Evo Morales
Juan Evo Morales Ayma (Orinoca, October 26, 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade unionist, activist and leader belonging to the Aymara indigenous people. He was the 65th president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, from January 22, 2006 to November 10, 2019, after presenting his resignation due to a political crisis.
He began his activism in the trade union movement in the 1980s in the Single Trade Union Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB). He reached the leadership of the Special Federation of the Tropics, one of the six union federations of coca growers that are organized in the area of the Chapare province and that, since 1991, have been coordinated by a Coordination Committee chaired by him. He was one of the founders of the Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (IPSP), which would later ally with the Movement for Socialism (MAS) to participate in the 1997 general elections, in which he was elected deputy for Cochabamba.
Evo Morales ran for the first time in the presidential elections in 2002. He came in second behind Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. In the 2005 elections, he obtained almost 54% of the vote. In this way, he became the first president of indigenous origin. He was re-elected in the 2009 elections with 64.22% of the votes and, in the 2014 elections, with 63.36%. He is the third Bolivian president in the history of the republic elected by an absolute majority of votes, after Hernán Siles Zuazo in 1956 and Víctor Paz Estenssoro in 1960. Morales, who remained in power for fourteen years, is one of the most recognized from the Latin American left. For this reason, Time magazine named him in 2008 one of the hundred most powerful people in the world.
During his administration, Bolivia was one of the countries with the highest economic growth in South America, with an average GDP growth of 5% per year, which earned it the nickname of the "Bolivian economic miracle". Extreme poverty in Bolivia it decreased from 36.7% to 16.8% between 2005 and 2015. There was also an improvement in income distribution, with a decrease in the Gini index from 0.60 in 2005 to 0.47 in 2016, according to data of the National Institute of Statistics of Bolivia.
With regard to education, from 2006 the Cuban literacy method was applied, yes I can, which allowed the illiteracy rate to go from 13.3%, indicated by the 2001 census, to 3.7% %. This figure earned it the declaration of "free of illiteracy", according to Unesco in 2008. In addition, in 2010 the Avelino Siñani-Elizardo Pérez Educational Law was approved, which establishes free and intercultural education.
In terms of health, the Unified Health System was established to offer universal and free healthcare. In human rights, the recognition of indigenous rights contemplated in the 2009 Constitution and the gender identity law approved in 2016 stand out.
On November 10, 2019, he resigned as president in a context of protests, social pressure, and accusations of fraud in the October 20 general elections. Morales resigned after receiving threats against his person, his collaborators and his patrimony, at the suggestion of the Bolivian Armed Forces, the police and the Bolivian Workers Union. On November 11, he accepted the political asylum offered by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the president of Mexico.The next day, November 12, he arrived at the Mexico City International Airport, where he was received by the Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard.
On December 12, he moved to Argentina as a refugee, accompanied by former Vice President Álvaro García Linera and other former ministers. On November 9, 2020, he returned to Bolivia, after almost a year in exile in Argentina, he was accompanied to his return by Argentine President Alberto Fernández.
Early Years
He was born on October 26, 1959 in the Isallavi community, in the Orinoca canton in the department of Oruro, in the Altiplano of Bolivia. He is the son of Dionisio Morales Choque and María Ayma Mamani —both now deceased— and a descendant of a family of farmers and llamas breeders. Morales is of Uru-Aymara indigenous origin and his mother tongue is Aymara. Since he was a child, he worked the land and was a shepherd of llamas. There were seven siblings of which only three survived: Esther the eldest (also already deceased), Evo and Hugo the youngest, live in Oruro. He lost four others: Luis, Eduvé, Reyna and the fourth died at birth.
Since he was a child, Evo Morales helped with agricultural tasks. At the age of six, he emigrated with his family during the sugar cane harvest to the community of Galilea Tucumán and Campo Santo in Salta, in northern Argentina. There he went to school for the first time, in April 1966, studying first grade at School No. 4136 Julio Argentino Cornejo, located on the La Población farm in the town of Campo Santo, about 60 kilometers from the city of Salta. In 2014 Morales would visit the school that he defined with the expression "it all started here" and decided to sponsor her:
It was the obligation of the Argentine State that the sons of the carrots go to classes. I didn't understand Spanish, I was a closed Aymara, and sitting behind all the classmates, I don't remember what they would talk about, because I didn't understand... My father was very hardworking and supportive. He worked on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, not resting. I was just waiting for the payment. He earned good economic resources on the sapphire, and when we went back to the house where I was born, we took a sleeping cot that we bought here. It was a luxury, we met the first catre thanks to the zafra in Argentina. There my mother and father slept and we were still sleeping on the floor. My sister always said, "I want that cat for me," so when my father married, he gave it to him as a heritage. Many families in Bolivia improve our economy by the Argentinean zafra. My first school was Argentinian, the Julio Argentino Cornejo school, and those we study at this school know how to be president.Evo Morales
The following year he returned to Bolivia.
My dad, every morning before going to work, made his convite to the Pachamama that is the mother earth; my mom also ch'allaba with alcohol and coca leaves so that we can go well throughout the day. It was as if my parents spoke to the earth, with nature.
Working throughout his childhood, Morales managed to dedicate himself to his favorite sport: soccer, a sport that later led him to his first union position, that of sports secretary for his community. He also trained at Club San José, in Oruro.
When the flames were grazing in the hills, I grabbed my rag ball and snatched them (passing through zigzag) one by one. The arches were the brava birds or the yaretas and my inseparable companion a dog named Trébol.Evo Morales
Education and military service
From a very young age he began to demonstrate his peculiar sense of humor and his leadership skills.
As a boy, I remember, he was an organizer, he was a mobilizer. At the Seccional school in Calavilca, when he was first, the teacher made us draw a donkey. I drew it and painted it red, yellow and green. That was the joke of the whole year: "The Evo donkey is red, yellow and green." When I was thirteen or fourteen, I founded a football team in my community, it was called Fraternity and we were participating in the championships. I was the captain, the delegate, the referee. He owned the team. I had to rent sheep, flame wool. My dad helped me, he was very sportsman. We sold the wool to buy balls, uniforms. At the age of sixteen, the three ayllus of the community, the different delegates, elected me as technical director of the selection of the whole canton.
When she was fifteen years old —explained her cousin Adela Ayma— she visited the Burnt Palace in La Paz with her classmates from the Unidad Educativa Central Orinoca school. The logistics team did not allow them to speak with the president because he was busy. Evo was so offended that he told his friends: "Someday I'm going to be president and they'll find me easily."
To continue his studies, Evo Morales traveled to Oruro, where he worked as a brickmaker, baker, and trumpeter. He came to play in the Royal Imperial Band, an activity that allowed him to travel and get to know different realities.
One of the most pleasant memories I have with the band is that of my journey through the mining centers of southern Potosí. We travel to Quechisla mining company. I would have my sixteen years, still chango and many anecdotes.
He studied up to the first year of primary school at the Beltrán Ávila school. He then left to fulfill compulsory military service in the General Staff in La Paz. During that period, he witnessed the coups d'état by Juan Pereda Asbún and David Padilla Arancibia, both in 1978.
After leaving the barracks, he returned to his community to work coca. But nature changed the lives of the Morales and thousands of other Orinoca community members. In 1980 the El Niño phenomenon wiped out more than 70% of agricultural production and took more than 50% of the animals.
One afternoon we finished the pork (remove the land) of the pope with many pawns, then came a wind at night and came the frost. The next day the potato was burned, black, with an ugly smell. My mom cried all day, my dad was with my uncles and there they decided: "here we will never progress, we will never be prosperous peasants, we must go and find land in the east of Bolivia."
Shortly thereafter, the family embarked on a journey to Cochabamba to start a new life as settlers in San Francisco, in the Chapare region.
Cocalero unionist
In 1981 he was appointed Secretary of Sports for his union, San Francisco. In 1983 his father passed away. He then left his union responsibilities to dedicate himself entirely to family work. In addition, he had to travel frequently from the Chapare to Orinoca to attend to agricultural activities in his community of origin.
During his career as a trade unionist, Morales has represented the sector of immigrant settlers (Aymara and Quechua), coca-growing peasants from the Bolivian Chapare region. In 1985 he was appointed general secretary of his union. In 1988, when the MNR government managed to get Congress to approve, on July 19, the Law on the Regime of Coca and Controlled Substances (Law 1008) ―which contemplated the gradual reduction and replacement of surplus crops by planting alternative crops or the forced uprooting of cocales without the right to compensation ― his colleagues elected him executive secretary of the Federation of the Tropics in an enlarged one in the Chapare. Throughout his union career, Morales knew jail and confinement. In 1989, when paying homage to the fallen comrades in defense of coca crops, UMOPAR troops beat him and threw him into the bush, convinced that he was dead.
In more than one opportunity, particularly when I was detained in prison, I heard in the media that with much sincerity came out from the bottom of the bases the following phrase: "In the Chapare there are thousands of Evos."
During the 1990s, the cocaleros clashed repeatedly with the government of Hugo Banzer Suárez, who had promised the United States the total eradication of coca crops in the country. Morales was the top leader of a federation of coca farmers who resisted government plans to eradicate coca leaf cultivation, considering it as part of the ancestral culture of the Aymara indigenous people; the federation had counterproposed Banzer with a zero cocaine plan instead of the zero coke that the US government demanded.
To reinforce their demands, the cocaleros began the march for life, coca and dignity for the 600 kilometers that separate Cochabamba from La Paz. Initially attacked by the forces of order, the cocaleros mocked the posts of the uniformed officers on the road. The closer they got to the seat of government, the more people took to the streets to encourage the coca-growing marchers, offering them drinks, food, clothes, and shoes. They entered La Paz cheered by the population and invited to celebrate agreements by the authorities, who had no other choice due to the wave of general enthusiasm. Once the cocaleros had returned to the Tropics and calm had returned to the country, the authorities ignored the agreements and sent the uniformed officers again.[citation required]
The struggle of the cocaleros and their march spread beyond the borders of Bolivia. For being the leader of the anti-eradication movement, an international coalition of left-wing politicians and academics nominated Morales for the 1995 and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, Morales has tried to spread his views abroad. from Bolivia. He traveled to Europe with delegations of coca growers from the Tropics, the Yungas and Peru to speak in defense of coca cultivation, asserting that anti-drug policies did not distinguish between the coca leaf and cocaine.
I have spent difficult moments in Eterazama (1997), where from a helicopter the DEA has machine-gunned and there were five dead in minutes." "At the Human Rights headquarters, in Villa Tunari in 2000, they tried to write me down but failed, the bullet swept at me.
Political career
Towards power
In 1997, under the pressure of electoral dates, an already registered party was needed, so the Confederation of Workers of the Cochabambino Tropics led by Morales decided to merge with the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS). Later, on July 23 of that year, it was refounded under the direction of Morales. That same year he came to Parliament as a deputy for Cochabamba with 70% of the votes. In a first attempt to win power in 2002, Morales and the MAS drew up a government program that included the convening of a constituent assembly and an undefined hydrocarbons policy. In particular, the MAS did not want Tarijeño gas to be sold through a Chilean port, as long as this country did not negotiate the restitution of the oceanic access, the Atacama strip, which Bolivia lost as a result of the War of the Pacific or the Saltpeter, in 1879.
4 days before the elections, the then US ambassador, Manuel Rocha, declared that if Bolivians chose "those who want Bolivia to return to being a major cocaine exporter", US aid would be at risk.. In the presidential elections, Morales reached 20.9% of the vote, 1.6% less than the winner, Sánchez de Lozada. In the legislative elections, the MAS obtained 11.9%, which translated into 27 deputies and eight senators, becoming the second parliamentary force behind the alliance of the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) and the Bolivia Libre Movement (MBL). The masistas were the most voted force in the Andean departments of La Paz, Oruro and Potosí, in addition to the stronghold of Cochabamba. Morales also ran for deputy and in this election he won the seat for his constituency with 81.3% of the vote.
Proud of our culture, with our clothing and our coca, for the first time in our history, peasants, indigenous people and natives entered the National Parliament.
Gas War: Leader of the Opposition
Morales came out strongly strengthened in the elections and quickly became the top leader of the opposition; Apart from the alliance made to elect Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada president, he opposed his government, both outside and inside Congress. Shortly after having arrived at the Headquarters of State, Sánchez de Lozada took economic measures of an anti-popular nature.
Under the slogan «Against the eradication of coca, for the nationalization of hydrocarbons and the convocation of a constituent assembly», in February 2003, the MAS, together with other union and civil organizations, directly opposed the call impuestazo, the new direct, progressive and non-deductible tax, of up to 12.5%, with which the government hoped to cut the fiscal deficit. On February 12 and 13, 2003, in and around La Paz, thousands of demonstrators, striking police officers, and soldiers charged with imposing order clashed.
Sánchez de Lozada was forced to resign in October 2003; power remained temporarily in the hands of Carlos Mesa Gisbert, who also had to face the opposition of the population in another crisis, although the MAS temporarily gave Mesa the support it had denied to Sánchez de Lozada. In June 2005, Mesa resigned from the Presidency due to the radicalization of the popular mobilizations. Finally, the interim Presidency was left in the hands of Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé, until then president of the Supreme Court of Justice, who, according to the legislation, had to be in the Presidency for a maximum period of six months while the National Congress promulgated a law summoning elections.
Presidential campaign (2005)
Morales, in his second attempt, reached the presidential seat in the anticipated presidential elections of December 2005, in which he was the winner by obtaining 53.74% of the votes, compared to 28.59% of his main opponent, Jorge Quiroga Ramirez. He was also the fourth president in the history of Bolivia to be elected by an absolute majority. The vice president of the formula was Álvaro García Linera. In his first speeches, he declared the need for the nationalization of hydrocarbons, whose property at the wellhead was in the hands of transnational oil companies, through concessions that he classified as null and void.
On January 21, 2006, Morales attended a religious ceremony at the ancient ruins of Tiahuanaco, where he was crowned Apu Mallku or "supreme leader" by various indigenous peoples of the Andes, and received gifts from representatives of indigenous nationalities of Latin America and the world. This was the first time since Tupac Amaru's coronation that he bestowed this title on himself.
Presidential race
Election results
| Elections | Formula | Party | First round | Balance | Outcome | Legislators | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chairman | Vice-Chairman | Votes | % | Place | Votes | % | Senators | Deputies | |||||||
| 2002 | Evo Morales | Antonio Peredo Leigue |  MAS-IPSP | 581,884 |
| 2nd | 43 |
|  No. electorate | 8/27 | 27/130 | ||||
| Note: Second round of parliamentary vote | |||||||||||||||
| 2005 | Evo Morales | Álvaro García Linera | MAS-IPSP | 1,544,374 |
| 1o |  Yes. electorate | 12/27 | 72/130 | ||||||
| 2009 | Evo Morales | Álvaro García Linera | MAS-IPSP | 2,943,209 |
| 1o | Yes. electorate | 26/36 | 88/130 | ||||||
| 2014 | Evo Morales | Álvaro García Linera | MAS-IPSP | 3,173,304 |
| 1o | Yes. electorate | 25/36 | 88/130 | ||||||
| 2019 | Evo Morales | Álvaro García Linera | MAS-IPSP | 2,889,359 |
| 1o | Cancellation | 21/36 | 67/130 | ||||||
Presidency of Bolivia (2006-2019)
On January 22, 2006, Morales received the transfer of command and took office as Constitutional President of the Republic.
Economic policy
In one of his first actions, he decided to fulfill one of his campaign promises and reduce his salary by 57%; the salary of many other government officials and public administration was similarly reduced, since according to the law no public employee can receive a salary greater than that of the president. During the 14 years of Evo Morales' administration, the gross domestic product (GDP) grew an average of 5.2% per year.
In 2008, Bolivia achieved its highest recorded growth, 6.2%, reaching a peak of 7.1% in the third quarter of the year, according to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). GDP per capita is multiplied by two between 2005 and 2013. In 2009 the country continued to grow economically, to the point that the following year the World Bank removed Bolivia from the list of low-income countries and placed it in the group of middle-income countries.
Since 2010, according to some indicators, the economic situation began to deteriorate as a result of the global economic crisis. In August of that year, a strike in the department of Potosí paralyzed the southeastern region of Bolivia for 19 days. The San Luis Potosi authorities requested that the central government attend to a series of demands necessary for the development of the department. The protesters resorted to blocking roads, exactly the same type of protest that Evo Morales used against the governments of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and Carlos Mesa. Morales eventually agreed to comply with most of the requests.
In December 2010, the Morales government announced the elimination of fuel subsidies. The measure caused the price of this product to rise by up to 80%, which sparked a wave of protests throughout the country. There was a general increase in basic food basket products and inflation skyrocketed. After several days of intense protests, in the first days of January 2011, Morales annulled the elimination of the subsidies, which managed to appease the population. In recent times, the Bolivian government managed to control inflation and there have been drops in the prices of basic goods.
Also in early 2011, an unusual food crisis broke out. Suddenly, numerous products began to be scarce, for example, sugar. The FAO blamed the shortage on Evo Morales himself, for his decision to ban sugar exports, an accusation that the government denied, stating that the measure was justified. In September 2010, a report was revealed, according to which, in the first seven months of 2011, Bolivia imported more food than in all of 2010. The government accused the businessmen of the sector of increasing prices and incurring unjustified agio in order to make the population uncomfortable and thus have a political purpose contrary to the government. It is expected that Bolivia will achieve its food self-sufficiency in the coming years.
Nationalization of companies
On May 1, 2006, Morales decreed the definitive nationalization of the country's hydrocarbon resources, while a military contingent and officials of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) were deployed in some oil and gas station installations, thus fulfilling one of the electoral promises made in his campaign for the presidency.
The regulations require that the companies that exploit the deposits are mixed companies in which YPFB has at least 51% of the capital. These companies must deliver the production to that public company that is in charge of marketing, defining the conditions, volumes and prices for both the domestic market and for export and industrialization. The Bolivian state keeps 82% of the income and the oil companies 18%. The companies involved have declared that with these conditions the exploitation continues to be profitable.
Seven decrees on the distribution of lands, issued in June 2006, have a similar normative orientation, ordering the delivery of state land ownership titles to poor peasants, particularly indigenous people; These measures are part of a much more ambitious plan: the nationalization of large estates for their redistribution among agricultural workers, historically in a situation of exploitation.
Subsequently, the government proceeded to nationalize Entel (the largest telephone company in the country), the Fancesa cement company, the Huanuni and Colquiri mines, and the electric power generation and distribution service.
Agricultural Policy
Some regions of Bolivia are largely under the power of ranchers, the large owners of cattle and pig farms, and many small farmers remain reduced to peons. However, the presence of the State was considerably strengthened under the government of Evo Morales.
The agrarian reform promised by Evo Morales - and approved in a referendum by almost 80% of the population - was never implemented. He intended to abolish latifundismo by reducing the maximum size of properties that did not have an "economic and social function"; to 5,000 hectares, with the remainder distributed among small farm workers and landless indigenous people. In 2009, the government gave in to the agro-industrial sector, which in return promised to put an end to the pressure it was exerting, which was endangering the application of the new Constitution.
However, a series of reforms and economic projects improved the situation of poor peasant families. They received agricultural machinery, tractors, fertilizers, seeds, and breeding animals, while the state built irrigation systems, roads, and bridges to make it easier for them to sell their products in the markets. The situation of many indigenous people and small farmers was regularized through the granting of property titles to the lands they used.
In 2007, the government created a "Bank for Productive Development" through which small agricultural workers and producers can easily obtain loans, with low interest and with payment terms adapted to agricultural cycles. As a result of improved banking supervision, interest rates on loans were reduced three times between 2014 and 2019 in all banking institutions for small and medium agricultural producers. In addition, the law now obliges banks to dedicate at least 60% of their resources to productive loans or the construction of social housing.
With the creation of the Food Production Support Company (Emapa), the government wanted to stabilize the domestic market for agricultural products by buying the production of small and medium-sized farmers at the best price, thus forcing agri-food companies to offer them higher remuneration. fair. According to Vice President Àlvaro García Linera, "by establishing the rules of the game, the State is establishing a new balance that gives more power to small producers. Wealth is better redistributed to balance the weight of the agro-industrial sector. This creates stability, which allows for a prosperous economy and benefits everyone".
Constitutional reform
On July 2, the referendum for the election of assembly members was held, where the 255 members of a Constituent Assembly in charge of drafting a new constitution and deciding on the conception of regional autonomy in the future constitution were elected. In these elections, Morales's party obtained an absolute majority of seats, but not enough two-thirds to approve the future fundamental charter without agreeing with other forces.
On the issue of autonomy, the alternative promoted by Morales del "No" with a relative minority of the votes, prevailing in five departments (Chuquisaca, La Paz, Cochabamba, Potosí and Oruro), while the "Sí" it won in the remaining four departments (Santa Cruz, Tarija, Pando and Beni)[citation required].
The Constituent Assembly of Bolivia completed nine months before drafting the first article of the new Magna Carta. According to the government, this was due to a boycott by the opposition, which had a stronghold in Sucre, the seat of the Assembly. Morales urged moving the headquarters to another city, where there were the necessary guarantees for the meetings, but the legislature refused.[citation required]
Finally, it was organically approved on December 10, 2007 in the city of Oruro, by 164 of the 255 constituent assembly members, in the midst of a crisis due to the ignorance of the opposition to the legality of the assembly. Its final promulgation was conditional on two referendums: one to settle the controversy around a group of articles and another on the entire constitutional text. The opposition claimed that the conclusions of the constituent had been discredited because legal procedures had not been followed, the participation of the opposition had been prevented, and they had been drawn up by a committee in a barracks and later in an office in the National Lottery building.
On January 25, 2009, the referendum to ratify the new Constitution had a turnout of 90.26% of the citizens registered to participate in it, the highest of all the electoral consultations held in the country.[ citation needed] The Magna Carta was approved with 2,064,397 votes, corresponding to 61.43% of the total. The "not" it reached 1,296,175 votes (that is, 38.57%). For their part, the blank votes totaled 1.7% and the invalid ones, 2.91%.
Transitory Electoral Law
After criticism of the bias of the National Electoral Court and verification of flaws in the previous electoral roll,[citation required] a new electoral law was approved as of general. When the vote was to proceed article by article, the opposition left the venue, breaking the quorum.[citation required]. The government tried to pass the law without taking into account previous negotiations between the parties.[citation needed]
Morales began a fast that was supported by several civil leaders, as well as some three thousand Bolivians throughout the country and even in Argentina and Spain. This fast lasted until April 24, 2009. After accepting the creation of a new electoral roll, the opposition returned to dialogue at a negotiation table, in which an agreement was reached to approve the Transitory Electoral Law (LET).. Congress approved a law with more than 23 articles changed to the MAS proposal. A new electoral roll was imposed and voting abroad was limited. On these points, the Morales government had to compromise due to the pressure of public opinion.[citation required]
Health Policy
From 2007 to 2014, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the budget allocated to health increased by 173 percent, making Bolivia one of the South American countries most committed to the priority of health. The Pan American Health Organization reports in 2015 that vaccination campaigns have eliminated or significantly reduced polio, rubella, and measles. In 2017, the WHO reports that child mortality has decreased by 50% and child malnutrition by 14% in a decade.
The Political Constitution of Bolivia, through article 18, establishes a Single Health System that must be universal, free, equitable, intracultural, intercultural, participatory, with quality, warmth and social control. After several years of legislative treatment, the Single Health System Law was sanctioned in February 2019. In its first months, almost two million people registered.
Education, science and technology policy
A significant action undertaken by the MAS government was the literacy campaign launched in the first year of the legislature. To this end, the "Yo sí puedo" campaign was launched with the participation and advice of the Governments of Cuba and Venezuela. In October 2006, in a second phase of "Yo sí puedo", literacy training began in the local languages, Aymara and Quechua, in rural and urban areas. After 33 months of campaigning, the initiative managed to teach reading and writing to some 827,000 people, reducing the illiteracy rate to around 3.7%, a sufficient figure to declare the country free of illiteracy in 2008.In 2010 the Plurinational Legislative Assembly approved the Avelino Siñani-Elizardo Pérez Education Law, which right to receive education at all levels free of charge, secular, comprehensive and intercultural.
In 2006, the Vice Ministry of Science and Technology was created, responsible for designing science and technology policies and promoting the execution of projects and coordinating the operation of research institutes and centers. In 2009, the Vice Ministry published the Science and Technology Sector Plan. In February 2010, the Bolivian Space Agency (ABE) was created with the main purpose of managing the Túpac Katari satellite, built by the Chinese company Corporación Industrial Gran Muralla.
Human and personal rights policy
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The Bolivian Constitution approved in 2009 represents a modernization of the magna carta in terms of civil rights. One of the most important advances is the recognition of indigenous peoples as collective subjects, incorporating their community structures into the organization of the state. Their rights to health and education are also considered while respecting their own cultures.
Gender and diversity
The 2009 Constitution is one of the first in the world to expressly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. However, same-sex marriage remains illegal. In 2010, Parliament passed the Anti-Racism and All Forms of Discrimination Act, which prohibits, among other things, discrimination against gay people by companies or individuals and allows for possible prosecution.
In 2016, a law allows transgender people to change the indication of their name and sex on their identity documents, after consulting a doctor, without first having to undergo a gender reassignment operation.
The proportion of women union leaders, ministers and parliamentarians has increased considerably. In 2017, Bolivia is the country with the second highest proportion of women in its parliament (52% in the National Assembly, 47% in the Senate).
Religion and freedom of worship
Morales recognizes himself as a grassroots Christian and also practices the cult of Mother Earth or Pachamama. Evo Morales has questioned. He has often reproached the Catholic Church for its relationship with colonization and has accompanied with the cross & # 34; domination and submission & # 34; of Indians from the mainland during the Spanish conquest, he accuses the ecclesiastical hierarchy of interfering in political debate and considers that & # 34; the secular state is the best guarantee of religious democracy & # 34;.
In 2006, Evo Morales defended the possibility that in schools students could choose the religion or cult to study, breaking the supremacy of Catholicism in the country, which generated one of his first disputes as president with the ecclesiastical hierarchy. In 2009, the Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia was promulgated, in which Catholicism ceased to be the official cult of the country, declaring that the State is "independent of religion" and guaranteeing the freedom of all beliefs.
Environmental policy
One of the dilemmas facing the Morales administration lies in the desire to expand the extractive industries to obtain resources to finance social programs and job creation, and on the other hand protect the environment from pollution caused by these industries. Although the government professes an environmental ethos, expanding environmental monitoring and becoming a leader of the voluntary Forest Stewardship Council, Bolivia continues to witness rapid deforestation for agriculture and illegal logging.
It is usual for Morales' speeches to make references to Mother Earth and criticize the damage that industrialized nations have inflicted on the environment. In April 2011, he asked the UN to grant the rights of Mother Earth the same status and importance that she grants to human rights.
In 2010, the environmental policy of the Morales government was criticized by Time magazine and the British newspaper The Guardian, and by a sector of the Bolivian population because of of the case of the Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS). This is an area of great natural beauty and a protected area, in central Bolivia, where Morales planned to build a highway that would affect the environment and, according to analysts, harm an indigenous tribe that inhabits the region.
Although Morales always says that the will of the indigenous peoples must be respected, and consulted on any initiative that may affect them, in June 2011, in a speech in the city of Sacaba, referring to the indigenous tribe that will be affected by the construction of the highway, Morales told them: "Whether they like it or not, we are going to build the road."
When journalist Amy Goodman, from the radio program Democracy Now!, asked him in April 2010 about the dangers of boosting the Bolivian economy in hydrocarbons, a potentially polluting activity, Morales replied: «Those foundations, NGOs, said: “Amazon without oil”. So tell me that I am going to cover oil wells, gas wells. So what is Bolivia going to live on? Let's be real."
In August 2010, the central region of Bolivia suffered a wave of forest fires caused by the "chaqueo" (the practice, deeply rooted among indigenous people, of setting fire to vegetation in order to obtain land for agriculture). Faced with the requests of numerous NGOs to put an end to this practice, Morales defended the intentional fires, alleging that they were a traditional practice of the indigenous people and that the real culprits of the forest fires in Bolivia were the developed countries. Morales authorized, through a decree, the cultivation of genetically modified soybeans.[citation needed]
Fires in Chiquitania and the Bolivian Amazon
In 2019, President Evo Morales legalized clearing through Law 741, which authorizes clearing for the purpose of expanding the agricultural frontier, and Supreme Decree 3973, which authorizes controlled burning. A month later, devastating events occurred fires in the Chiquitania region, in the department of Santa Cruz. In August 2019, President Morales flatly denied international assistance to put out the fires generated in the Chiquitania.[citation required]
Volunteer firefighters and local authorities discovered that the areas affected by the fire were being distributed among peasant migrants affiliated with the government. Other complaints were also presented by the volunteers when they saw that community members were given the task of starting fires again in areas controlled, declaring that they have express authorization from the government to carry out these tasks. According to the Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN), by the end of September 2019, the Chiquitanía had lost 3.9 million hectares, which represents 73% of its land.
Communication and media policy
On July 10, 2011, the Bolivian congress, where Evo Morales's party has a large majority, approved the Telecommunications, Information and Communication Technologies Law. The new legislation grants 33% of the licenses to the State, 17% to community organizations, 17% to indigenous organizations and the remaining 33% to the private sector. The new law also authorizes wiretapping in cases of national crises. In response to the law, numerous mass media outlets have expressed great concern over what they say is a move by Morales to "hog the media" 3. 4;.
In September 2018, after the referendum on re-election, members of the ruling party argued that there was a campaign based on false news (fake news) on social networks with the aim of harming Morales. An assembly member of the MAS proposed a regulation that would impose sanctions on those who spread false news.
Defense and security policy
The 2006-2010 National Development Plan made a negative assessment of the Bolivian national defense and civil security system, which the Morales government proposed to reverse through a plan that involved establishing a new regulatory framework, redesigning the system of forces and the strengthening of operational capabilities.
At the beginning of his term, he announced his intention to take his predecessor, Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé, and the then Minister of Defense, Gonzalo Méndez Gutiérrez, to court, accusing them of treason against the Fatherland, for having transferred 28 Chinese-made MHN-5 surface-to-air missiles from Bolivian arsenals to the United States to be "deactivated."
The Armed Forces were redesigned, creating seven Joint Commands that divide the national territory into geostrategic areas. In addition, the Armed Forces participated in social tasks such as literacy plans, the distribution of social plans, the construction and maintenance of infrastructure in the area rural areas and support for health campaigns. Equipment and material acquisition programs for the Armed Forces were promoted. In addition, the Bolivian Ammunition Factory began operating again. The budget of the Armed Forces grew 100% between 2005 and 2014, going from 1,176 million Bolivians to 2,177 million.
Foreign Policy
Morales initially declared his support for the policies of Latin American presidents such as Fidel Castro, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Néstor Kirchner, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and especially Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Morales, while president-elect, but before taking office as the first Bolivian president, made a tour of different countries that garnered great media attention. Starting on December 30 and for a period of fifteen days, he visited Cuba, Venezuela, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, China, South Africa, and Brazil to meet with various leaders, officials, and personalities seeking political and economic support for his plans to transform the Bolivian economy. Before embarking on his way to Europe, he received the support of his Cuban and Venezuelan counterparts, Castro and Chávez, with whom he signed collaboration agreements, which included the entry into Bolivia of Cuban doctors and qualified Venezuelan oil personnel.
Morales vehemently criticized the free trade agreements signed by the governments of Peru and Colombia with the United States, and supported the government of Venezuela in its withdrawal from the Andean Community. In May 2006 Morales attended the summit of the heads of states of Latin America-European Union where he sought support to eliminate from the category of & # 34;illicit & # 34; to the coca leaf, assuring that it should not be confused with cocaine, and also further strengthening the international presence of his country.
In relation to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the position of the Government of Evo Morales, product of the confrontation that this and other governments of similar tendencies maintain with the United States, is of practically unrestricted support towards the different Arab or Muslim governments of the area in its conflicts with Israel —a strategic ally of the United States in the area—, even going so far as to define the president of Iran, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, highly questioned by the human rights situation in his country, as a "revolutionary partner and brother".
Conflicts
Recall referendum
On August 10, 2008, Morales was subjected to a recall referendum along with eight state prefects and confirmed in office by obtaining 67% of the vote (see 2008 Bolivia recall referendum).
Alleged attempt on his life
On April 16, 2009, the government announced that it had thwarted a plot to assassinate the president, hatched by a far-right cell based in the eastern city of Santa Cruz. That day, a Bolivian army commando group entered the Hotel Las Américas and, according to the government version, there was a shootout with the terrorists, in which Eduardo Rosza Flores (a dual Bolivian-Hungarian national), Michael Dwyer (Irish) and Arpad Magyarosi (Romanian), while Elod Toaso (Hungarian) and Mario Tadic (Croatian) were arrested.
With the passage of time, numerous doubts have arisen about the official version, attributed by the official bodies to those involved themselves, accusing them of voluntarily delaying and delaying the process, since more than 200 incidents raised by the defense of the defendants. However, when Michael Dwyer's body was repatriated to Ireland, his relatives requested an autopsy. The forensic doctor appointed by the Irish government, Marie Cassidy, after examining the body, concluded that Dwyer died of a gunshot wound to the heart, and that at the time of the shot, he was lying down or on his knees, being able to It can be concluded that he was executed. The Bolivian justice system has already sentenced some of those involved in this process, who underwent an abbreviated trial, accepting the accusations.
Retention in Vienna
On July 2, 2013, his presidential plane was forced to land in Austria because the authorities wanted to seize it, to see if it had Edward Snowden on board from Russia. Snowden had a warrant for his arrest by US authorities for revealing details of the PRISM global surveillance program. After 13 hours, in which they found no one, they allowed him to continue.
Most of the presidents of Latin American countries repudiated the fact that, they said, "violates international law". UNASUR issued a statement expressing its solidarity with the Bolivian government and expressing its "indignation and profound rejection" for the incident, also demanding its clarification. of emergency of UNASUR on July 4. in Cochabamba.
Second reelection controversy
The Constitution sanctioned in 2009 establishes a limit of two terms for the office of president, with which Morales' term that ended in January 2015 should be his last. However, in April 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the first term of President Evo Morales did not count under the constitutional term limits, since the Magna Carta had been reformed. Morales's candidacy was made official at the Seventh General Congress of the MAS in October 2013.
Referendum on third reelection
On February 21, 2016, a referendum was held to reform article 168 of the Political Constitution of the State, which allows only one reelection of a president and vice president, whose options were "Yes" and "No": The results were in favor of "No", for which reason there was no such reform. This day is known as 21F.
A few days before the referendum was held, the Bolivian journalist Carlos Valverde denounced Evo Morales for influence peddling., calling February 21 as "21F lie day".
On September 19, Assembly members of the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) presented an abstract appeal of unconstitutionality arguing that the limitations for an eventual reappointment are contrary to the pact of San José, Costa Rica. Some 30 social organizations joined the initiative. On November 28, 2017, the Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP), by unanimous decision, enabled the re-nomination of Evo Morales and Álvaro García Linera for the following national elections (of 2019) based on the prevalence of international agreements on the Political Constitution of the State. The measure includes governors, mayors, assembly members and councilors.
Accusation and protests for alleged electoral fraud
On October 20, 2019, the first round of voting for all government offices was held. In a normal climate, the two established counts showed that Morales led by less than 10 percentage points (which would take him to a second electoral round) until 7:40 p.m. m. local time. At that point the updates stopped. At 9:25 p.m. m., without updates, President Morales declared himself the winner, which raised suspicions in all the international organizations that acted as observers, especially the Organization of American States (OAS), for which an audit was requested that began on March 31. October, by the OAS and observed by Spain, Mexico and Paraguay.
The Bolivian opposition published a report with irregularities such as erroneous additions of electoral acts, data sharing, and electoral acts with more votes than registered voters. As popular unrest increased, various acts of harassment began in front of the ex-Radisson hotel in La Paz, which even affected members of the Ombudsman's Office when they came to mediate. Even the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), the largest trade union entity in the country and an ally of the Government, also asked Morales to "resign, if necessary" to pacify the country.
Helicopter crash
On Monday, November 4, 2019, at 12:48 local time, the EC-145 helicopter that was transporting Evo Morales from Colquiri to Oruro suffered a mishap that the Bolivian Air Force attributed to a mechanical failure. The pilot had to maneuver an emergency landing attributed to a failure in the tail rotor. Already granted asylum in Mexico, Morales attributed responsibility for this mishap to Commander Jorge Terceros. Morales had gone to inaugurate a road that it joins Caracollo with Colquiri, in the south of the country. On November 23, the Bolivian Air Force rejected Morales' version.
Resignation and offer of asylum
On November 10, 2019, after the publication of a critical report by the OAS on the elections,
Evo Morales declared the renewal of the members of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the call for new national elections. Subsequently, under pressure from various fronts, he announced his resignation as president of Bolivia. That same day, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard offered him political asylum to Morales "in accordance with his tradition of asylum and non-intervention.
After the inauguration of Alberto Fernández as president of Argentina, on December 10, 2019, speculation began that Morales would move to that country. This materialized on December 13, 2019, when Morales arrived in the country where he remained as a political refugee, until November 11, 2020, one day after the new constitutional president of Bolivia took office.
Sports career
As a player
Morales made his official debut as a soccer player with Club Social y Deportivo Litoral, for the first day of the La Paz Football Association tournament, on April 26, 2008, against Municipal, with victory for his team 4 -1, Morales played 37 minutes of the match.
Sports manager
Evo Morales assumed the presidency of Club Atlético Palmaflor on January 19, 2023, after the purchase of the team by the 6 federations of coca growers.
Disputes
Conflict with the Catholic Church
According to reports from Catholic press, President Morales has spoken openly against the Bolivian ecclesiastical hierarchy in public speeches:
The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, said... in the context of the World Social Forum that the Catholic Church in Bolivia is the "enemy principal" of the reforms that his government wants to implement in his country and, he said it was necessary to replace it
The attack of the Bolivian president on the Church is added to another that he made... in La Paz before the foreign press, when he accused the Church of trying to prevent the victory of the Yes to the draft Constitution, which was approved in the referendum held.
In commemoration of the bicentennial of independence of La Paz... President Evo Morales made harsh criticisms of the Catholic Church, accused the "searchs of the Church" of being "instruments of the empire".
Morales has publicly declared himself a "base Catholic" pointing out that his disagreement only goes with Bolivia's ecclesiastical hierarchy. Morales is also criticized by secular sectors who accuse him of "having replaced the Catholic Church with the pachamism" to the detriment of the secularism that the Bolivian constitution advocates.
One of the most tense moments took place in 2008, when Cardinal Julio Terrazas publicly supported an autonomist rebellion by the richest departments in the country, then led by the right-wing opposition.[citation required ] In May 2010, he met with Benedict XVI in Vatican City. In the subsequent press conference, he called for the democratization of church structures, asking the pope to abolish celibacy and approve women's access to the priesthood.
Since the arrival of Pope Francis, Morales has expressed personal admiration for him several times, who also privately referred to the admiration he feels for the Bolivian president in 2013 on the occasion of the mass that brought together more than three million people held in Rio de Janeiro. In July 2015, the Pope visited Bolivia. Among his messages, he asked for forgiveness for the crimes against indigenous people during the conquest.
"I have huge coincidences about capitalism, about Mother Earth, Social Justice. That's why since the moment I met him in Brazil, two years ago, I said, 'Now I have a dad'"
Evo Morales declared in April 2016 when the Vatican found him this time. On this visit, Morales gave Pope Francis a "communist crucifix" hand-carved by Jesuit priest Luis Espinal, assassinated in 1980 in Bolivia.
Complaints of political persecution
Persons of the opposition with judicial processes, mostly related to corruption, have denounced on several occasions having been the object of what they have described as "political persecution" by the government. The government affirms that all the processes are based on the corresponding legal frameworks and carried out by the pertinent institutions, qualifying these assertions of the opposition as false.
Evo Morales revealed in 2018 that he once ordered the arrest for two days of members of the Cochabamba School of Sergeants' band, because they did play the "target" (celebratory tune) when his commander scored a goal and not when he did.
Controversies in the media
In July 2012, the Brazilian magazine Veja denounced in the report "Bolivia, republic of cocaine" the alleged direct connection between the Minister of the Presidency Juan Ramón Quintana and the former Miss Bolivia Jessica Jordan with a Brazilian trafficker imprisoned for drug trafficking, mentioning the document Apreensão de Fugitivo Internacional signed under the pseudonym Carlos. The article denounced the presence of drug traffickers in Bolivia, questioning the degree of knowledge that Evo Morales of the situation, pointing to United Nations data on surplus coca cultivation in Bolivia. In another report in September 2013, the ambassador was identified from Bolivia in Brazil, Jerjes Justiniano as the representative of drug trafficking in that country. In October 2013, the Bolivian government requested a rectification through a notarized letter. In 2015, the same magazine published a new report relating Morales's environment to alleged connections with drug trafficking.
In 2013, in an interview on CNN in Spanish conducted in Bolivia by the Cuban journalist living in the United States, Ismael Cala Morales, he denounced that he was systematically humiliated and misrepresented by the US media and accused the journalist of representing the capitalist system and no to the towns, generating a moment of special tension in the broadcast Ismael Cala commented days later on the Oppenheimer presenta program on CNN where he was invited to present a book about his history that he felt very offended by the president's attitude, adding that he always It's time to deal with difficult people.
The media have highlighted and amplified some errors made by Evo Morales in his speeches, including the claim that the indigenous people of the high plateau had fought against the Roman Empire, or about the female hormones in chicken and how their chicken consumption could lead to deviations.
Costume
The breach of protocol in his locker room generated debate at the beginning of his term. In the act of being sworn in as president in 2006, he broke the protocol and customs of many years by wearing a jacket with Andean motifs, without lapels and without wearing the "traditional tie".
The use of the sweater in his meeting with King Juan Carlos, with the president of the Spanish government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, with businessmen and specialists in international politics during his visit to Spain in January 2006.
The simplicity of the garment was interpreted by some as a gesture of ignorance of the protocol and by others as a gesture of coherence with the personality of the president. The use of the garment produced signs of sympathy in different sectors. The BBC published a report on the use of alpaca wool sweaters in official events entitled: "the new fashion: the Evo sweater".
Gabriela Zapata Case
Following a complaint about influence peddling, in April 2016, Evo Morales underwent a DNA test to verify whether or not he is the father of a child with his ex-partner Gabriela Zapata (Zapata Case). The courts determined that the minor never existed and a case of trafficking in minors was opened that convicted relatives of President Zapata's ex-partner, finally, he retracted his statements and accused opposition politicians of using it to discredit Evo Morales.
Complaint of rape in 2020
In August 2020, Morales was denounced by the Vice Ministry of Transparency in the Áñez government, after receiving an anonymous complaint from a young woman, of whom she had a “sentimental relationship with Juan Evo Morales Ayma and would have become pregnant, when he was 15 years and five months old". The then President Áñez mentioned that "they are two cases of pedophilia and that they shame the country". With the return of MAS to power in November 2020, the case did not prosper.
Persona non grata and subsequent ban on entry into Peru
In November 2021, the Foreign Relations Commission of the Peruvian Congress declared Evo Morales persona non grata for "his negative political activism in Peru." In the considerations of a pronouncement by the commission, they state that, since July of that year, Evo Morales held proselytizing meetings in Peru and that he "provides ungrateful statements that warn of a political agenda in accordance with foreign interests." Morales responded to the statement, saying that the people who approved the measure "are not part of racism." interference in social protests" that take place in Peru.
Return from exile
After almost a year in exile, Evo Morales returned to Bolivia together with Álvaro García Linera on November 9, 2020, where they entered through Villazón, from La Quiaca, Argentina; accompanied by the Argentine president Alberto Fernández, who said goodbye to him at the border. they passed through his hometown of Orinoca, accompanied by a caravan of approximately 800 vehicles, until finally arriving in Chimoré on November 11, 2020, the same day he left the country.
On December 15 of that year, Morales participated in a meeting to nominate a candidate for governor of Santa Cruz. Although Morales initially supported the former mayor of Warnes, Mario Cronenbold, he withdrew his support when Cronebold made statements in favor of not prosecuting Luis Fernando Camacho, an activist who was prominent in the political crisis and resulted in his resignation as president. Instead, he endorsed former Minister of Government Carlos Romero as a candidate for governor. The ad was rejected by those attending the meeting who shouted calls for renewal. The discontent eventually resulted in a person throwing a plastic chair at Morales in what was dubbed the "sillazo".
In popular culture
Tributes
In homage to Evo, a town in Bolivia adopted his name: Puerto Evo Morales.
Literature
In the postmodern novel titled United States of Bananas (2011) written by Giannina Braschi, Evo Morales and Hugo Chávez are heroic characters who help the Puerto Rican people to liberate themselves from the United States.
Dodges
Alfredo Rodríguez published the book Evadas, which includes phrases, some of them absurd, attributed to Evo Morales.
Awards and distinctions
Since his ascension to the presidency in 2006, Morales has been distinguished with various awards and honors. Different houses of study around the world distinguished him with Doctorates Honoris Causa: University of Hansei, National University Siglo XX , the National University of La Plata, the National University of Comahue, the National University of San Juan, and the Autonomous University of Zacatecas. At the national level, it also received distinctions from the Public University of El Alto and the University of the Valley.
Morales has received decorations from various states such as the necklace of the Order of the Liberator awarded by Venezuela in 2006, the Decoration of the Order of the Fifth Golden Sun awarded by Guatemala, the Medal of Honor of the Peruvian Congress, gold medal of the President of the Italian Republic, awarded by the Pío Manzú Center, UN World Hero of Mother Earth, the indigenous peoples of the Venezuelan state of Zulia decorated him with the order «Great Cacique Yaurepara. In his country, the oil workers gave them the "Insignia de Oro" for the nationalization of hydrocarbons.