Bolivia's Morales: 'This little Indian won't be leaving office'

[Say_What]

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On January 22, 2002, then Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) senator Evo Morales was expelled from parliament, accused of being a "narco-terrorist". Exactly five years later, as the nation's first indigenous president, Morales gave his first annual report to parliament. This time it was not Morales who exited prematurely.

Morales began his speech by thanking those who had expelled him in 2002, particularly senator Luis Vasquez Villamor, then from the Movement of the Revolutionary Left, now representing the right-wing party Podemos. "Thanks to these people I am here today, they were my campaign managers." Angered by these comments, just minutes into Morales's speech the Podemos bench left the room.

They were not the only ones to leave upset. US ambassador Phillip Goldberg did not take kindly to Morales's demand for the legislative body to pass a bill requiring US citizens to obtain visas before entering the country, as Bolivians must do to enter the US, for reasons of "dignity, reciprocity and security".

At one point in his speech, Morales said his critics "should be worried because this little Indian won't be leaving office easily".

Outside, thousands of indigenous campesinos (peasants) and workers gathered to celebrate the day with Morales, waiting for him to deliver his report to those who had brought him to power.

A poll published in the main La Paz daily, La Razon, a year after Bolivia's powerful indigenous movement took control of parliament, showed that Morales's approval across the major cities was 59% -- higher that his historic 53.7% vote in the December 2005 elections. The rate was higher in the countryside, where Morales's main support base is.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=52&ItemID=11990

[Ken Burch]

1. Evo is one of my great heroes

n/t.

[Peace Patriot]

2. "The time of the people has come." --Evo Morales

"We want partners not masters." --Evo Morales

He is one truly great "little Indian."

I read a story about him, now living in the presidential palace--a mansion designed by fascists for fascists (i.e., ornate, grandiose, high ceilings, fancy furniture, grand-style portraits)--and feeling the weight of all the complicated neo-liberal laws that were hampering his socialist/self-determination agenda. He admitted not understanding the laws that well. And you know what he looks like. Brown as brown can be--nut brown with a sweet slightly chubby face, and a truly beatific smile. Not tall and imposing. Compact. Wears work shirts, eschews wearing jackets--because he is working class and doesn't want to distance himself from his compadres. I just had this overwhelming sense of both strength and determination, and also extraordinary honesty. A kind of honesty you just don't find in presidential palaces, in any country. And because he is REAL--a real person, seemingly with no guile--I found myself praying that sweetness, honesty, and true integrity can survive and prosper in the often vicious and greedy political world, and that his incredible strength and determination--based in labor struggles and indigenous struggles of various kinds that he has been involved in--will see him through. It is no small matter to have survived in such struggles in Bolivia. South America is a place where they used to throw leftists and peasants out of airplanes as punishment for their political views, and where tens of thousands of people have been tortured and disappeared merely for advocating for the rights of the poor. I just learned recently of the magnitude of the carnage in Guatemala, in central America, under Reagan--TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Mayan Indians slaughtered, while we in the U.S. slept through a regime that could be described as worse than Bush, in many ways. We really have no idea what it means to be a political activist in Latin America. The fascists are out of power, but they're still around--some of their thugs were unleashed on the protesters in Cochabamba (in Bolivia), recently, where the rich landowners are plotting to divide Bolivia up and separate out the provinces with the oil, gas, minerals and other natural resources that Morales is nationalizing. Morales acted swiftly to calm that inflamed situation. He seems to be one hell of a fine president. And his apparent vulnerability may be very deceptive. A jaguar underneath.

I love him sticking it to the U.S. (Bush) ambassador! Imagine these peons demanding passports of the lords of the earth!

[Say_What]

3. More about Bolivia at this website...

Blog from Bolivia... at least a far more realistic view than that painted by the MSM. Morales is not without problems.

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Three Messages that Morales and MAS Need to Hear

I have spent a lot of the past few weeks having conversations with Bolivians I know, listening to their concerns about events here and especially to their views about the one-year-old government of MAS and Evo Morales.

Too often, the government and MAS have met all criticisms by dismissing them as the rhetoric of "the oligarchy" or of right-wing elites. To be clear, a good deal of the opposition to MAS and Morales really does come from elites who see their privileges under attack and who have wanted the new government to fail from the start. But a lot of that criticism also comes from people who used to support Evo and MAS and who, importantly, could have been and should have been a reliable part of MAS' base of political support.

Here are three messages that I hear these people saying to Morales and MAS that neither the party, the government, nor the President seems to be hearing. They need to, not just for the sake of their own political fortunes, but for the sake of Bolivia as whole:

1. The Middle Class Matters

Evo Morales got elected president with a historic majority a year ago because he did two things. First, he built a solid base among Bolivia's poor and in rural areas. He wrapped himself in his indigenous identity and, with no real competition for that same base, made himself the embodiment of political hope for the nation's most marginalized people. Second, and equally important, he convinced thousands and thousands of middle class voters to back him as well. They did so with a mix of aspirations. Some hoped that putting social movements in charge would keep them off the streets. Some joined in his desire for a change of economic course. Others voted against old parties that they viewed as tired instruments of corruption (including PODEMOS which many viewed, correctly, as Banzer's ADN party with a new name).

http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/

[Vidar]

4. What an inspiration Evo is!

[Judi Lynn]

5. Can't wait to read this article. Thanks.

http://www.dw-world.de/image/0,,1765549_4,00.jpg