Politics and Visas

So I am going on a trip in a few days, I am heading down to Santa Cruz, Bolivia where my mother is from so I can attend my cousin's wedding and celebrate Christmas and New Years.  It should be a blast!  I am excited to eat the food, see the city, party all night, it is gonna be fun.  Unfortunately it is going to be more difficult to get there than it has in the past.  Typically a trip to Bolivia involves making sure you got your wits, your passport, and, wait, that's it. 

Not this time.  Our government has been antagonistic towards the democratically elected government of Bolivia.  It seems that they want to implement some policies that the U.S. thinks are socialist, or might hamper investments that foreign companies have made in Bolivia.  Any ideas what industries these investments might have been in?  (I'll give you a hint, they produce energy.)  I think nationalizing resources such as gas and oil is a dangerous policy for Bolivia to pursue, but the people did elect the government, and aren't we the champions of democracy fighting for it in the middle east?  Any way, the Bolivian government has decided that to get back at the United States the only way they can, (because what else are they going to do? blockade us with their navy?) they have decided to put visa requirements on all US citizens visiting Bolivia.  We have been moved from the list of countries that don't require any visa, (that list includes most European countries who don't meddle too much in Bolivia anymore) to the list of countries that have the highest number of requirements to get a visa.  They call it a reciprocity policy as now we have to jump through all the hoops to go there that they have to jump through to get here. 

So it is a pain in the ass.  It is not that the idea that Bolivia has put in a place a reciprocity policy angers me, as much as it is the general trend that the United States has relating to other countries.  Our bully posturing and behavior over the last seven years has made it more difficult for Americans to be welcomed abroad than in the past.  That is a particular problem because never have we had a larger need for Americans to leave and get another perspective on how the world is, and how we fit within that world.  The world looks very different from outsid the US looking in. 

Just on a side note, we are engaged in NAFTA, Europe has the EU, we have increasing border walls and requirements to get through borders.  Europe is breaking down borders and trying to create larger markets and better freedom of movement.  This one could be debated all day long, but I just thought I would point out what I see as a fundamental difference in attitudes.