Indigenous leader/socialist runs for President of Bolivia

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, July 10, 2002

U.S. Aid Foe Likely Finalist for President in Bolivia
By JUAN FORERO


LIMA, Peru, July 9 ? Evo Morales, an upstart Bolivian politician and
indigenous leader who vows to end Washington-backed efforts to eradicate
drug crops, will contend for the presidency after finishing second in the
country's closest national election, electoral officials said.

After 10 days of counting votes since the June 30 election, Mr. Morales was
second with 581,884 votes, 721 more than Manfred Reyes, a former mayor and
military officer picked by pollsters to win. Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, 72,
who was president from 1993 to 1997, was first, with 624,126 votes.
 
Since no candidate won a majority outright, Congress will choose the next
president from the two front-runners by Aug. 6, the day the new leader is
to be inaugurated.

"Evo Is Second," declared a headline in La Prensa, a leading newspaper in
La Paz, the capital.

Mr. Morales's showing is a blow to the United States, which has financed a
largely successful effort to eradicate most of Bolivia's coca, which is
used to produce cocaine. Mr. Morales, 42, a socialist, has led
anti-eradication marches by coca farmers and tapped into deep resentments
among the country's majority Indian population, who feel the market reforms
of recent years have impoverished them further.

Business leaders, though, are concerned with Mr. Morales's rise. "This is a
bad sign," said Gary Rodríguez, president of the Institute of Foreign
Trade, a La Paz group that lobbies for Bolivian industries.

Mr. Morales could win if his party, the Movement Toward Socialism, is
backed by both Mr. Reyes's party, the New Republican Force, and the Leftist
Revolutionary Movement, led by another former president, Jaime Paz. Both
parties have taken on populist agendas and been critical of Mr. Sánchez de
Lozada, but it remained unclear today whom they would back in Congress.

Mr. Morales, a harsh critic of the United States, has charged that the
American ambassador in La Paz, Manuel Rocha, has been pressuring leading
lawmakers on behalf of Mr. Sánchez de Lozada.

In a televised interview today, Mr. Reyes said he had recently met with the
ambassador. "I did not receive any pressures," Mr. Reyes said, but "what
the ambassador did make clear is that there should not be any kind of an
alliance with Evo Morales."

Mr. Rocha could not be reached for comment today. A State Department
official called claims of American manipulation in the electoral process
"absolutely absurd."

Whatever happens, the results so far are seen as a remarkable turnaround
for Mr. Morales, who had minuscule support just two months ago. Mr.
Morales, who was raised by a poor farmer and became a peasant leader and
member of Congress, has reached out to Bolivians fed up with corrupt
politicians while mining latent anti-American sentiment.

In January, after he was kicked out of Congress for inciting violence in
protests he organized, he accused the embassy of pressuring lawmakers to
expel him. Then, during the campaign he made unproved claims that the
embassy was planning to assassinate him.

The charges prompted Mr. Rocha, four days before the election, to warn
Bolivians that voting for Mr. Morales could jeopardize American assistance
and investment.

Experts and newspaper columns have said the comments infuriated Bolivians
and enhanced Mr. Morales's popularity. In polls published just before the
election, Mr. Morales had been picked to finish fourth.

Mr. Morales has said that, if elected president, he would kick the Drug
Enforcement Administration out of the country.

The State Department official said Washington "looks forward to
maintaining" the partnership the two countries have shared in the drug
fight in recent years. But the official added: "We can only do so when
there's a shared commitment by our partners."


Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org



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