On December 18, 2005, Bolivia startled the world with news that Evo Morales Ayma had won the nation’s presidency with 54 percent of the vote, against a large field of aspirants. His opponents included former neo-liberal president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, favored by Washington. Moreover, Morales’ party, MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) surprised everyone by gaining a majority of seats in the lower house of Bolivia’s Congress, and almost half the upper house.
All pre-election polling had predicted Morales gaining only 33 percent of the vote—more than any other presidential candidate, but insufficient to assure him the presidency. Less than 50 percent would have automatically placed the final presidential selection in the hands of Bolivia’s incoming Congress. And the new Congress was expected to be dominated (as in the past) by traditional, oligarchic parties.
Had this happened, the streets of La Paz and other Bolivian cities would likely have filled with tens of thousands of indigenous demonstrators, as had happened many times in recent years. Protesters regularly shut down Bolivia’s roads and commerce, facing armed police and military (dozens had died from army bullets). Yet they had forced the resignation of several recent presidents. Indeed, December’s elections had been precipitated by the resignation of Carlos Mesa’s government earlier in 2005 in the wake of massive street protests against his natural gas and resource policies.
Evo Morales is widely considered the first indigenous president of any South American country since the Spanish conquest. He closely self-identifies as indigenous, and as a representative of a perspective on life based in cooperation and mutual support. In fact, many Bolivian analysts I spoke with believe that Morales represents a strong and autonomous, yet intertwined, grassroots movement of socially active organizations and unions. They believe that, should he lose his connection with this base, his presidency and government could fall as quickly, from protesters in the streets, as had the two previous governments. Morales and his vice president, Álvaro García Linera, seem clearly aware that they are representatives of Bolivia’s people, and not independent and separate from them.
Morales grew up in extreme poverty on the Altiplano. Four of his siblings died. His family moved to the Chapare region, just east of the Andies, to escape starvation. Chapare is most famous for growing coca leaf, but in fact the region exports hardwood logs (as the region is deforested), has large scale export farms growing soya and bananas, and is the center for natural gas exploration and production. Bolivia has South America’s second largest natural gas reserves, after Venezuela. (Most coca leaf farms are owned by families, are less than one acre, and supply a traditional market for chewing leaves, coca leaf tea, and use in traditional religious ceremonies.)
Morales has been national president of the coca leaf growers union (Cocaleros) for many years. Morales and MAS call for full legalization of coca leaf, union-controlled small-plot cultivation, and the development of a coca-based pharmacopeia within Bolivia. In recent years the cocalero’s union has been working cooperatively with Bolivia’s police, military, and government to shut down cocaine manufacture and distribution (aerial spraying of small coca leaf farms in Bolivia ended years ago).
During the elections, Morales was labeled a “narco-terrorist” by his opponents on the right, but when Morales and MAS demanded they prove their allegations, they could not, and in fact lost credibility with Bolivia’s people and media; their allegations backfired. Morales has called President Bush an international terrorist, and cites credible supporting evidence. Nevertheless Morales has invited the U.S. government to participate in negotiations on a basis of mutual respect and cooperation, but has made clear that his government will not participate in a relationship of dominance-subservience, or command-and-control, or acquiesce to threats.
Evo Morales emphasizes that the path towards a better, fairer future for Bolivia’s people will not be easy, yet he and the Bolivian people believe it is possible. All South America, indeed much of the world, is watching them and their experiment in cooperative nation-building. If they succeed in creating a new and viable human and cooperative model, this small country may prove a catalyst for other countries across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
