|
Latin
America:
Coca
Leader
Poised
to
Become
Bolivia's
Next
President
7/15/05
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/395/evomorales.shtml
Two decades of hard-line
US anti-drug policy in Bolivia is about to bear fruit, but it will be bitter
fruit indeed for America's drug warriors. Peasant coca grower leader
Evo Morales has announced that he is seeking the presidency, and as arguably
the most popular politician in the country, he is well-positioned to win.
If he does so, the United States will be faced with a Bolivian leader whose
policy positions on coca and cocaine, not to mention the free-market and
unfettered capitalism, are in direct opposition to those of Washington.
 |
|
| Evo Morales |
|
Although elections were not
set to be held until 2007, the Bolivian congress voted earlier this month
to move them to this December 4 after popular protests forced President
Carlos Mesa from office. While those protests were not centered on
coca-related issues, coca grower unions participated, and the political
party led by Morales, the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS, in its Spanish
acronym), helped spearhead those protests.
Mesa had replaced previous
President Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada, who had himself been forced out of
office by bloody street protests in October 2003. That violence between
security forces and civilian protesters left at least 60 people dead.
Sanchez de Losada had barely defeated Morales in the 2002 presidential
election, in which Morales came within slightly more than one percentage
point of winning the presidency.
In that election, the rising
coca grower leader and political figure gained even more prominence thanks
to ham-handed threats from the US Embassy that it would cut off nearly
$125 million in economic and counter-drug assistance if Morales won.
His stature has only grown since then, as he as become the leading opposition
voice to the Bolivian political establishment.
As a coca grower leader,
Morales has only benefited from broad hostility to US-backed and –financed
coca eradication programs, which cost Bolivian farmers $500 million a year
in revenue losses, according to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
Now, he is poised to ride to the presidency on a platform of indigenism,
anti-Americanism, coca, and rejection of economic liberalism. If
he wins, he will join a growing caucus of left-leaning leaders in Latin
America who are skeptical, at best, of US plans for the area.
"Now we can say I'm a candidate
for the presidency," Morales told reporters last week after winning approval
for his candidacy from two coca grower organizations. The coca leaders
had reached "a consensus in order to go to the elections to win and change
the neoliberal model, and not to lose," he said.
"Morales' election to the
presidency would mark a dramatic shift in Bolivian state politics away
from American cooperation, and likely pose serious challenges to Washington's
future diplomatic and anti-drug endeavors, particularly when the capacity
of the Western Hemispheric Affairs Bureau of the State Department is at
an all-time low in its ability to creatively direct US policymaking," noted
the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in a Wednesday .
-- END --
|
Issue #395
-- 7/15/05
DRCNet
Interview:
California
Medical
Marijuana
Provider
Bryan
Epis
|
Feature:
California's
"Treatment
Not
Jail"
Law
Faces
New
Attack
from
Old
Foes
|
Feature:
Bush
Drug
Budget
Cuts
for
HIDTA,
Task
Force
Grants
Look
to
Be
Restored
|
Feature:
Much
Ado
About
Lollipops
--
Marijuana-Flavored
Candy,
Hemp,
Politicians,
and
the
Media
|
Weekly:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
|
Medical
Marijuana:
California
Activist
Facing
Federal
Prison
Time
Commits
Suicide,
Commemorative
Vigils
Set
for
Tuesday
|
Medical
Marijuana:
ACLU,
DPA
Threaten
to
Sue
Schwarzenegger
Over
Suspending
California
Medical
Marijuana
Program
|
Mad
Science:
House
Committee
Approves
Mycoherbicide
Testing
in
Bid
to
Wipe
Out
Drug
Crops
|
Marijuana:
Western
Pennsylvania
Police
Chiefs
Say
Decriminalize
It
|
Sentencing:
House
Judiciary
Committee
Head
Interferes
in
Drug
Case,
Demands
Longer
Sentence
|
Search
and
Seizure:
Utah
Federal
Court
Judges
Split
on
Warrantless
Doorknob
Drug
Tests
|
Drug
Raids:
Two
Unarmed
Men
Killed
in
Separate
Drug
Raids
|
Latin
America:
Coca
Leader
Poised
to
Become
Bolivia's
Next
President
|
Announcement:
Scholarships
Available
to
Drug
Policy
Reform
Conference
in
Long
Beach
This
November
|
Web
Scan:
Prison
Smoking
Ban,
Patrick
Crusade,
Licensing
Poppies,
BlogCritics
Book
Review
|
Job
Opportunity:
Deputy
Director
of
Communications,
Drug
Policy
Alliance,
NYC
|
Short
Term
Job
Opportunity:
Marijuana
Policy
Project
Web
Site
Transition
Specialist
|
Errata:
Brazil
Harm
Reduction
|
Weekly:
The
Reformer's
Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
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