
these programs provides the USG with significant long-term 
goodwill among the neediest populations.  During 2007, the 
MILGROUP coordinated and executed seven Medical Readiness 
Exercises (MEDRETEs) in towns, cities, and along rivers in 
Bolivia, providing care to some of the country's most remote 
and under-served populations.  The MEDRETEs totaled over $1.2 
million and treated from five to ten thousand patients per 
MEDRETE.  In these same marginalized, mostly-indigenous 
communities, MILGROUP has funded $2.3 million dollars in 
humanitarian assistance, including four medical clinics, five 
water storage and treatment facilities, two community 
centers, a disaster relief warehouse and supplies, a school, 
two wells, and a national Avian Influenza tracking program. 
 
LA PAZ 00000185  002 OF 003 
 
 
MILGROUP also coordinated over $600,000 in Denton Amendment 
U.S. Air Force support for NGO donations, including hospital 
supplies, school materials, and other U.S. citizen donations. 
 
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NAS:  No to Drugs, Yes to Indigenous Empowerment 
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¶7. (U) The Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS) has an active 
demand-reduction campaign that reaches thousands of at-risk 
indigenous students, mostly through the DARE program.  In 
coordination with the Rural Interdiction Police, NAS sponsors 
an annual soccer tournament for indigenous youth in the 
Yungas coca-growing area and provides three annual 
soccer-academy scholarships for indigenous youth from the 
Yungas.  NAS also supports the "School for Life", which works 
with 30 student leaders in Santa Cruz to build social skills 
in underprivileged youth. A pilot Narcotics Affairs Section 
and Public Affairs Section project starting in 2008 will 
invite an art teacher/urban youth expert to live in an 
indigenous community for three months to use art lessons to 
reach at-risk indigenous kids before they start drug use. 
 
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Public Affairs: Indigenous Participation in Every Program 
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¶8. (U) The Public Affairs Section (PAS) produces in-house 
indigenous language (Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani) radio 
programs to highlight the Embassy's programs and provide the 
U.S. perspective on key events within Bolivia and around the 
world.  The programs are produced three times a week and are 
distributed to over 200 rural community radio stations. 
 
¶9. (U) PAS has a large number of programs targeting young 
indigenous audiences.  PAS works closely with Bi-national 
Centers in order to reach 15-18 year-olds, especially with 
English language instruction and cultural outreach.  In the 
last year, PAS more than tripled the number of scholarships 
for indigenous and Afro-Bolivian students from 80 to 263. 
PAS supports several "youth Ambassador" programs in which 
indigenous high school students and other young indigenous 
leaders have the opportunity to go the United States for two 
weeks or more.  In conjunction with the Martin Luther King 
scholarship program, PAS's "College Horizons" projects 
provides two years of English language scholarship and pairs 
participants with former International Visitor, Fulbright or 
other scholarship recipients for mentoring.  Participants are 
helped in the college application and scholarship application 
process, and the program pays for college entrance test fees. 
 Embassy Bolivia's Fulbright program also actively seeks 
indigenous participants, supported by PAS's English-language 
scholarships, as more potential indigenous Fulbright 
participants are close to having the required level of 
English (currently two of Bolivia's Fulbright scholarship 
recipients in the United States are indigenous.) 
 
¶10. (U) Through the 'Winter Institute for Bolivian Indigenous 
Leaders' (the 'Study of U.S. Institutes for Student Leaders 
Program'), ten Bolivian university students of indigenous 
background are selected to go to the United States to 
participate in a five-week academic seminar and educational 
travel program, enhancing their leadership potential and 
their familiarity with the United States and U.S. values. 
Two former Winter Institute graduates (and Embassy indigenous 
interns) have gone on to create a series of workshops for 
over 1,500 indigenous Bolivian students.  Their "Breaking 
Stereotypes" workshops reached 20 to 30 students at a time 
with discussions of U.S. democracy, government, and the role 
of the Embassy in Bolivia, with Embassy officers often taking 
part. Participants had the opportunity to question the two 
former interns about their experiences in the United States 
and at the Embassy.  Many of the indigenous youth attending 
the workshop were from tough inner-city schools and had never 
had the chance to meet or talk with an American, or even 
someone who had visited the United States. 
 
¶11. (SBU) With PAS, U.S. conservationist Jon Kohl promoted 
eco-tourism as a tool for environmental protection and 
economic development.  In addition to lectures around the 
country, Kohl conducted a four-day workshop in an indigenous 
community in Madidi National Park (where USAID is also 
working with the indigenous community).  Participants of this 
workshop plan to use the course material to improve 
ecotourism projects in two Mission-supported Bolivian nature 
preserves. 
 
¶12. (U) Recent Cultural programs included two hip-hop groups 
and a group of Native American dancers:  the hip-hop groups 
were chosen to appeal to young (mostly-indigenous) urban 
audiences, while the Native American dancers appealed to 
indigenous audiences in Cochabamba, La Paz, Batallas (an 
 
LA PAZ 00000185  003 OF 003 
 
 
Aymara city in the Altiplano), and Santa Cruz. PAS also 
recently organized a visit to the United States for six 
indigenous members of the El Alto orchestra (note: El Alto is 
Bolivia's largest indigenous city and one of President Evo 
Morales' areas of strongest support. End note.)  The young 
indigenous musicians visited Juilliard, the Kennedy Center 
and Carnegie Hall, participating in workshops and educational 
events.  One of the U.S. teachers in this program will soon 
visit Bolivia as a U.S. speaker.  In addition, the 
Ambassador's invitation of over 500 orphans and street kids 
from El Alto (mostly indigenous) to a professional soccer 
game made the front page of the only newspaper dedicated to 
the 800,000 indigenous residents of El Alto. 
 
¶13. (U) PAS also hosted a successful DVC on Native American 
history, inviting indigenous community leaders, former 
scholarship participants and other indigenous observers to 
also participate in two follow-up roundtables.  During the 
roundtables, participants were able to comment on what they 
had learned from the DVC and provide their own insights into 
parallels between the history of U.S. Native American and 
Bolivian indigenous groups. 
 
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Comment 
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¶14. (SBU) One of Post's top priorities is to continue to 
reach out to Bolivia's historically overlooked and 
under-served indigenous population.  Opportunities abound in 
a country where the majority of citizens identify themselves 
as either mestizo or indigenous, depending on the survey. 
Post's programs for indigenous populations have been very 
well-received, generating good results and good will 
throughout the country.  Demand exceeds our ability to supply 
indigenous outreach: we could support even more successful 
programs with additional resources. 
 
¶15. (SBU) Because of the positive response Post's indigenous 
outreach programs garner, these programs could prove hard for 
Bolivian officials to attack (for example, anti-USAID 
rhetoric is less convincing when the Bolivian public can see 
that USAID supports indigenous women entrepreneurs in El Alto 
or provides scholarships to poor, indigenous youth.)  As 
President Morales capitalizes on his status as Bolivia's 
first indigenous president, indigenous identity and 
indigenous inclusion will become even more prominent issues. 
President Morales may find it difficult to criticize programs 
that directly benefit his largest base of support: indigenous 
Bolivians.  While focusing on delivering real benefits to 
Bolivian indigenous communities, we will therefore also seek 
to counteract anti-USG rhetoric with the positive truth: that 
the USG and the U.S. people continue to support Bolivia's 
poor, marginalized, and indigenous citizens.  End comment. 
 
GOLDBERG