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Bolivia's Evo Morales Wins Hearts and Minds in US Posted: Tuesday, October 2, 2007 by Deborah James and Medea Benjamin While Iranian President Ahmedinejad stole the headlines during the United Nations meeting last week in New York, Bolivia's President Evo Morales - a humble coca farmer, former llama herder and union organizer - stole the hearts of the American people. At public events and media appearances, Bolivia's first-ever indigenous president reached out to the American people to dialogue directly on issues of democracy, environmental sustainability, and social and economic justice. Morales appeared at a public event packed with representatives of New York's Latino, labor, and other communities, speaking for 90 minutes - without notes - about how he came to power, and about his government's efforts to de-colonize the nation, the poorest in South America. At first, he said, community organizations did not want to enter the cesspool of politics. But they realized that if they wanted the government to act in the interest of the poor Indigenous majority, they were going to have to make alliances with other social movements, win political representation democratically, and then transform the government. Now having been elected to office, they have a clear mandate based on the urgent needs of the majority: to organize a Constitutional Assembly to rewrite the Constitution (controversial with the traditional elites, but well on its way), engage in a comprehensive program of land reform and decriminalize the production of coca for domestic use (in progress), and reclaim control over the oil and gas industries (mission accomplished.) Full Article : commondreams.org |
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