Chronicle: Morale's Powerful or People's Fighter?

Today, women in polls and plum jams are active in top positions in politics and business. The newfound pride cannot be lost.

The architect behind this paradigm shift is Evo Morales Ayma. In 2006, he became Bolivia's first indigenous president. Expectations of him were enormous among the many poor who brought him to the electoral victory. By contrast, the country's European-chained elite frowned: How could a former cocoa farmer reverse the development of Latin America's poorest country? Morsning.

I lived in Bolivia myself in the 1980s. The country had just taken its first stumbling democratic steps after decades of military coups and junta. The major privatizations and economic transformation brutally hit the already poor. Recurring strikes paralyzed society. The hyperinflation that prevailed in Bolivia at that time rendered the currency useless in practice, and is used as a frightening example in literature on economics.

That was then.

Evo Morale's name became known to the outside world in 2003. He was a leading force in the sometimes violent protests that forced then-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to head over the country that year. Three years later, Morales himself would be elected president.

I interviewed Evo Morales in La Paz a short time before the election that brought him and his socialist MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo) to power. It was a victory and confident candidate I met. I was impressed with how fast he thought.

In his replies, he kept coming back to the fact that two-thirds of Bolivians were outside the economy; namely, the indigenous population. He would change that, he said. Good luck, I thought.

During the 14 years that Evo Morales has been President so far, Bolivia's economy has flourished, measured by Latin American dimensions. Favorable gas and mineral price increases, Bolivia's main export commodities, have given the country an average growth of 4.5 percent over the past 10 years.

Surrounding countries have cast bright glances at the once so hopeless neighbor. And Bolivia's wealth has been distributed; more than 1.2 million Bolivians, about 10 percent of the population, have been raised from poverty to middle class under Morale's rule.

In addition, the country has undergone a major improvement in infrastructure. The road network has been expanded and equipped. Bolivia has launched its first satellite in space. Inflation is kept in check. No wonder Morales has been re-elected twice. And now, of all things, to judge a third.

But despite Evo Morale's success, he is today more challenged than ever. The reasons are several. After sitting in power for three terms, or for 14 years, many Bolivians believe it is enough.

Morales has thus been blamed for imperfection when he refused to accept a distant time limit for the presidency - despite the Bolivians voting for such a limit in 2016. The Supreme Court, which many see as Morale's right hand, has ruled that such a time limit would violate Morale's political rights. .

When thousands of fires raged in the Amazon in eastern Bolivia in August, environmental groups blamed Morales for contributing to the disaster through the law he introduced in July that is believed to have encouraged landowners to burn vegetation to create pasture. Morales refused to withdraw the law despite the worst fires in the memory of the people, and instead blamed them on drought and harsh winds.

Accusations of power and corruption have revived after the October 20 presidential election.

The debate about how the electoral commission inexplicably stopped voting, and Morale's unexpected victory in the first round of voting, helps to draw a picture of a president who appears to have been drunk by power, and refuses to release it.

After a fourth term, Evo Morales will have been in power for almost 20 years.

But the image of Morales has more dimensions. No former president in this country has succeeded in creating and distributing wealth like former co-grower Evo Morales Ayma.

The President has also managed to create a sense of pride and participation in the country's previously mocked indigenous people. The number of polls and plum stops in politics and business speak their clear language.