Bolivia’s Morales slams US ‘conspiracy’

PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD (AP) - Bolivia’s leader claimed Saturday that Washington continues to conspire against him _ despite President Barack Obama’s pledge of a new era of mutual respect toward Latin America.

Evo Morales told a news conference at a summit of leaders from the Western Hemisphere that he asked Obama to publicly repudiate a plot to assassinate him, during a morning meeting the U.S. president held with 12 South American leaders.

He did not say whether Obama responded.

A senior Obama administration official told reporters that “some issues of past U.S. intervention” were raised during the meeting, none of them “directed at the president or his administration.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.

Bolivian authorities say they crushed on Thursday a group comprised mostly of foreign mercenaries that was planning to kill Morales and his vice president. Police killed three alleged conspirators, including an Irishman and a Romanian.

Morales did not allege U.S. involvement in the purported plot.

But he said Obama’s vow in a speech at Summit of the America’s inauguration on Friday rings hollow without a denunciation.

“Obama said three things: There are neither senior or junior partners. He said relations should be of mutual respect, and he spoke of change,” Morales said. “In Bolivia … one doesn’t feel any change. The policy of conspiracy continues.”

He said if Obama does not repudiate the alleged assassination plot, “I might think it was organized through the embassy.”

“I want to gain confidence,” he said. “I don’t want meddling in my country.”

Morales expelled U.S. ambassador Philip Goldberg in September and kicked out the Drug Enforcement Administration the next month for allegedly conspiring with the political opposition to incite violence.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close ally of Morales, expelled the U.S. ambassador in his country in solidarity.

The administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush subsequently suspended trade preferences to Bolivia that local business leaders say could cost it 20,000 jobs.