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Morales wins Bolivian presidency

Source: Al Jazeera
December 19, 2005A



.... "A high-school dropout who herded llamas as a boy, Morales has vowed to roll back a US-backed eradication programme of coca, the main ingredient in cocaine but also prized by Indians for traditional medicinal uses"



Evo Morales, who challenges US anti-drug policies, is to be Bolivia's first Indian president and join Latin America's shift to the left after winning a large majority in Sunday's elections.

His rivals conceded defeat when results tabulated by local media from official results showed him taking slightly more than half of the vote, much higher than predicted.

Electoral officials were due to release results on Monday and, if they confirm that Morales won more than 50% of the votes, he avoids facing a congressional choice between him and the right-wing Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga, who came a distant second.

Amid chants of "Evo president! Evo president!" by hundreds of supporters at his campaign headquarters in Cochabamba on Sunday night, Morales said: "Beginning tomorrow, Bolivia's new history really begins: A history where we will seek equality, justice, equity, peace and social justice."

"Beginning tomorrow, Bolivia's new history really begins: A history where we will seek equality, justice, equity, peace and social justice"

Evo Morales, Bolivian president elect Landlocked Bolivia, South America's poorest and least-stable country, has seen two presidents in three years toppled by large-scale demonstrations led by out-of-work miners, disenfranchised Indians and coca-leaf growers.

The new government will face conflicting demands from Indian groups, who want the constitution rewritten to enshrine Indian rights, and from the country's wealthy eastern provinces, where an elite wants greater power for regional governments.

Nationalising gas industry

Morales has pledged to nationalise the natural gas industry - Bolivia has South America's second-largest reserves of the fuel - tuning in to popular disillusionment with free-market economic policies that many say did little to help the poor.

Morales, who admires the drive for regional co-operation to counter US influence by Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, also tapped into frustrations of the Quechua, Aymara and other Indian groups that are a majority in the Andean country.

Bolivian Indians strongly support Morales, one of their own His most fervent support comes from Indians who see one of their own reversing what most see as more than 500 years of discrimination under leaders of European heritage, beginning with slavery in Spanish colonial silver mines.

A high-school dropout who herded llamas as a boy, Morales has vowed to roll back a US-backed eradication programme of coca, the main ingredient in cocaine but also prized by Indians for traditional medicinal uses.

Washington's nightmare

Washington considers Morales, who first rose to power as the leader of the country's coca farmers, an enemy in its anti-drug fight in Bolivia, the third-biggest cocaine producer after Colombia and Peru.

Morales has described himself as Washington's "nightmare".

A Morales presidency will add Bolivia to a drift to the left across the region that has seen leftist presidents come to power in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela. Reuters

This is definitely a great day for the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The price of Crack will drop, Lionheart will be pleased

The neo-liberal globalization embodied in bush’s call for a FTAA will face resistance from the growing socialist movements in the Americas, from Lula, to chavez and now Morales.

I tend to agree with surria here , I cannot believe it .

Vivia Maorales ,
Viva Bolivia

Viva Chavez and the bolivar revolution

Down with America

I second Gureey and Surria

Morales is a guy who wants to preserve his own culture. They chew the leaves while being productive, and resist alcohol, as American money turns the leaves into coke and crack and sell it to the Americans. While at the sametime, the U.S government claims to be in "war on drugs", it is also promoting alcohol to become the Bolivian drug of choice.

And whats the American excuse for electing a dumbass like Bush boy?^Now do the robot dance^

Morales 1=America 0

Hope that he uses wisely Bolivia's gas resources and alligns himself with Hugo Chavez. A democracy not known to GWB's America.

Daanyeer

u r indeed a monkey straight from the American bet store.

you can't concieve what Independancy from western domination means


Viva the Red Indians, the true owners of America

Viva Morales!

Bolivian leader defends his drug policy


Yahoo
Tue Sep 19, 10:10 PM ET



UNITED NATIONS - Bolivian president Evo Morales brandished a coca leaf on the floor of the United Nations Tuesday in a passionate rebuke of U.S. criticisms of the South American nation's anti-drug policies.

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The State Department on Monday included Bolivia in its annual list of major drug-transit or drug-producing countries, singling out Morales' government for continuing to permit the legal harvest of coca, the principal ingredient in cocaine.

Morales, a former coca-grower elected in December as Bolivia's first indigenous president, surprised the U.N. General Assembly by pulling out the small leaf — banned in the United States — and holding it aloft.

"Coca is green, not white like cocaine," he said, to a smattering of applause. "Scientifically ... it has been demonstrated that the coca leaf does no harm to human health."

Morales has upped his government's enforcement efforts against cocaine production while continuing to promote coca's legal use in tea, medicines and other products.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Christy McCampbell on Monday expressed "very serious concerns" about the effectiveness of Morales' coca policy. She reiterated demands for a more thorough eradication program, the development of alternative crops and an overhaul of Bolivian drug laws.

McCampbell said that the U.S. would review Bolivia's drug policies again in six months' time.

Without significant change in the Morales' program, Bolivia could face decertification — the loss of some $100 million in U.S. government aid in the fight against narco-trafficking.

"With all respect to the government of the United States, we are not going to change anything. We do not need blackmail or threats," Morales said. "Certification or decertification is an instrument of recolonization, or colonization, of the Andean countries. That we will not accept."