Cocaine plants to be legalised by the first home-grown President
From Tom Hennigan in La Paz
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, Señor Morales, who is an Aymaran Indian, said: “I want to say to the Aymaras, Quechuas, Guaraníes 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”.
Señor Quiroga, a former IBM executive, conceded defeat once it became clear that the margin of Señor Morales’s victory was such that the traditional parties would be unable to overturn it by a vote in Congress. In Bolivia, if no candidate passes 50 per cent plus one vote in the initial round the decision passes to Congress.
Señor Morales built his campaign on a promise to break the power of the European elite that has run Bolivia since independence from Spain in 1825 and which is seen by many as having ransacked the country’s vast mineral wealth and left its people impoverished.
Señor Morales has pledged to nationalise the country’s huge gas reserves and call a constituent assembly to write a new constitution that will reflect the indigenous majority. Ethnic Aymara and Quechua people make up a majority of the 9.3 million population.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1943771,00.htmlDemocracy at work in Bolivia