Evo Morales, a leftist coca grower who helped topple two predecessors through violent street uprisings, was sworn in Sunday as the first Indian president of Bolivia. The former leader of Bolivia's coca growers union swore to uphold the constitution. Morales, a critic of U.S. policies, will head a socialist government for at least five years. He said he would fight druglords who convert the coca leaf into cocaine but would defend legitimate coca crops used for teas, medicines and religious purposes in Bolivia. [end]
LA PAZ, Bolivia - Evo Morales, a Socialist protest leader and steadfast critic of American policies in the region, was sworn in Sunday as president of Bolivia, the first Indian to hold the position in this landlocked country whose indigenous majority had long felt oppressed and cut off from political power. With tears welling in his eyes, his left fist raised and his right hand over his heart, Mr. Morales, 46, an Aymara Indian, took the oath of office as the leaders of 11 countries, American diplomats and the crown prince of Spain watched from the gallery of the country's ornate 19th-century Congress. [continues 946 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- The streets of this colonial city erupted in song and fireworks Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, who promised to begin reversing centuries of social injustice, shield the country from U.S. influence and reclaim natural resources that he says have been exploited by international capitalism. Morales, 46, broke into tears before addressing Bolivia's Congress and the presidents of many neighboring South American countries, a gathering that illustrated the region's ongoing political shift toward socialism. The former coca grower likened his historic rise to power in Bolivia, where people of Indian descent make up more than 60 percent of the population, to the end of apartheid in South Africa. [continues 927 words]
The assumption of Evo Morales as president of Bolivia promises a significant revamping of the country's political and economic system. He is a popular leader with significant following among the indigenous Bolivian population. He comes to power with an ambitious programme of development for this country. Bolivia's relationship with the United States and with international companies with interest in the country's resources will be critical for his presidency. His visit to China and his talks with Chinese leaders may be significant in terms of achieving important commercial deals. [continues 643 words]
Evo Morales May Have Won at the Polls, but Bolivia Is Still Far From A Victory. On its face, the election of Evo Morales to the presidency of Bolivia would seem like an enormous victory for the left -- another domino in the line of Latin American nations turning away from Washington Consensus-style economics to forge a path of its own. But the question remains whether the first indigenous president in Bolivia's history will be allowed -- by the Bolivian Congress or by the larger international financial and legal system -- to live up to his promises and fulfill the enormous expectations of his supporters. If not, Bolivia could face an even more unstable future. [continues 1847 words]
BEIJING - Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales arrived in China on Sunday, his latest stop on a global tour to discuss exploiting the country's massive natural gas reserves and seek aid for South America's poorest economy. China has been courting resource-rich developing countries and Bolivia's gas and tin reserves are likely to appeal to the energy-hungry nation. Morales did not speak to the press after touching down in Beijing, where talks were scheduled on Sunday with State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan and officials from the ruling Communist Party's central committee. [continues 373 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Bolivia's soon-to-be president, Evo Morales, a coca farmer under pressure to crack down on cocaine, pledged Tuesday to keep controls on coca but said he will study expanding the area where it can be legally grown. Morales also called on the United States to work with him to develop better ways of ending drug trafficking while preserving the traditional market for coca in his Andean nation, where people have chewed the plant to stave off hunger and used it as a medicine for thousands of years. [continues 184 words]
Move over, Hugo Chavez. When voters in Bolivia elected Evo Morales to be their next president in mid-December, some saw the onetime coca farmer's rise to power as a blessing for South America's poorest nation. As a native Aymara Indian, Morales gives high-profile representation to Bolivia's long-suffering indigenous majority. But he also takes after Venezuela's leftist leader Chavez, which may bode ill for U.S.-Bolivian relations. Already, President-elect Morales has proclaimed himself America's "nightmare" and pledged to encourage coca production, which foes say amounts to quitting the drug war. The revolutionary-cum-politico also wants to nationalize the gas industry, which critics fear will bring more woes to his already troubled nation. His inauguration is set for January 22. [end]
President-Elect Pledged to End Policy Against It CHIMORE, Bolivia -- The day after Evo Morales' victory in Bolivia's presidential election last week, government counternarcotics teams were streaming back from patrols into their base in the Chapare jungle. Col. Rosalio Alvarez Claros, commander of this base, watched them from his small office window. "We will continue with our work here as usual, until someone tells us to stop," he said. "And that hasn't happened yet." It might soon. Morales, 46, a former coca farmer who got his start as a political leader of the cocaleros, or coca growers, campaigned on the promises of decriminalizing all cultivation of coca, the raw material for cocaine, and ending eradication efforts. He has reiterated his intention of fulfilling those pledges when he takes office next month. [continues 937 words]
The resounding election victory in Bolivia of coca grower and indigenous leader Evo Morales clearly troubles U.S. drug warriors. But coca advocates and some Latin American media see an opportunity for "Mama Coca" to emerge as a legitimate economic resource for South America's poorest nation. The U.S. style of fighting the drug war stresses plant eradication. As part of his left-leaning platform, Morales has vowed to decriminalize the harvest of the coca plant, which can be used to manufacture cocaine but has been grown and chewed traditionally in the Andean corridor for millennia. [continues 746 words]
President-Elect Morales's Plans To Decriminalize Coca May Hinder The War On Drugs CHIMORE, BOLIVIA - It is the day after Evo Morales's victory in Bolivia's elections, and the special forces counternarcotics teams are streaming back into their base in the Chapare jungle. Col. Rosalio Alvarez Claros, commander of the base, watches them from his office window. "We will continue with our work here, as usual, until someone tells us to stop," he says softly, "... and that hasn't happened yet." [continues 917 words]
Likely President Says Farmers Should Have A Say In Control Of Crop LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivia's presidential front-runner said Tuesday he would not allow unlimited production of coca, the crop used to produce cocaine. "There won't be the free cultivation of the coca leaf," Evo Morales said at a news conference, where he also called on the U.S. government to enter an agreement to "truly" fight drug trafficking. Coca farmers should have a say in controlling the crop, he said, but left unclear how that could be accomplished. [continues 170 words]
FIVE centuries of white rule in Bolivia have ended with the election of the country's first indigenous head of state. Evo Morales, of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS), won more than 50 per cent of the vote in Sunday's election, far outstripping all predictions. In his unprecedented first-round victory he left his nearest rival for the presidency, the pro-US Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga, more than 20 percentage points behind. Addressing Bolivia's main indigenous groups during his acceptance speech, Senor Morales, who is an Aymaran Indian, said: "I want to say to the Aymaras, Quechuas, Guaranies and Chiriguanos that for the first time we are going to be President." Thousands took to the streets to celebrate. Su pporters crammed into trucks and drove around La Paz chanting "Evo to the palace, Tuto to Washington". [continues 506 words]
He Champions Non-Narcotic Uses of Cash Crop Coca LA PAZ, BOLIVIA - Pointing to a bag of chalky green powder in her living room, Silvia Rivera described the substance as flour made from coca, a plant more often associated with cocaine than baking supplies. "I use it to make lasagna noodles," said Rivera, a drug-policy adviser to Evo Morales, the leftist poised to become Bolivia's next president. "They're scrumptious." With Rivera's help, Morales hopes to radically change the nature of the drug war in Bolivia, the source of 16 percent of the world's cocaine. [continues 1097 words]
Bolivia's likely new president said Tuesday that he would not allow unlimited production of coca, the crop used to produce cocaine. Evo Morales called on the U.S. government to enter into an agreement to "truly" fight drug trafficking. Morales said coca farmers should have a say in controlling the crop, but he left unclear how that could be accomplished. Morales, a leftist former coca grower who campaigned against a U.S.-backed coca eradication effort, gave few details about how he would fight illegal trafficking. [continues 124 words]
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. [continues 801 words]
Outright Presidential Win Gives Morales Clout to Push for Gas Nationalization LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Evo Morales's outright victory in Sunday's presidential election will give him more muscle to push the nationalization of the country's natural-gas industry and unfettered coca cultivation, issues likely to cause confrontations with foreign investors and foreign governments. Nationalization of the gas industry was Mr. Morales's top campaign demand. Before the election, the 46-year-old Mr. Morales said he would void the more than 70 contracts allowing gas exploration by foreign companies in Bolivia. Although his proposals have been vague and have differed at times, his strong victory is likely to embolden his most aggressive allies to continue seeking nationalization without compensation. [continues 508 words]
Morales Gets 51% of Vote, According to Exit Polls; U.S. Faces Another Challenge LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Evo Morales, an indigenous leader who opposes U.S. free-market and drug-eradication policies, appeared to win the presidency of natural-gas rich Bolivia in the first round of voting, after voters gave him 51% of the vote, according to exit polls. Mr. Morales's conservative rival, Jorge Quiroga, conceded defeat on national television. "Bolivian democracy is concluding one cycle and beginning another," Mr. Quiroga said. He then congratulated Mr. Morales and his running mate. [continues 750 words]
Official Results Of The Presidential Race Aren't Known LA PAZ, BOLIVIA - Leftist Evo Morales, a fierce critic of Washington who campaigned on a platform of radical change, seemed headed for a huge victory in Bolivia's presidential contest Sunday after his main opponent conceded defeat. According to "quick counts," or ballot samplings, commissioned by four Bolivian TV stations, Morales received about 51 percent of the vote compared with about 30 percent for former President Jorge Quiroga, who ran second. "We have a responsibility to change Bolivia's history," Morales -- who has vowed to roll back the U.S.-funded drug war here and hike taxes on foreign energy companies -- said in a rousing victory speech. "We must get rid of the neo-liberal (economic) model and our status as a colony." [continues 756 words]
The sweeping if unofficial victory of Evo Morales in Bolivia's presidential election Sunday has made the former coca farmer and grass-roots activist the nation's strongest elected leader since the end of the last military dictatorship in 1982 and has given him an unprecedented opportunity to transform the impoverished Andean country. The question, say both Bolivian and U.S. observers, is whether the socialist candidate will use that mandate to follow through on pledges for radical economic and political change -- pledges that won him support among indigenous and poor voters -- or whether he can demonstrate enough pragmatism to reassure foreign governments and investors, whose support he needs for economic development. [continues 1033 words]
Ex-Farmer Of Coca, Who Opposes Eradication, Is Bolivia's Top Finisher PAZ, Bolivia - Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian presidential candidate who has pledged to reverse a campaign financed by the United States to wipe out coca growing, scored a decisive victory in Sunday's general elections in Bolivia. Morales, 46, is a former coca farmer who has promised to become Washington's "nightmare," also promises to roll back American-prescribed economic changes. He garnered between 47 percent and 50 percent of the vote, according to televised quick-count polls. [continues 245 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Dec. 18 - Evo Morales, a candidate for president who has pledged to reverse a campaign financed by the United States to wipe out coca growing, scored a decisive victory in general elections in Bolivia on Sunday. Mr. Morales, 46, an Aymara Indian and former coca farmer who also promises to roll back American-prescribed economic changes, had garnered up to 51 percent of the vote, according to televised quick-count polls, which tally a sample of votes at polling places and are considered highly accurate. [continues 701 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivians go to the polls on Sunday with the possibility of transforming this isolated Andean country, where frequent uprisings have toppled two presidents in the past two years. The leading candidate, Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian and an ally of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, promises to exert greater state control over natural gas reserves and decriminalize the cultivation of coca, from which cocaine is made. Polls have put Mr. Morales five percentage points ahead of the next contender, Jorge Quiroga, a former president who recommends open trade to help Bolivia extricate itself from poverty. A third candidate, Samuel Doria Medina, is a La Paz cement magnate who owns Bolivia's Burger King restaurants. [continues 488 words]
A FEW hours north of Bolivia's capital of La Paz, a nearly impassable dirt road runs along the edge of cliffs covered in a thick jungle canopy. It is difficult to imagine that this little-known Yungas region has become South America's latest drugs battlefront, bringing the United States and Bolivia on to a collision course. Bolivian coca cultivation is still associated with the southern Bolivian Chapare region, which provided the basic ingredient for almost half the world's cocaine during the 1980s and 1990s. After decades of looking the other way, the Bolivian government, with the help of millions of dollars of US military aid, launched the Dignity Plan in 1998, almost eliminating Chapare's coca production by 2001. [continues 360 words]
Evo Morales, a Former Coca Grower, Leads Polls Going into Sunday's Vote. LA PAZ, BOLIVIA - Evo Morales is an unorthodox candidate. He's a former IIama herder and coca farmer, and an indigenous Indian with an eighth-grade education. His platform rests on ending Bolivia's 20 years of free-market economic policies, and decriminalizing the growing of coca, the leaf from which cocaine is made. And polls indicate he is poised to become the next President of Bolivia. "This election [on Sunday] will change history," Mr. Morales tells the crowds gathered for his last campaign rally in the capital. With a traditional red poncho draped over his signature blue sweatshirt, Morales revs up his supporters: "If we don't win, neo-liberalism and colonialism will deepen," he cries. A wreath of potatoes, roses, and coca leaves hangs around his neck. "The time of dignity for the people has come." [continues 910 words]
Presidential Candidate Decries 'Colonialism' In South America's Latest Leftist Campaign LA PAZ, Bolivia -- The leading candidate in Bolivia's presidential election Sunday is a former llama herder and coca farmer and a confirmed bachelor. He's unorthodox in other ways, too. Evo Morales, 45, vows to end Bolivia's 20-year-old open-door economic policies and decriminalize the growing of coca, the leaf from which cocaine is made. And perhaps most alarming to Washington, he is addressing his country's social and economic disparities with a big dose of anti-American rhetoric. [continues 824 words]
CHIPIRIRI, Bolivia - In nearly 50 years of growing coca, Jose Torrico has seen army soldiers swarm across his fields to pull up his plants and heard threats from successive Bolivian governments determined to destroy his crop. And like thousands of other coca farmers in this verdant, tropical region of central Bolivia, Mr. Torrico has refused to stop growing coca, the main ingredient in cocaine, even in the face of a relentless United States-financed effort to stamp it out. Now, after years of persistence, he and his fellow farmers say they are eagerly anticipating the advent of a new era, one in which growing coca will finally be made legal. That is, they say, if Evo Morales is elected president on Dec. 18. [continues 1128 words]
Indian Farmer Campaigns For Presidency La ASUNTA - The coca farmers on these steep mountain slopes have long felt their livelihood and Indian identity threatened by U.S.-backed efforts to uproot the crop that makes cocaine. Now they are pinning their hopes on one of their own: an Indian coca farmer who is the front-runner for Bolivia's presidency. Evo Morales promises that if elected Dec. 4, he will decriminalize all coca farming. That would mean an end to a decade-old crop eradication program that has led to clashes between farmers and soldiers in which dozens have died. [continues 558 words]
Evo Morales is welcomed to Morochata like an ancient conquering hero. Leaders from the small potato-farming community, some 50km north-west of Cochabamba in the Bolivian highlands, anoint him with mounds of confetti that cling to his thatch of black hair. Villagers hang garlands of flowers, potatoes, beans and coca leaves around his neck. Crowds throng his route through the town, cheering, setting off home-made fireworks and jostling to be near him. Thousands have gathered in the main square to listen to a speech by the man who in 10 years has brought his radical Movement to Socialism (MAS) to the brink of power. "In the 1940s, your grandfathers here kicked out the landowners," Mr Morales tells them. "Today, the new landowners are transnational companies that control our gas, oil and forests. We will govern as owners of our land, and nationalise our natural resources." The crowd responds with wild applause. [continues 568 words]
ASUNTA, Bolivia - The coca farmers on these steep mountain slopes have long felt their livelihood and Indian identity threatened by U.S.-backed efforts to uproot the crop that makes cocaine. Now they are pinning their hopes on one of their own - an Indian coca farmer who is the front-runner for Bolivia's presidency. Evo Morales promises that if elected Dec. 4, he will decriminalize all coca farming. That would mean an end to a decade-old crop eradication program that has led to clashes between farmers and soldiers in which dozens have died. [continues 674 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia - Indian leader Evo Morales said he would reject Washington' s policy of eradicating much of Bolivia's coca crop fi he is elected president and pledged he would work to legalize the leaf used to make cocaine. Morales, a front-runner in this Andean nation's Dec. 4 election, is an Aymara Indian who led protest that help oust President Carlos Mesa in June and led to the calling of the December vote. He rose to power ten years ago as the leader of the coca growers of the Chapara region, where U.S.-backed eradication efforts are focused. [end]
Indian leader Evo Morales said he would reject Washington's policy of eradicating much of Bolivia's coca crop if elected president and pledged he would work to legalize the leaf used to make cocaine. Morales, a front-runner in this Andean nation's Dec. 4 election, is an Aymara Indian who led protests that helped oust President Carlos Mesa in June and led to the calling of the December vote. He rose to power 10 years ago as the leader of the coca growers of the Chapare region, where U.S.-backed eradication efforts are focused. [continues 70 words]
Bolivia's Candidates Take On Issue As Deal For Limited Cultivation Is Set To Expire Oct. 1 From his quiet corner of Bolivia's Chapare region, Egberto Chipana recalled the day three years ago when government soldiers invaded the radio station he manages because it was championing the cause of farmers who grow coca, the plant whose leaves are the raw material for cocaine. On that Tuesday, with battles raging between growers and troops, the soldiers seized the station's transmitter, and its directors were threatened with prosecution for instigating unrest. Growers responded by blocking roads and staging protests, demanding that the station be reopened. [continues 698 words]
LA ASUNTA, Bolivia - (KRT) - The Shangri-La of coca growing lies in Bolivia's remote and mountainous Yungas region east of La Paz, where lush, bright green coca plants spill down mountainside terraces unchanged since the Incas ruled. Farmers and impenetrably rugged terrain keep outsiders and government coca eradicators from the terraces and tiny villages carpeted in the drying coca leaves from which cocaine is made. Elsewhere in Bolivia, nearly 300,000 acres of coca have been uprooted since the late 1980s. But the country's 15 percent share of world production is expected to soar due to new plantings and a protracted domestic political crisis that's weakened drug enforcement efforts. By next year, Bolivia is expected to pass Peru as the world's second-biggest coca grower after Colombia. [continues 980 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia - After nearly a decade of forced eradication of coca, the plant from which cocaine is made, Bolivia wants instead to try to persuade poor farmers to abandon illicit crops in favor of coffee and cocoa. The strategy shift, outlined in a government report, is tacit acknowledgment that unpopular forced eradication has come with too high a social and political cost for Bolivia, which once was hailed as the Andean leader in the U.S.-backed drug war. The United States and Europe, which will be asked to pay for most of President Carlos Mesa's new $969 million, five-year antidrug plan, are grudgingly sympathetic. Successful past eradication efforts, in which troops uprooted coca plants, have taken an estimated $400 million out of Bolivia's small economy in recent years, causing scattered violence, disruptive roadblocks, and political and social unrest. [continues 497 words]
VILLA TUNARI, Bolivia - U.S.-trained Bolivian anti-drug troops are sustaining heavy casualties from bombs, booby traps and ambushes as they attempt to uproot coca, the plant from which cocaine is made. The battleground is the Chapare, a New Jersey-sized swath of steamy tropical lowlands in south central Bolivia where most illicit coca is grown. Since 1997, soldiers have uprooted 85 percent of the Chapare's coca, about 90,000 acres. But coca growers, called cocaleros, are fighting back now. Their success threatens U.S. anti-drug programs in the Andes, credited with cutting cocaine's availability on American streets. [continues 1083 words]
"They are going to have to learn to live with us," Morales boasted in a recent interview. He was just back from Cuba, having defied a State Department official's warning that it was "provocative" for Cuban leader Fidel Castro to be working opposition leaders such as Morales "to destabilize democratically elected governments." Morales almost captured Bolivia's presidency in 2002, propelled by ill-timed remarks by the U.S. ambassador, who warned days before the election that a vote for the Indian leader was a vote to cut off U.S. aid. The Movement to Socialism party, which Morales founded in 1995, is now the second largest bloc in Bolivia's Congress. It's known by its Spanish initials, MAS. [continues 963 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- The U.S. hasn't fairly compensated Bolivia for the economic loss suffered as a result of its coca-eradication program, complained the country's new president, who issued an appeal for stepped-up aid from the international community. "Coca production has fallen, but Bolivia's income has fallen as well and we haven't received the equivalent compensation," said President Carlos Mesa, in an interview at his ornate office. Mr. Mesa assumed the presidency of this poor, landlocked country last month after violent protests, including demonstrations by angry coca growers, forced the resignation of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. [continues 743 words]
BOLIVIA is a perfect democracy: it fully respects two fundamental human rights: freedom of the press and political freedom. That the rights to work, housing. health, education, food and many others have been systematically eroded seemingly does not diminish its democratic perfection. Bolivia has around 8.5 ffillion people and is blessed with some of the most fertile subsoil on Earth. For 200 years a tiny, moneyed minority has hogged its wealth and dominated its politics while 60% of Bolivians live below the poverty line. There is discrimination against the Amerindian majority, child mortality is at frightening levels, unemployment is endemic, illiteracy the norm and 51% of the people do not have electricity. But none of that detracts from the important fact that Bolivia is thought of as a democracy. [continues 565 words]
Washington Wants New Bolivian President Carlos Mesa to Push For Continued Eradication of Coca Crops, but Traditional Growers Are Demanding More Legal Acreage LA PAZ, Bolivia - Coca grower Jacobo Aliago gives Bolivia's new president six months. Max. "The government gives us lots of problems, licenses, controls," he said as he packed green leaves into a 50-pound bag. "They treat us like narco-traffickers. What do we want from President [Carlos] Mesa? We want our coca." Aliago and thousands of other coca growers joined miners, students, teachers and peasants to topple Bolivia's former president this month. And now, emboldened by their clout, the coca growers are looking to roll back a government eradication program they claim was dictated by Washington. [continues 942 words]
US Dismayed As Socialist Becomes Nation's Power Broker He has been described as the new Simon Bolivar, the visionary soldier who tried to unite the South American continent. His own model, judging by the poster fixed to the wall of his office in the parliament building of the Bolivian capital of La Paz, is more recent: Che Guevara. Whatever happens in Bolivia in the near future, it will not be without the say-so of Evo Morales: champion of cocaine producers and indigenous peoples; socialist, anti-imperialist and America's declared enemy. [continues 815 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- On a visit to the White House last year, President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada told President Bush that he would push ahead with a plan to eradicate coca but that he needed more money to ease the impact on farmers. Otherwise, the Bolivian president's advisers recalled him as saying, "I may be back here in a year, this time seeking political asylum." Mr. Bush was amused, Bolivian officials recounted, told his visitor that all heads of state had tough problems and wished him good luck. [continues 1126 words]
(New York Times) L A PAZ, Bolivia---On a visit to the White House last year, President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada told President Bush that he would push ahead with a plan to eradicate coca but that he needed more money to ease the impact on farmers. Otherwise, the Bolivian president's advisers recalled him as saying, "I may be back here in a year, this time seeking political asylum." Mr. Bush was amused, Bolivian officials recounted, told his visitor that all heads of state had tough problems and wished him good luck. [continues 281 words]
Without a truce, or at least a temporary reprieve from all sides, Carlos Mesa, who was sworn in on Friday night, may go down as the one of Bolivia's shortest-lived presidents. To achieve a lasting truce all sides will have to at least temporarily forgo demands for any type of action by the Bolivian government. The likelihood of achieving this kind of respite is slim despite the claims by the social groups that brought down the government of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada that they will allow President Mesa to govern. Several reasons explain why the kind of truce that Bolivia is currently experiencing following the four-week-long bloody confrontations between strikers and the military will not last. [continues 686 words]
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK -- As La Paz burned last week, Carlos Mesa, Bolivia's new president, publicly broke ranks with his former boss, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who had ordered troops to put a stop to violent demonstrations. After at least 65 deaths, the demonstrators won, Sanchez de Lozada went into exile and Mesa, who previously served as vice-president, took over. He now faces a baptism by fire. A political independent with no power base, Mesa will have to balance competing demands from powerful, polarized sectors, both domestic and foreign, amid a tremendous public financing crunch. [continues 894 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - The leader of Bolivia's coca leaf farmers has thrown his support behind the nation's new president but warned a lack of quick progress in reducing overwhelming poverty in the nation could lead to a resumption of the protests that ousted the previous government. Coca farmer Evo Morales, an opposition congressman, says President Carlos Mesa's philosophy is very similar to the socialist thinking behind his own political party. But Mesa, a former journalist, has yet to state publicly his position on the issue of coca leaf, the base ingredient of cocaine. [continues 456 words]
WASHINGTON - It's becoming a habit for Latin American countries: Elect a president, then drive him from office. The latest example is Bolivia, where President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was sent packing last Friday just 15 months after he was elected, a victim largely of an uprising led by the country's newly empowered indigenous population. Sanchez de Lozada joins presidents from Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay who were forced from office in recent years. But the unrest extends well beyond these few countries. [continues 564 words]
Bolivians Oust Their Millionaire President, And The Continent Considers Taking Another Step To The Left They were the kind of ugly street scenes that few presidencies survive. All last week, thousands of poverty-stricken Bolivians protested in the capital, La Paz, and around the country, railing at President Gonzalo S=E1nchez de Lozada. S=E1nchez - or Goni, as he is called - sent the army to restore order. As Bolivian soldiers fired on demonstrators, impoverished Indian mine workers used crude slingshots to hurl lighted sticks of dynamite back at them. But they were no match for the army's tear gas and bullets, and the clashes left as many as 80 people dead. [continues 637 words]
Coca Culture COCHABAMBA, Bolivia There has been rioting in Bolivia for nearly four weeks now. News reports say that the riots have been over the construction of a pipeline to ship natural gas to the United States. That's true, but there's a deeper anger at work: anger toward the United States and its war against a traditional Bolivian crop, coca. You see, because of the American drug problem, we can no longer grow coca, which was part of our life and our culture long before the United States was a country. This is why many of the people protesting in La Paz and other cities are peasants whose families have cultivated coca for generations. [continues 470 words]
MIAMI - In November last year the president of Bolivia, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, visited Washington to ask for assistance. In a meeting with President Bush he pleaded for a pause in the eradication of Bolivia's coca crops, the plant used to process cocaine. He also asked for extra financial aid. His country was in dire straits, he warned. Without urgent help his government would collapse. "We are not discussing that," Bush told Sanchez de Lozada, according to someone who was in the room. [continues 1087 words]
Inside Bolivia
