US official tries to ease strains in relations with Bolivia

A senior U.S. diplomat tried to improve rocky relations with Bolivia's leftist government on Wednesday and local officials say he offered to cooperate in attempts to extradite a former president and defense minister. Thomas Shannon, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, met President Evo Morales and assured that Washington was not conspiring to topple him, as Morales and other officials have sometimes alleged. "The only conspiracy is against poverty, against social exclusion," Shannon told a news conference. "I believe we have established a basis of understanding and confidence," Shannon added. Morales, a former coca grower, professed socialist and close ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, has repeatedly alleged that U.S. officials were trying to undermine his... [read full story]