Strikes, Blockades, Mass Marches, Dozens Killed as US-Backed Administration Teeters The administration of Bolivian President Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada is on the verge of collapse after a week of social and political chaos that has left dozens of people dead and brought the country to a virtual standstill. Sanchez de Lozada, elected with 22% of the popular vote last year, has seen his popularity plummet to single digits in recent weeks as widespread discontent over government policies grew into a storm. [continues 1773 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resigned in a letter to Congress on Friday, a senior government source said, after a month-long revolt by Bolivia's Indian majority in which more than 70 people died. "The letter of resignation has been sent to Congress," the source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. The decision, which the government has not immediately confirmed, came after tens of thousands of people had marched and blockaded the world's highest capital for weeks to reject Sanchez de Lozada's pro-U.S., free-market economic policies. [continues 560 words]
Bolivia's Chaos Reflects Larger Anger at U.S. Policy And IMF's Prescriptions Mayhem in the streets of several Latin American cities, including a virtual siege of Bolivia's pro-U.S. president by angry protesters, shows that the region's disaffected are increasingly making their voices heard. Like the so-called Arab street in the Middle East, public protest in this impoverished region is growing more violent and anti-American, and is starting to limit policy choices for regional leaders. [continues 818 words]
IBUELO ALTO, Bolivia - One morning last April, Hilaria Perez Prado began her day as always -- hoping soldiers wouldn't burst from the jungle and tear her farm to pieces. They did come, though. They trampled her fields. And then one shot her in the chest as they left. Perez, 41, is out of the hospital. But her lung is damaged and so is her hope of eking out a living for her family farming deep in the Chapare, a remote Bolivian region that is deep in America's war on drugs. [continues 365 words]
Bolivian Farmers Grow Coca Despite Risks Ibuelo Alto, Bolivia - One morning in April, Hilaria Perez Prado began her day as always: hoping soldiers wouldn't burst from the jungle and tear her farm to pieces. They did come, though. They trampled her fields. And then one shot her in the chest as they left. Perez, 41, is out of the hospital. But her lung is damaged and so is her hope of eking out a living for her family farming deep in the Chapare, a remote Bolivian region that is deep in America's war on drugs. [continues 764 words]
IBUELO ALTO, Bolivia - One morning last April, Hilaria Perez Prado began her day as always -- hoping soldiers wouldn't burst from the jungle and tear her farm to pieces. They did come, though. They trampled her fields. And then one shot her in the chest as they left. Perez, 41, is out of the hospital. But her lung is damaged and so is her hope of eking out a living for her family farming deep in the Chapare, a remote Bolivian region that is deep in America's war on drugs. [continues 524 words]
IBUELO ALTO, Bolivia -- One morning last April, Hilaria Perez Prado began her day as always - hoping soldiers wouldn't burst from the jungle and tear her farm to pieces. They did come, though. They trampled her fields. And then one shot her in the chest as they left. Perez, 41, is out of the hospital. But her lung is damaged and so is her hope of eking out a living for her family farming deep in the Chapare, a remote Bolivian region that is deep in America's war on drugs. [continues 780 words]
Using a five-ton cocaine seizure as a pretext, the Bolivian government this week announced an escalation of its longstanding coca eradication campaign. Aided and abetted with funding from the US State Dept., embattled President Sanchez de Lozada and his ministers revealed that the much-reviled Special Task Force Against the Drug Traffic (FELCN, in its Spanish acronym) will open eight new anti-drug posts in the Andean country's coca producing zones. The government will also increase the number of troops in the task force and step up its intelligence-gathering operations in the coca regions, officials told Bolivia Press. [continues 799 words]
ASUNTA, Bolivia (Reuters) - Connoisseurs of coca, chewed by Indians since the Inca Empire, say the most succulent of the green leaves grow in Bolivia's Yungas Valley. Too succulent, perhaps, for their own good. "The government and Washington want to bury us," said Dionisio Nunez, a cellphone-carrying Indian farmer and legislator in one of the last places on Earth where the leaf, also used to make cocaine, is still legally grown and sold. The Yungas is kind of a Napa Valley of coca where 500 years ago "sacred leaves" were packed on llamas to supply Inca emperors across the Andes and where even now picture-postcard coca terraces grow as far as the eye can see. [continues 639 words]
Coca: The La Paz Government And The Nation's Rural Poor Are Caught In The Middle As The United States Fights A Global War On Drugs. CHAPARE, Bolivia - For more than a month, about 200 Bolivian soldiers have been living in Victor Franco's back yard. The soldiers, trained and financed by the United States to eradicate coca in this jungle basin, arrived in helicopters, setting up camp a stone's throw from Franco's house, a dirt-floored structure made of unevenly cut wooden planks and a rusted sheet metal roof. [continues 1232 words]
The President, The IMF And The New Social Movements International Monetary Fund officials were staying in a luxury hotel in La Paz, Bolivia, earlier this year, negotiating the refinancing that would harshly restructure the nation's economy. They had a perfect grandstand view therefore when an open revolt began in the streets against the government and its deals with those who run the world's economy for their own advantage. What happens next, nobody can yet predict. GONZALO Sanchez de Lozada, who leads Bolivia's National Revolutionary Movement (MNR), began his second term as president on 6 August 2002 after winning the elections with only 22% of the vote. As a long-term resident of the United States, he speaks better English than Spanish; and on an official visit to Washington in November 2002 he declared that the US represents "the hope for the future". [continues 3062 words]
HAPARE, Bolivia - Two years ago, the US State Department praised Bolivia as "the model for the region in coca eradication," saying that illicit production of the leaf used to make cocaine had fallen to negligible levels in this jungle basin. US-funded Bolivian antinarcotics forces wiped out 70 percent of the nation's illegal coca fields between 1995 and 2001. But the war on drugs in Bolivia has sparked a backlash: tens of thousands of defiant coca growers who refuse to cooperate. [continues 972 words]
PEASANT farmers in Bolivia have brought the country to its knees by mounting a ferocious campaign to be allowed to grow coca leaves. Two years ago, the US State Department praised Bolivia as "the model for coca eradication" in South America, but the Bolivian government now appears to be losing the war on drugs after tens of thousands of defiant, sandal-wearing farmers, known as cocaleros, have taken up arms. There is talk of allowing the cocaleros to grow coca - traditionally used for chewing, in tea and as a medicine - for a limited period, a move which would anger the US. In the Chapare jungle, they have doggedly replanted fields destroyed by anti-narcotics troops, resulting in an increase of coca production from 600 to 5,400 hectares in two years, according to US government statistics. [continues 349 words]
Coca Plant's Traditional Uses Make Indigenous Peasants Targets What America bills as a "War on Drugs" at home is executed as a war on peasants in the Bolivian Andes, the leader of a peasant coalition told a Kennedy School of Government audience on Friday (Feb. 28). "Defending coca for [us] is defending [our] land, it's the same struggle. It's defending our culture, our health," said Leonida Zurita Vargas, leader of the National Federation of Women Peasants in Bolivia. "We are fighting against the eradication of our culture." [continues 620 words]
US May Cut $50m Aid Over Fear Of Rise In Cocaine Supply It is a farmers' market like any other, but there is only one crop on sale: every week enough coca passes through this row of sheds to make half a tonne of cocaine. The Villa Fatima market has nothing to do with the narcotics trade, however: it is Bolivia's only legal coca market. The country's anti-drugs laws allow for a 12,000-hectare area (just under 50 square miles) of legal coca plantations north of La Paz to satisfy demand for its traditional uses. [continues 744 words]
In front of a standing-room only crowd at the Graduate School of Education Friday, MIT Professor of Linguistics Noam Chomsky and fellow activists urged progressive groups to form alliances to bring about social change. Chomsky was joined by Leonida Zurita Vargas, the leader of a women's peasant movement in Bolivia; Carolina Contreras, a socially active Somerville High School sophomore; Mel King, a former Massachusetts state representative; and Lev Grossman-Spivack, a Boston University junior who creates activist lyrics and poetry, at the forum, entitled "Another World is Possible". [continues 853 words]
Official: Growing Source of Cocaine Against Treaty LA PAZ, Bolivia - The president of Bolivia is considering a plan to resume cultivation of the raw ingredient in cocaine in a remote jungle basin, a move the U.S. government fears would undermine what is viewed as its most successful anti-drug program in South America. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada is studying a proposal to allow cultivation of coca in the Chapare region of central Bolivia to help calm unrest among growers who have blockaded major highways and put their support behind his political rival. [continues 162 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP)--The president of Bolivia is considering a plan to resume cultivation of the raw ingredient in cocaine in a remote jungle basin--a move the U.S. government fears would undermine what is viewed as its most successful anti-drug program in South America. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada is studying a proposal to allow cultivation of coca in the Chapare region of central Bolivia to help calm unrest among growers who have blockaded major highways and put their support behind his political rival. [continues 596 words]
Reports Say Government Will Allow Coca in the Chapare While some attendees at the Out from the Shadows conference in Merida last week expressed disappointment that Bolivian coca leader and Congressman Evo Morales was not present, it now appears Morales stayed away because he was in the midst of successful negotiations with the reeling government of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to reverse the government's "zero coca" policy in the Chapare region. According to Knight-Ridder News Service, the Bolivian government will formally announce within a week that it is backing away from the "zero coca" option and will allow farmers in the Chapare to grow up to one-fifth of an acre of coca. [continues 655 words]
Challenged President Considers Letting Farmers Grow Cocaine Precursor COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - Bolivia's government may be preparing to abandon its unpopular effort to eradicate coca and allow farmers to grow the raw material from which cocaine is made. The move, which could come within a week, would be a sharp reversal of Washington's only success in curbing drug production in South America's Andean region. U.S. officials fear any increase in legal coca production would also be an opening to greater illicit sales. The United States has given Bolivia more than $1.3 billion in counternarcotics and development aid since 1993. [continues 357 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia - The president here is considering a plan to resume cultivation of the raw ingredient in cocaine in a remote jungle basin - a move the U.S. government fears would undermine what's viewed as its most successful anti-drug program in South America. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada is studying a proposal to allow cultivation of coca in the Chapare region of central Bolivia to help calm unrest among growers who've blockaded major highways and put their support behind his political rival. [continues 370 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- The president of Bolivia is considering a plan to resume cultivation of the raw ingredient in cocaine in a remote jungle basin - -- a move the U.S. government fears would undermine what is viewed as its most successful anti-drug program in South America. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada is studying a proposal to allow cultivation of coca in the Chapare region of central Bolivia to help calm unrest among growers who have blockaded major highways and put their support behind his political rival. [continues 323 words]
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - Bolivia's government is preparing to ease its unpopular effort to eradicate coca and allow farmers to grow the raw material from which cocaine is made. The move, which could come within a week, would be a sharp reversal of Washington's only success in curbing drug production in South America's Andean region. U.S. officials fear that any increase in legal coca production would also be an opening to greater illicit sales. The United States has given Bolivia more than $1.3 billion in counter-narcotics and development aid since 1993. [continues 541 words]
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - Bolivia's government is preparing to ease its unpopular effort to eradicate coca and allow farmers to grow the raw material from which cocaine is made. The move, which could come within a week, would be a sharp reversal of Washington's only success in curbing drug production in South America's Andean region. U.S. officials fear that any increase in legal coca production would also be an opening to greater illicit sales. The United States has given Bolivia more than $1.3 billion in counter-narcotics and development aid since 1993. [continues 290 words]
Leader Is Pressured By His Political Rivals COCHABAMBA, Bolivia -- Bolivia's government is preparing to ease its unpopular effort to eradicate coca and allow farmers to grow the raw material from which cocaine is made. The move, which could come within a week, would be a sharp reversal of the United States' only success in curbing drug production in South America's Andean region. U.S. officials fear that any increase in legal production of coca plants would also be an opening to greater illicit sales. The United States has given Bolivia more than $1.3 billion in counter-narcotics and development aid since 1993. [continues 413 words]
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - Bolivia's government is preparing to relax its unpopular effort to eradicate coca and allow farmers to grow the raw material from which cocaine is made. The move, which could come within a week, would be a sharp reversal of Washington's only success in curbing drug production in South America's Andean region. U.S. officials fear that any increase in legal coca production would also be an opening to greater illicit sales. The United States has given Bolivia more than $1.3 billion in counter-narcotics and development aid since 1993. [continues 535 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) -- Bolivian opposition politicians on Saturday laughed off government claims of a failed coup during bloody protests this week that killed 29 people, while a human rights group also voiced skepticism. Government officials claimed late on Friday two days of bloody anti-government protests had veiled a "failed coup attempt against democracy," and said unidentified sharp-shooters fired at new President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's palace quarters. But the government did not say who it believed was behind the alleged coup attempt, which it claimed happened on Thursday as thousands of Bolivians marching to demand Sanchez de Lozada resign because of unpopular fiscal policies torched public buildings. [continues 283 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia - Tanks formed an iron curtain in front of Bolivia's presidential palace Thursday as a second day of violent protests swept the Andean nation and calls grew for President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to resign. The death toll climbed to at least 20 on Thursday as scattered violence and looting continued across the country. A clash between police and soldiers, who have feuded for decades, sparked the clash, which was joined by citizens angry over an unpopular income tax. [continues 604 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia - Tanks formed an iron curtain in front of Bolivia's presidential palace Thursday as a second day of violent protests swept the Andean nation and calls grew for President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to resign. The death toll climbed to at least 20 on Thursday as scattered violence and looting continued across the country. A clash between police and soldiers, who have feuded for decades, sparked the clash, which was joined by citizens angry over an unpopular income tax. [continues 301 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Thousands of Bolivian troops returned to their barracks, and protesters lifted road blocks Tuesday after the government and farmers agreed to talks over a U.S-backed crackdown on coca crops. Nine civilians and two members of security forces were killed in 13 days of protests in the Chapare jungle region when coca farmers and troops fought pitched battles to control the South American country's most important highway. "Blockades are suspended, but farmers should be vigilant," said Evo Morales, an Indian farmer who leads coca protests and who came in a close second as a leftist presidential candidate in last year's elections. Talks started Sunday, but Morales only began to lift the blockades Tuesday. [continues 164 words]
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia (AP) -- The Bolivian government formally opened talks with coca farmers Sunday to end protests that have killed 12 people and shut down the nation's largest highway for nearly two weeks. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada said the talks would continue into the coming days. But he made no mention of a cease-fire or a possible withdrawal of the thousands of soldiers patrolling the highway and keeping it clear of debris. Since Jan. 14, thousands of protesters have blocked the highway with tree trunks and boulders. in anger over the government's plan to eradicate illegal crops. [continues 150 words]
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia --The president began peace talks with coca leaders, 12 days after thousands of growers shut down the nation's largest highway over the government's plan to eradicate illegal crops. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada began the talks Sunday and said they would continue into the coming days even though coca leaders have not yet lifted the blockade. Since Jan. 14, protesters have blocked the highway with tree trunks and boulders. Coca is the base ingredient of cocaine , but many Bolivians chew the leaves or use them to brew tea. About 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of coca can be cultivated legally, but growers want the limit increased. [continues 181 words]
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia (AP)--Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse scores of protesters Friday in the fifth straight day of demonstrations against a coca eradication program. Protesters since Monday have shut down the main highway linking this key central city to Santa Cruz, 200 miles to the east, by heaping boulders and logs along the roadway. That action continued Friday as thousands turned out to oppose a U.S.-sponsored, government plan to destroy illegal coca crops - the base ingredient used to make cocaine . [continues 137 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP)--The government has ordered four Swedish women expelled from Bolivia, accusing them of illegal political activism by supporting protests by coca growers. The four women, who have been detained since Monday, were given until Saturday to leave Bolivia. According to the government, Malin Fredenstedt, Malena Wahlin, Ylva Westander and Emma Johansson helped in planning and financing protests that began Monday with a series of blockades on the nation's main highway. The protests have left four people dead in clashes with police and soldiers. [continues 245 words]
KAYARANI, Bolivia (AP)--Two demonstrators were killed in fighting on the nation's largest highway between government forces and thousands of poor protesting Bolivia's plan to eradicate coca crops and other government policies. Soldiers opened fire on demonstrators at a roadblock Tuesday, killing Romulo Gonzalez, 19, who was shot in the neck, the government said in a statement. The incident happened in Aguirre, a small town 260 kilometers (160 miles) to the southeast of La Paz. A second man died from asphyxiation in a clash with soldiers, the government said. Radio reports said the man was overcome by tear gas. [continues 372 words]
LA PAZ - The Bolivian government is concerned about a U.S. report indicating that coca cultivation has increased 23 percent over the past year and is twice the amount allowed by law. Presidential spokesman Mauricio Antezana called the situation alarming, adding that the executive branch was studying the report released by the U.S. Embassy in La Paz. Antezana said "the administration can do no less than express its concern" about these reports, because the previous administration had claimed significant advances in the eradication of illegal coca crops, "and now we find this was not the case." [continues 257 words]
The Coca Plant Remains a Profitable Crop, Hampering Its Eradication. ENTRE RIOS, Bolivia - The United States has spent $300 million since 2000 trying to persuade Bolivian farmers to stop growing coca, the raw material of cocaine, and to plant different crops instead. It has made considerable gains despite resistance. But many farmers in South America's poorest country are ignoring the unpopular eradication program and replanting coca bushes. Banana trees, passion-fruit vines, and small palm trees require more work and up-front investment, and do not provide as much profit as the illegal coca bush. Coca needs little attention, it has a guaranteed market, and its four annual harvests provide quarterly income. [continues 655 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia-Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, a wealthy businessman who grew up in the United States, has won the presidency of this crisis- wracked South American nation for a second time. Congress voted the millionaire mining executive back into office Sunday, choosing him over Evo Morales, the rebellious Indian leader of Bolivia's coca growers, by an 84-43 vote. The two men topped the voting in a June national election, but neither won an outright majority. Under Bolivian law, Congress had to decide between the two for president. [continues 525 words]
$300 Million In U.S. Funds Can't Persuade Farmers ENTRE RIOS, Bolivia - The United States has spent some $300 million since 2000 trying to persuade Bolivian farmers to stop growing coca, the raw material of cocaine, and to plant different crops instead. It hasn't worked. Many farmers in South America's poorest country are ignoring the unpopular eradication program and replanting coca bushes. Banana trees, passion fruit vines and small palm trees take much more work, require up-front investment and don't provide as much profit as the illegal coca bush. Coca needs little attention, it has a guaranteed market and its four annual harvests provide quarterly income. [continues 770 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Aug. 4 - Bolivia's Congress ended a presidential tie today, picking an American-educated millionaire, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, to lead the country as it confronts economic malaise and growing social unrest. Mr. Sanchez de Lozada, a mining executive and a political centrist who was president from 1993 to 1997, won by a congressional vote of 84-43 over Evo Morales, a radical Indian leader of Bolivia's coca growers. The men were the top two vote-getters in a national election in June, but neither won an outright majority, forcing a vote in Congress. [continues 243 words]
Taking The Side Of The Coca Farmer A Maverick Politician Stirs A Continent And Puts Washington's Drug War At Risk To understand why Evo Morales has come within a llama's hair of being President of Bolivia - and why his formidable political power is giving U.S. officials fits - pay attention when he and his top advisers open their mouths. That is, see what they're chewing: coca leaves, treasured by Andean Indians like Morales as a sacred tonic and as their most lucrative cash crop but better known to Americans as the raw material of cocaine. [continues 707 words]
Bolivia's leading presidential candidate, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozado, has all but secured the presidency after cutting a deal with his long-term leftist rival Jaime Paz Zamora. Mr Sanchez de Lozado narrowly won the elections last month, but he failed to win enough support to avoid a Congressional vote to choose the president on 3 August. Congress will be choosing between the free marketeer, Mr Sanchez de Lozado, and Evo Morales, a rank outsider at the beginning of the campaign who managed to come within a whisker of winning. [continues 170 words]
Threat To Cut Aid If Coca Growers' Leader Becomes President The United States government is actively intervening in Bolivia's choice of new president next month, warning that US aid will be withdrawn if the socialist Evo Morales is elected. It is the latest in a series of recent interventions by the US in Latin American elections in an attempt to keep leftwing politicians from power. Congress will elect the president from the two leading candidates in the elections earlier this month: Mr Morales and the rightwing ex-president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. [continues 392 words]
American aid to Bolivia could be in danger if Evo Morales, an Indian leader who opposes Washington-backed efforts to eradicate drug crops, wins next month's runoff for president, the Bush administration's Latin America policy chief, Otto Reich, said. Mr. Reich's comments came after the American ambassador, Manuel Rocha, gave a similar warning before the election, which backfired and helped raise support for Mr. Morales. [end]
His Showing Shows Growing Dissatisfaction Among Nation's Indians LA PAZ, Bolivia - A Bolivian coca farmer who wants to stop U.S.-backed eradication efforts has reached the final stage of Bolivian presidential elections, electoral officials said. Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, looks unlikely to beat centrist millionaire Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada when Bolivia's Congress meets Aug. 3 to choose the winner. But his second-place showing - made official by results released Tuesday - shows growing dissatisfaction among Indians who have long been dominated politically by people of European descent. [continues 293 words]
Coca growers' leader Evo Morales made a stunning leap to second place Tuesday in the final count of Bolivia's June 30 presidential elections, ensuring sufficient political clout to threaten U.S.-financed anti-drug programs in one of the world's biggest coca-producing countries. Morales, a hard-line socialist of indigenous descent who has vowed to fight capitalism and close down the DEA offices in Bolivia if elected, won about 21 percent of the vote, and ended up less than two percentage points behind former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada. Congress will have to choose between the top two vote-getters by Aug. 4. [continues 576 words]
MIAMI - Coca growers' leader Evo Morales made a stunning leap to second place yesterday in the final count of Bolivia's June 30 presidential elections, ensuring that he will have the political clout to threaten U.S.-financed anti-drug programs in one of the world's biggest coca-producing countries. Morales, a hard-line socialist who has vowed to fight capitalism and close down U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration offices in Bolivia if elected, won about 21 percent of the vote, and ended up less than 2 percent behind former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada. Under Bolivian law, Congress will have to choose between the top two vote- getters by Aug. 4. [continues 423 words]
BUENOS AIRES -- A socialist and ex-coca farmer has finished a surprising second in Bolivia's presidential vote and will compete in a two-man runoff in Congress in August, according to final election results released Tuesday. Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian and foe of U.S. foreign policy, will face off against Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, the center-right candidate of the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement, who finished first with 22.5% of the vote in an 11-candidate field. Morales got 20.94% [continues 68 words]
LIMA, Peru -- Evo Morales, an upstart Bolivian politician and indigenous leader who vows to end Washington-backed efforts to eradicate drug crops, appeared virtually certain to be a finalist for the presidency, according to returns from the first round of voting. With only 475 votes uncounted from the June 30 election, Morales was second with 581,864 votes, 706 more than Manfred Reyes, a former mayor and military officer picked by pollsters to win. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, 72, who was president from 1993 to 1997, was first, with more than 600,000 votes. [continues 325 words]
The U.S. ambassador to Bolivia may receive an unwelcome gift from a Bolivian presidential candidate who chews coca leaves on the campaign trail and opposes U.S. efforts to eradicate the raw product used to make cocaine. "I will send him a little coca leaf as a gift," Evo Morales said in a Bolivian newspaper interview. Ambassador Manuel Rocha is unlikely to accept the present. He has warned Bolivians that U.S.-Bolivian relations could be harmed if Mr. Morales becomes president. Last week, Mr. Morales was running third in the vote count from the June 30 election. Because no candidate received a majority of the vote, the Bolivian Congress is expected to choose a president by Aug. 3. [end]
Inside Bolivia
