Yesterday Bolivians voice their support for President Evo Morales and elected him to his third term in office. Unlike many 
Americans,(wink, wink) I have not followed the affairs of Bolivia that closely over the last eight years so I don’t know that much about the man or what he has accomplished in office, so first some background on Morales from Wikipedia:
Juan Evo Morales Ayma, (born October 26, 1959), popularly known as Evo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈeβo]), is a Bolivian politician, cocalero activist, and footballer, who has served as President of Bolivia since 2006. Widely regarded as the country’s first democratically elected president to come from the indigenous population, his administration has focused on the implementation of leftist policies, poverty reduction, and combating the influence of the United States and transnational corporations in Bolivia. A democratic socialist, he is the head of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) political party. More About Evo Morales
Before we look into a little more about Evo let’s take a look at the location of Bolivia in South America! From Wikipedia…
Modern Bolivia is a democratic republic that is divided into nine departments. Its geography varies from the peaks of the Andes in the West, to the Eastern Lowlands, situated within the Amazon Basin. It is a developing country, with a medium ranking in the Human Development Index and a poverty level of 53 percent.[9] Its main economic activities include agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, and manufacturing goods such as textiles, clothing, refined metals, and refined petroleum. Bolivia is very wealthy in minerals, especially tin.
From the map we can see that Bolivia like Mali is a landlocked country. It lies south of Brazil, north of Paraguay and Argentina and east of Chile and Peru.
As I read briefly through some of the characteristics of Bolivia, one that caught my eye was the linguistic diversity that is a result of the country’s multiculturalism. Because of that multiculturalism…..
….. The Constitution of Bolivia recognizes 37 official languages, aside from Spanish. These include the languages of the native indigenous nations of Bolivia, which are Aymara, Araona, Baure, Bésiro, Canichana, Cavineño, Cayubaba, Chacobo, Chiman, Ese Ejja, Guaraní, Guarasuawe, Guarayu, Itonama, Leco, Machajuyai-Kallawaya, Machineri, Maropa, Mojeño-Trinitario, Mojeño-Ignaciano, Moré, Mosetén, Movima, Pacawara, Puquina, Quechua, Sirionó, Tacana, Tapiete, Toromona, Uruchipaya, Weenhayek, Yaminawa, Yuki, Yuracaré and Zamuco.[68]
Spanish is the most spoken official language in the country, according to the 2001 census;[69] as it is spoken by 88.4% of the population, as a first language or second language in some indigenous populations. All legal and official documents issued by the State, including the Constitution, the main private and public institutions, the media, and commercial activities, are in Spanish.
The main indigenous languages are: Quechua (28% of the population in the 2001 census), Aymara (18%), Guarani (1%), other (4%) including the Moxos in the department of Beni.
Plautdietsch, a German dialect, is spoken by about 70.000 Mennonites in Santa Cruz and some Portuguese is spoken mainly in the areas close to Brazil. More about Bolivia
As I read about all of the cultural groups in Bolivia and the multitude of languages, I thought of how wacked out many people get in the US about people not speaking English!! Just imagine if they had to move to Bolivia!!
Ok so back to Evo Morales, and all the reasons that a person similar to Evo could never be elected in the US. From Wikipedia……
Born to an Aymara family of subsistence farmers in Isallawi, Orinoca Canton, Morales undertook a basic education before mandatory military service, in 1978 moving to Chapare Province. Growing coca and becoming a trade unionist, he rose to prominence in the campesino (“rural laborers”) union, campaigning against U.S. and Bolivian attempts to eradicate coca as a part of the War on Drugs, which he denounced as an imperialist violation of indigenous Andean culture. He repeatedly engaged in anti-government direct action protests, resulting in multiple arrests. Entering electoral politics in 1995, he became the leader of the MAS and was elected to Congress. His campaign focused on issues affecting indigenous and poor communities, advocating land reform and the redistribution of gas wealth. Gaining increasing visibility through the Cochabamba protests and gas conflict, in 2002 he was expelled from Congress for encouraging protesters, although came second in that year’s presidential election.
I made bold some of the reasons that the election of a person similar to Evo could never be elected in the US! And if someone like Evo was elected do you think he could have done what Evo has done!
Elected president in 2005, Morales oversaw increased taxation on the hydrocarbons industry, agrarian reform, and a program of literacy, anti-poverty, and anti-racism campaigns. He scaled back U.S. involvement in Bolivia while building relationships with other nations in the Latin American Pink Tide and joining the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. Attempting to moderate the left-indigenous activist community, his administration also opposed the right-wing autonomist demands of Bolivia’s eastern provinces. Winning a recall referendum in 2008, he instituted a new constitution before being re-elected with a landslide in 2009.
The Guardian has an interesting article today about Morales and his impact on his country…..
Evo Morales has proved that socialism doesn’t damage economies (read that several times, let it sink in!)
Bolivia’s re-elected president has dumbfounded critics in Washington, the World Bank and the IMF. There are lessons for Britain’s left here
The socialist Evo Morales, who yesterday was re-elected to serve a third term as president of Bolivia, has long been cast as a figure of fun by the media in the global north. Much like the now deceased Hugo Chávez, Morales is often depicted as a buffoonish populist whose flamboyant denouncements of the United States belie his incompetence. And so, reports of his landslide win inevitably focused on his announcement that it was “a victory for anti-imperialism”, as though anti-US sentiment is the only thing Morales has given to Bolivia in his eight years in government.
More likely, Morales’s enduring popularity is a result of his extraordinary socio-economic reforms, which – according to the New York Times – have transformed Bolivia from an “economic basket case” into a country that receives praise from such unlikely contenders as the World Bank and the IMF – an irony considering the country’s success is the result of the socialist administration casting off the recommendations of the IMF in the first place.
According to a report by the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, “Bolivia has grown much faster over the last eight years than in any period over the past three and a half decades.” The benefits of such growth have been felt by the Bolivian people: under Morales, poverty has declined by 25% and extreme poverty has declined by 43%; social spending has increased by more than 45%; the real minimum wage has increased by 87.7%; and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean has praised Bolivia for being “one of the few countries that has reduced inequality”. In this respect, the re-election of Morales is really very simple: people like to be economically secure – so if you reduce poverty, they’ll probably vote for you. Read More
Now I am in no way saying that Morales is perfect or that his policies are right for every country, but it does appear that other countries may just need to learn some lessons from Evo!!
