Pubdate: Tue, 20 Dec 2005
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2005 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Juan Forero
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Evo+Morales
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Bolivia
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

BOLIVIA'S NEWLY ELECTED LEADER MAPS HIS SOCIALIST AGENDA

LA PAZ, Bolivia -After his decisive win in the election for president
on Sunday, the Socialist indigenous leader, Evo Morales, vowed Monday
to respect private property but repeated his pledge to increase state
control over the energy industry and reverse an American-backed
crusade against coca, the plant used to make cocaine.

Wearing his trademark black jeans and tennis shoes, Mr. Morales
arrived in La Paz to begin laying the groundwork for an economic and
political transformation that he says will give voice to the poor,
indigenous majority that fueled his campaign. "The voice of the people
is the voice of God," he said late Sunday.

Mr. Morales, 46, a former small-town trumpeter and soccer player who
turned a movement of coca farmers into the country's most potent
political force, stunned his countrymen on Sunday by burying seven
challengers in the most important election since Bolivia's transition
from dictatorship to democracy a generation ago.

Unofficial results showed that Mr. Morales won up to 52 percent of the
vote to become the first Indian president in Bolivia's 180-year
history, a victory that solidifies a continent-wide shift of
governments to the left.

"For the first time a candidate wins with 50 percent plus 1, and it's
the biggest margin between the first two finishers," said Gonzalo
Chavez, an economist and political analyst at Catholic University in
La Paz. "This is a democratic revolution. The voting was tremendously
strong, and signifies a tremendous demand for change in Bolivia."

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Nestor Kirchner of
Argentina, two of the continent's leading left-leaning leaders,
quickly offered their congratulations, as did Chile, Spain and the
European Union.

The United States tried to discredit Mr. Morales in the past by
alleging ties to drug trafficking, and ended up increasing his
popularity. The administration offered cautious congratulations to Mr.
Morales and to the Bolivian people "for carrying out a successful election."

But American officials acknowledged that they viewed his presidency
with serious concern, while insisting that they would wait to see how
he actually governed.

A State Department official noted that Bolivia had experienced several
years of chaos in government, "and now they have chosen a leader and
still have a constitutional process." adding, "We have to respect
that, whatever else Morales has said." He declined to be identified,
citing department policy.

Mr. Morales's party, the Movement Toward Socialism, won nearly half
the 27 seats in the Senate and up to half the 130 seats in the lower
house. Unofficial figures showed the MAS, as the party is known, also
won at least two of nine governorships.

Podemos, the party of Jorge Quiroga, a former president, finished a
distant second. Three other traditional parties practically
disappeared from the national scene.

The MAS is now poised to push through legislation tightening the terms
on British Gas, Repsol YPF of Spain, Petrobras of Brazil and other
foreign energy companies operating here. Mr. Morales has promised to
"nationalize" the lucrative natural gas industry, not by expropriating
it, but rather by expanding state control over operations, policy and
the commercialization of gas.

"The government will exercise its right to state ownership of
Bolivia's hydrocarbons," he said Monday.

Foreign oil companies have in the past said that financially onerous
terms could prompt them to cut back on investments, which have fallen
from $608 million in 1998 to $200 million last year. But on Monday,
Ronald Fessy, spokesman for the Bolivian Hydrocarbon Chamber, said it
was too soon to predict.

"Governments have to be seen in action, not in times of campaigning,"
he said. "We hope that this government will work to achieve scenarios
that would lead to policies that are good for investments that this
industry and Bolivia urgently need."

Mr. Morales has also pledged to reverse Bolivia's longstanding
alliance with the United States in the generation-long fight against
drugs, which has greatly curtailed the coca planting but has set off
politically volatile uprisings by coca farmers. Mr. Morales and his
followers say much of Bolivia's coca goes for traditional uses, to be
chewed or used in tea, while Washington says most of it becomes cocaine.

"The fight against drug trafficking is a false pretext for the United
States to install military bases," Mr. Morales told reporters on Monday.

Even with the mandate from voters, Mr. Morales is not expected to have
an easy time in a country rocked by years of social protests fueled by
inequality and poverty.

He will be under pressure to ensure that the country's budding exports
of textiles and furniture continue, while answering to indigenous
leaders who seek radical change. Some social movements have vowed to
apply pressure. The Bolivian Workers Central, the country's largest
labor confederation, said the government would have to expropriate
private energy installations from private companies, or face the kind
of protests that forced out two presidents since 2003.

"He has to make changes or he falls," Jaime Solares, the head of the
confederation, said in an interview.

In the main square of La Paz, where one president was lynched on a
lamppost in 1946, most people seemed tired of protests and wanted to
give Mr. Morales a chance .

"We have to give him some time," said Martin Bautista, 35, a truck
driver. "I feel happy because here a lot of things are about to change." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake