Evo Morales

[Cubby]

I have known about him since 2002. Here is a Wiki article for those of you who don't know about him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales

He is despised by the U.S. for opposing the Drug War.  A recent article (I can't remember if it was in the NY Times or online) said he is the frontrunner for the upcoming election, the third in 3 years I believe. In the 2002 one he came in second place.

Do you think he will be assassinated before the next Bolivian Election? Now that he has a chance at winning I am worried he will be because he has made public statements supporting nationalization of the oil and gas industries and he would be a leader somewhat in the mold of Hugo Chavez, but also like Nelson Mandela in that he'd be the first of Bolivia's oppressed natives to be President. He is seen as anti-American which historically is a dangerous position to take in South America.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

nah. He'll win and the Bush admin will just whine a ton.

I'd love to see the guy win, he rocks. Yet another hardcore left wing extremist victory in Latin America. Far left wing extremists already have Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and soon will have Mexico. It'd be great to add Bolivia to that list.

[Cubby]

nah. He'll win and the Bush admin will just whine a ton.

I'd love to see the guy win, he rocks. Yet another hardcore left wing extremist victory in Latin America. Far left wing extremists already have Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and soon will have Mexico. It'd be great to add Bolivia to that list.

Hopefully you're right. I'll admit that his economic policies might not be totally sound but the Left Wing wave across South America is one of the few liberal bright spots left in international politics.

Did anyone read the Time Magazine article last week on Hugo Chavez? It was very biased and since its the first many Americans have heard of him, obviously it was trying to create a bad impression. To scare people it linked him to Castro in every paragraph and also said Chavez is a threat to our oil supply. The piece seems like the anti-Saddam articles the mainstream media published in the months before the Iraq War.

[minionofmidas]

Evo Morales...at core he's an agricultural special interest lobbyist really. Rather like Representative Charlie Melancon (Sugarcane-LA).

[WMS]

Ultra-left tyrant-in-waiting, and another tiresome rabid anti-American. He doesn't believe in letting any opponents campaign in 'his' strongholds, for one, and uses force to ensure that. Bolivia would turn into Cuba very quickly under him. The parts of Bolivia that wouldn't secede, anyway. I've mentioned this before somewhere, let me see if I can find the link...

Ah, here. There's another post of mine just below M's reply as well.

A little bit here...

And more here.

[minionofmidas]

ag's analysis sounds not bad.

[WMS]

ag's analysis sounds not bad.

It's quite accurate, which I gave him (making a guess here) full credit for. Evo Morales + power = Bolivian civil war.

[minionofmidas]

Also, anyone from the eastern plains+power=civil war...

[WMS]

Also, anyone from the eastern plains+power=civil war...

Meh, quite possibly. Or the country splits in two...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Apparentely Morales came in 2nd place in the last presidential election, 1.6% behind the winner. However, that guy won with only 22.5%. Now there's a country that needs to abolish FPTP...

[Platypus]

BRTD, Bush won in 2000 with less then a quarter of the vote.

[minionofmidas]

BRTD, Bush won in 2000 with less then a quarter of the vote.

Yeah, but that's eligible voters. I don't know what turnout was in Bolivia. Maybe Morales' 20% of the vote were just 10% of the electorate.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Turnout was 71.9%. This is what each candidate got:

Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada - Nationalist Revolutionary Movement    22.5
Evo Morales - Movement towards Socialism    20.9
Manfred Reyes Villa - New Republican Force    20.9
Jaime Paz Zamora - Revolutionary Left Movement    16.3
Felipe Quispe - Indigenous Pachakuti Movement    6.1
Ronald MacLean - Nationalist Democratic Alliance    3.4
Alberto Costa Obregon - Party Liberty and Justice    2.7

and people want Atlasia to use FPTP. Hmmmph!

[WMS]

Turnout was 71.9%. This is what each candidate got:

Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada - Nationalist Revolutionary Movement    22.5
Evo Morales - Movement towards Socialism    20.9
Manfred Reyes Villa - New Republican Force    20.9
Jaime Paz Zamora - Revolutionary Left Movement    16.3
Felipe Quispe - Indigenous Pachakuti Movement    6.1
Ronald MacLean - Nationalist Democratic Alliance    3.4
Alberto Costa Obregon - Party Liberty and Justice    2.7

and people want Atlasia to use FPTP. Hmmmph!

Holy sh**t, that's the most fragmented non-fantasy executive vote I've ever seen.