News (Media Awareness Project) - Bolivia: `Nightmare' For US Wins Election |
| Title: | Bolivia: `Nightmare' For US Wins Election |
| Published On: | 2005-12-19 |
| Source: | Charlotte Observer (NC) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-01-14 20:56:36 |
'NIGHTMARE' FOR U.S. WINS ELECTION
Ex-Farmer Of Coca, Who Opposes Eradication, Is Bolivia's Top Finisher
PAZ, Bolivia - Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian presidential candidate
who has pledged to reverse a campaign financed by the United States to
wipe out coca growing, scored a decisive victory in Sunday's general
elections in Bolivia.
Morales, 46, is a former coca farmer who has promised to become
Washington's "nightmare," also promises to roll back
American-prescribed economic changes. He garnered between 47 percent
and 50 percent of the vote, according to televised quick-count polls.
His leading challenger, Jorge Quiroga, 45, an American-educated former
president who was trailing by as much as 20 percentage points,
admitted defeat in a nationally televised speech.
Quiroga's concession, however, did not immediately clear up whether
Morales will be able to take office without Congress' approval.
Because the National Electoral Court had not tabulated the results, it
remained unclear whether Morales had actually won the required 50
percent of the vote to give him an outright win.
If not, under the law, it would be up to the Congress to choose
between the top two finishers. Still, if the results hold firm,
political analysts said, Morales was expected not only to finish first
in an eight-candidate field but to garner a resounding margin of
victory. Eduardo Gamarra, a Bolivian-born political analyst from
Miami's Florida International University, said Morales could be on his
way to becoming "the president with the most legitimacy since the
transition to democracy" from the country's dictatorship a generation
ago.
Morales has promised to reverse years of sometimes violent U.S.-backed
efforts to eradicate coca fields. Bolivia is the world's third-largest
grower of coca, a plant that has traditional, legal uses among the
country's Indians but also is used to make cocaine.
A Morales government would be the first indigenous administration in
Bolivia's 180-year history and would further consolidate a new leftist
trend in South America.
Ex-Farmer Of Coca, Who Opposes Eradication, Is Bolivia's Top Finisher
PAZ, Bolivia - Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian presidential candidate
who has pledged to reverse a campaign financed by the United States to
wipe out coca growing, scored a decisive victory in Sunday's general
elections in Bolivia.
Morales, 46, is a former coca farmer who has promised to become
Washington's "nightmare," also promises to roll back
American-prescribed economic changes. He garnered between 47 percent
and 50 percent of the vote, according to televised quick-count polls.
His leading challenger, Jorge Quiroga, 45, an American-educated former
president who was trailing by as much as 20 percentage points,
admitted defeat in a nationally televised speech.
Quiroga's concession, however, did not immediately clear up whether
Morales will be able to take office without Congress' approval.
Because the National Electoral Court had not tabulated the results, it
remained unclear whether Morales had actually won the required 50
percent of the vote to give him an outright win.
If not, under the law, it would be up to the Congress to choose
between the top two finishers. Still, if the results hold firm,
political analysts said, Morales was expected not only to finish first
in an eight-candidate field but to garner a resounding margin of
victory. Eduardo Gamarra, a Bolivian-born political analyst from
Miami's Florida International University, said Morales could be on his
way to becoming "the president with the most legitimacy since the
transition to democracy" from the country's dictatorship a generation
ago.
Morales has promised to reverse years of sometimes violent U.S.-backed
efforts to eradicate coca fields. Bolivia is the world's third-largest
grower of coca, a plant that has traditional, legal uses among the
country's Indians but also is used to make cocaine.
A Morales government would be the first indigenous administration in
Bolivia's 180-year history and would further consolidate a new leftist
trend in South America.
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