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12/19/2005:

"Leftist candidate Morales elected president in Bolivia"

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - Peasant leader Evo Morales, who has harshly criticized U.S. policies in Latin America, won a major victory Sunday in the race for this fractured country's presidency, adding to a rising wave of leftist governments in the region.

According to a survey of 1,250 polling places conducted by a group of Bolivian media, Morales had won 51 percent of the vote, with former President Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga coming in second with 30 percent. Businessman Samuel Doria Medina won 8 percent of the vote.

Quiroga conceded defeat.

Morales, a 46-year-old Aymara Indian who will be Bolivia's first indigenous president, has made international headlines with his bold attacks on Washington-backed policies such as free trade agreements and the eradication of coca leaf, the main ingredient in cocaine.

His election marked a significant setback for U.S. interests in Latin America. U.S. diplomats had remained studiously silent during the campaign to avoid the appearance of interfering in the election and tipping public opinion toward the strongly anti-U.S. candidate.
mercurynews.com

Bolivia's hero vows to break US shackles
On a barren landing strip in Bolivia's mining heartland of Oruro, hundreds of people, including miners carrying dynamite charges, stir at the sight of an approaching small plane. It's a stampede by the time it lands, as the crowds rush down the slope to greet an emerging heavy-built man. He is Evo Morales, a 46-year-old Aymara Indian, leading candidate in today's presidential elections and leader of a left-wing revolution that may soon engulf most of South America.
Morales is on the verge of becoming the first wholly Indian leader in Latin America.

...Morales is riding a wave of anger from Bolivia's impoverished Indian majority who have not seen any benefits from years of free-market policies and the sale of the country's natural resources by a mostly white elite to huge multinationals.

In few places is the country's ingrained injustice as visible as in the arid region of Oruro, birthplace of the Bolivian trade union movement, whose tin mines have maintained the state for decades, while its inhabitants live in miserable mud huts. Morales was born there, before being forced by drought to move to the region of Chapare, where he later emerged as the leader of the coca farmers, launching his political career.

Morales's first stop in Oruro is Uncía. Jumping on a tractor and trundling slowly towards the main town square, he is followed by a long caravan of vehicles and by dynamite explosions in substitution for fireworks. Some 3,000 Indians listen intently and in a combative mood. 'We're determined to wrest control over our resources and our lives after the efforts to eliminate the Indians from the period of the Spanish colony. We will bury American imperialism!' declares Morales amid shouts of 'El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!' (The people united will never be defeated!)

NY Times headline:Bolivia Elects a President Who Supports Coca Farming