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The tide is turning

Unofficial Results Show Morales Victory in Bolivia

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - Evo Morales, the socialist coca farmer who would be Bolivia's first Indian president, appeared poised to join the ranks of like-minded leaders who have pushed Latin America's democracies to the left in recent years.

With exit polls running strongly in his favor, Morales took an early congratulatory phone call from Venezuela's belligerently anti-American president Hugo Chavez.

At a party at Morales' home in Cochabamba, his supporters toasted as the candidate announced that Chavez planned to contact Cuba's Fidel Castro.

Said Morales of Chavez: "He's going to tell Fidel the good news" — eliciting laughs from those nearby.

Morales has promised to be "Washington's nightmare," indicating he would exercise more state control over South America's second-largest natural gas reserves and bring an end to U.S.-backed coca eradication efforts.

A Morales presidency in Bolivia would signal further movement to the political left among Latin America's democracies. The political shift has brought leaders ranging from Chavez in Venezuela to the moderate center-left presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile.

A major factor in each of those elections has been voters' frustration with free-market economic policies of the past decade to do more to alleviate entrenched poverty in the continent of more than 400 million people.

Recently elected leaders have rejected U.S.-backed initiatives including a hemisphere wide free-trade zone in favor of smaller trade, energy and business alliances in the name of South American unity.

But Morales would face the additional challenge of simply holding the country together. More affluent regions of the county with new natural gas reserves have threatened to secede.
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At his single-story home off a dirt road in Cochabamba, near the coca-growing region where he built his political movement, Morales said he was feeling "Good, but I'm a little nervous."

He prayed before a photograph of his late father, a miner who raised Morales' family in poverty, and joined a close circle of friends for a beef barbecue and boiled small potatoes, as cheerful supporters passed around rum-and-cola drinks.
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"I am the candidate of those despised in Bolivian history, the candidate of the most disdained, discriminated against," he said after working through a crowd of admirers — some rushing forward to kiss him — to vote at a dilapidated basketball court in the village school.

Morales grew up in extreme poverty, only two of his six brothers and sisters surviving childhood in Bolivia's bleak Andean highlands.

A Look at South America's Leftist Leaders

A victory by Bolivian Socialist Evo Morales would add to a growing leftward shift in South America. Other nations with left-leaning governments:

• ARGENTINA: Center-left President Nestor Kirchner took office in 2003 in the first election after the country's 2001-02 economic meltdown. Kirchner recently announced that Argentina would make early repayment of its $9.8 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund to avoid the IMF's free-market policy demands. Kirchner has strengthened ties with Venezuela's leftist leader, Hugo Chavez.

• BRAZIL: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rose from rural poverty to become Brazil's first elected leftist president in January 2003. He has promoted social welfare programs, but many leftists are disgruntled over a conservative fiscal policy that has kept interest rates high and inflation low. Brazil is paying off its IMF debt early to save on interest payments.

• CHILE: A Socialist-led coalition has held power since the end of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in 1990, signing free-trade accords with the United States and the
European Union. Chile enjoys one of Latin America's strongest economies. Coalition candidate Michelle Bachelet was the top voter-getter in recent elections but faces a runoff against a conservative rival in January.

• URUGUAY: President Tabare Vazquez took office in March as the country's first leftist leader. A doctor and former mayor of Montevideo, Vazquez promised to maintain orthodox economic policies while focusing on helping the poor.

• VENEZUELA: President Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998 on a left-leaning, anti-corruption platform. A self-proclaimed "revolutionary," Chavez has built close ties with Cuba's communist government and is using his country's oil wealth for sweeping social programs and to build ties with other South American nations independent of the United States.


Because I knowwwwwww change gonna commmmmmme, oh yes it willlllllll

De Yankees put a Axis of Evil label on he as yet?

soon Bunta soon. This will happen soon!

anyone have any suggestions for readings on socialism in south america?

I only hope that this time around they learn the lessons of history and what happened with past leftist leaders who tried to put their country and people ahead of US and European interests. The fall of Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala, Cheddi Jagan of Guyana and Salvador Allende of Chile are just three of the more tragic and horrific examples of US “democratic exercises” in the Americas and that should never be allowed to happen again in this region.

In your collective glee over Morales's victory, did any of you stop to think of the potential consequences on the US anti-narcotic efforts?

I find it curious that you would bold this part of the statement and completely overlook the blue. Political dynamism is always good but specifically where the voices of the poor and disenfranchised can have their voices heard. That said, let's not let misguided glee over change blind us to the potential devil that we're rearing in our midst.

Bakes, as a former military person and one who spent most of his career in counter-narcotics including undercover work, I think I am a lot more concerned about that than you'll ever be. I am also very much concerned about the US culpability in drug/arms trafficking. Devil has many heads y'know

First off you know nothing of me or my past efforts countering this demonic scourge that is illegal substance abuse...so don't assume that your concern can be any greater than mine 'will ever be'.

Devil may have many heads...but when this one devil pledges to fight the eradication of coca farming then I'm sorry...I'd rather go with the devil I don't know.

Maybe there's some medicinal/beneficial reasons why the Aymara Indians grow coca leaves that I'm just not aware of...

when this one devil pledges to fight the eradication of coca farming then I'm sorry...I'd rather go with the devil I don't know.


Hey, you get no argument from me there, but at least THAT devil is honest about it.

hmmmmmmm


*need to learn portugese*

Bakes!

US Anti Narcotic Efforts are PURE BULLSH8T:
War on Drugs = TOTAL FAILURE!!!

In fact American Citizens demand for Narcotics is UP!!!

They hiding Cough Medicine from people in Drug Stores today.

Economic Conditions within US Domestic Borders dictate that "Live Fast or Die Trying" is THE Career Path for the next crop of High School Graduates/Dropouts.

...and this justifies opposing COCA eradication efforts, exactly how??

Actually, I hadn't overlooked anything. The US-backed anti-coca effort in Bolivia has long been said to be just as harmful to country as it might be beneficial. See below....

there ya go....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051220/...olivia_morales

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivia's presidential front-runner said Tuesday he would not allow unlimited production of coca, the crop used to produce cocaine, but would call a referendum to ask how it should be controlled.

"There won't be the free cultivation of the coca leaf," Evo Morales said at news conference, where he also called on the U.S. government to enter into an agreement to "truly" fight drug trafficking.

Morales, a leftist coca grower who campaigned against a U.S.-backed coca eradication effort, gave few details about what voters would be asked to decide, but said, "It's important to listen to the people."

The government currently restricts coca production and has tried to carry out an aggressive, U.S.-funded effort to limit the crop.

He said the referendum would be carried out in coca-growing areas among growers known as "cocaleros."

He said his drug policy will be "zero cocaine and zero drug trafficking, but not zero coca or zero cocaleros," Morales said.

Morales also said the government would study whether to increase the amount of coca legally grown for traditional consumption. Current laws permit coca cultivation in 29,000 acres of the Yungas valley and a small amount in the Chapare region.

For thousands of years, people in the Andes have chewed coca to stave off hunger, made it into tea or used it as medicine. Most is grown on small family plots.

the hunger and starvation problem in Bolivia musse bigger than we realize...if ah whole region ah people can make ah living selling farming it so that de rest ah de nation can stave off starvation.

Just like Bush...long on wind, short on specifics...no word on what the referendum will ask