The "U.S. Nightmare" Clinches Bolivia's Election

by-Kevin Gray
December 18, 2005
Reuters

La Paz, Bolivia (Reuters)--Evo Morales, a leftist former coca leaf farmer vowing to be a "nightmare for the US," was poised to become Bolivia's first Indigenous President on Sunday after likely clinching one of the biggest electoral victories in the country's history.

Morales appeared certain to take office in January when his rivals conceded defeat and results tabulated by local media showed him garnering slightly more than 50 percent of the vote, much higher than predicted.

"Beginning tomorrow Bolivia's new history really begins, a history where we will seek equality, Justice, equity, peace and social Justice," Morales told hundreds of supporters amid chants of "Evo President!" at his campaign headquarters in the central city of Cochabamba.

Morales has vowed to nationalize Bolivia's natural gas industry and roll back a US-backed eradication program of coca, a key ingredient used to make cocaine but also prized by Indians for traditional medicinal uses.

Morales often invoked racial imagery on his campaign, feeding hopes among the impovrished Indian majority that one of its own could help reverse what most saw as more than 500 years of discrimination under leaders of European descent which began with slavery in Spanish colonial silver mines.