THE NEW FACE OF BOLIVIA

It is fitting that Evo Morales should be elected President of Bolivia,
since it means that the person with perhaps the greatest individual
culpability for the political and economic chaos afflicting that destitute
Latin American country has now inherited the mess.

As an opposition leader, Mr. Morales sought to incite social and political
turmoil and succeeded in helping to drive a series of presidents from
office and crippling any prospects Bolivia had of emerging from its dismal
status as an economic backwater. He is all that one has come to expect of
the messianic politician in Latin America, a virulently anti-American
indigenous Marxist of the Hugo Chavez type.

Yet for all his Yankee-bashing exhortations, Mr. Morales is very much a
creature of the U.S.

The president-elect, who yesterday captured just over 50% of the vote, rose
to prominence as a labour leader defending coca growers against U.S.-backed
efforts to eradicate coca. Bolivia is a major producer of the plant, which
has been cultivated and consumed for centuries and is part of the
traditional economy. The U.S. War on Drugs has focussed its resources less
on ending demand for cocaine (in the U.S.) than efforts to eliminate the
supply at the source. This has not only put some narco-traffickers out of
business, but it has hurt farmers cultivating small plots, especially as
efforts by the U.S. to substitute crops have largely failed. As a result,
Bolivia's destitute, most of them indigenous people, have seen their
situation worsen. At the same time, the benefits of Bolivia's free-market
reforms started in the 1980s have largely eluded this group. The U.S. is
now reaping the resulting harvest of resentment.

Mr. Morales' proposed solution, namely nationalization of the country's
natural gas reserves, and demonizing the U.S., will of course do nothing to
advance their situation. Perhaps now that the responsibility for building a
better Bolivia is his, Mr. Morales will come to see the benefits of free
enterprise and foreign investment. Some experts claim he is not nearly as
radical as he has been portrayed, and indeed he provided an encouraging
signal this week by declaring his respect for private property. But
co-operation with the U.S. drug-eradication program is likely a thing of
the past. For the people of Bolivia, that may not be entirely a bad thing.