Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE MORALES ERA
In December 2005 Bolivians elected their country's first indigenous president. A former
cocalero
(coca grower) and representative from Cochabamba, Evo Morales of Movimiento
al Socialismo (MAS) won nearly 54% of the vote, having promised to alter the traditional
political class and to empower the nation's poor (mainly indigenous) majority. After the
election, Morales quickly grabbed the lefty spotlight, touring the world and meeting with
Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, Cuba's Fidel Castro, Brazil's Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and
members of South Africa's African National Congress. Symbolically, on May Day 2006,
he nationalized Bolivia's natural gas reserves and raised taxes on energy investors in a
move that would consolidate Bolivia's resources in Bolivian hands. Nationalizations con-
tinue to this day.
In July 2006, Morales formed a National Constituent Assembly to set about rewriting the
country's constitution. In January 2009, the new socially focused constitution was ap-
proved by 67% of the voters in a nationwide referendum. The first constitution in Bolivia
approved by popular vote, it gave greater power to the country's indigenous majority and
allowed Morales to seek a second five-year term, which he won that same year. The consti-
tution also limited the size of landholdings in order to redistribute Bolivia's land from large
ranchers and landowners to poor indigenous farmers.
While Evo Morales has near-universal support among the indigenous people of Bolivia,
his radical social changes aren't without resistance. In the eastern part of the country - the
four departments known as La Media Luna (Half Moon, after their geographic shape) -
where much of the natural resources lie, a strong right-wing opposition has been challen-
ging Morales, accusing him of being an ethnocentric despot.
The polarization in Bolivia is very real, with the province of Santa Cruz constantly re-
questing more autonomy and threatening to secede from the western highlands. However,
Morales has been surprisingly successful in pushing his initiatives through, despite the fer-
vent opposition (following the September 2008 protests, he expelled the US ambassador,
Philip S Goldberg, reproaching him for fuelling the right-wing separatists). And it's not just
opposition from the east: Morales has seriously alienated businesspeople and industrialists
throughout the nation, not to mention international investors, causing the country to be-
come even more fractured along economic, cultural and racial lines. It seems the dual soci-
ety in one of South America's poorest nations will last a while longer.
TIMELINE
