Protest in La Paz

La Paz is a very misnamed city. Today I went out to film a march on the US Embassy. Carlos Sanchéz Bersaín was the Minister of Defense in the government of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. The Bolivian Government and powerful social movements would like to see Sánchez Bersaín stand trial in Bolivia to take responsibility for the deaths that occurred during the social unrest of October of 2003, but on Thursday he was awarded political asylum in the US.

The first reaction to this would be that this is a typical project of President Bush... protecting right wing politicians from prosecution in their home countries, under the argument that foreign countries don't have a fair system of due process. right. never mind the logic of whether the U.S. has the moral authority to determine what counts as due process.

But a little investigation and you figure out that one of Sanchéz Bersaín's lawyers is Gregory B. Craig, who is a major bundler for Obama, and an early defector from the Clinton camp. Read more about Craig in the New Yorker. Craig has something of a checkered past, with a list of controversial clients.

Obama is frequently seen from these parts - that is countries with significant anti-US sentiment - as a president who would likely be much more open to dialogue and much more likely to pursue joint interests. But this begs the question whether that is really the case.

Video of the protest coming shortly.