Criminal charges of espionage have been filed against a US embassy official accused of asking an American student and some Peace Corps volunteers to keep tabs on Venezuelan and Cuban workers in Bolivia.
Bolivian Vice Minister of Government Ruben Gamarra, who filed the charges this week, said on Thursday that the government may ask the US to provide a statement from the embassy security official, Vincent Cooper.
Also on Thursday, the Bolivian Senate said it would form a committee to investigate the charges against Cooper.
The charges carry a sentence of 30 years in prison without parole. It was unclear on Thursday whether diplomatic immunity would protect him under Bolivian and international law.
In a Wednesday meeting, US Ambassador Philip Goldberg and Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca agreed that Cooper would not return to Bolivia.
Fulbright scholar Alex van Schaick told The Associated Press last week that during a one-on-one security briefing in November, Cooper asked him to pass along information on Venezuelan and Cuban workers he encountered in the country.
Four months earlier, embassy officials said, Cooper mistakenly gave a group of newly arrived Peace Corps volunteers a security briefing meant only for embassy staff, asking them only to report "suspicious activities."
Bolivian President Evo Morales on Thursday praised van Schaick for coming forward despite the risk to his reputation.
"I salute this American for denouncing the spying [his government] does," the president said.
The embassy case has fed an ongoing spying controversy in Bolivia.
Last month, materials anonymously leaked to various media appeared to show police spying on prominent, anti-Morales politicians.
Morales, in turn, shut down a US-backed police intelligence unit he accused of operating outside Bolivian government control.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS