What's your take on the movement left in S. America? Bolivia is the latest nation that's seems to be heading in that direction with their projected new leader although they also just elected a right leaning congress. Bolivia is one of the nations that shouldn't be so poor even though its landlocked. It has huge reserves of natural resources and the literacy rate is fairly high.....87%, and yet it is mired in extreme poverty.......probably due to corrupt leadership.
Its ironic that S. America is heading left as we have turned right........it seems we are never in sync with the South. And it will only make for more problems.
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Leftist critic may win Bolivian election
Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:55 PM GMT
By Kevin Gray
LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivians went to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election that may hand power to their first Indian president -- a coca-leaf farm leader who calls his leftist movement "a nightmare for the U.S."
Evo Morales, an admirer of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is expected to receive the most votes -- 34 percent, according to recent opinion polls. If elected, Morales will join a new generation of leftists in power in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Under Bolivian law, Congress, also being renewed in Sunday's vote, will choose the new president in January if no one takes more than 50 percent of the vote.
Massive street protests have forced out two Bolivian presidents in the last three years and the impoverished country is split between the conflicting demands of the disenfranchised Indian majority and the ruling white elite.
Washington considers Morales an enemy of its anti-drug fight in Bolivia, the third biggest cocaine-producing nation after Colombia and Peru.
"I challenge the United States to create a real alliance to fight narcotrafficking," Morales said after voting in his hometown in the heart of the coca-leaf growing region. He was flanked by farmers chewing the shiny green plant.
Morales, an Aymara Indian, wants to legalise coca growing for traditional uses such as tea, and pledges to nationalise the country's rich natural gas resources, which he says is the best way to develop South America's poorest country.
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today.reuters.co.uk |
