Power hungry

Bolivian President Evo Morales went on a hunger strike last Thursday for a new election law that would allow him to run for a second five-year term.

According to international reports, Morales stopped eating last Thursday.

“The president's condition is stable,'' Health Minister Ramior Tapia told reporters on Monday, adding that Morales was undergoing medical checks three times a day.

The opposition-controlled Senate is blocking a Bill that would give greater political power to Bolivia's indigenous majority, to which Morales belongs.

A key point of contention has been the opposition's insistence that Bolivia's manual voter registration system be replaced with a digitised biometric system using fingerprints, photographs and other personal data.

Morales said over the weekend his government had no objection to a new biometric system provided that election authorities guaranteed it could be installed in time for the December vote.

Morales is headstrong and openly speaks his mind.

Bolivia has a very strong Indian presence, and ethnic divisions run deep. Morales, who in his youth was a llama herder and trumpet player in a band, has played a leading role in the indigenous struggle and the conflicts between coca farmers and US-backed drug eradication programmes.

In the 2002 elections, his campaign received a healthy boost when the US ambassador in Bolivia, Manuel Rocha, warned that Washington could cut off aid if Bolivians chose candidates such as Morales.

The comments reinforced Morales's position among certain sectors.

“I am not a drug trafficker,'' he once told the media. “I am a coca grower. I cultivate coca leaf, which is a natural product. I do not refine [it into] cocaine, and neither cocaine nor drugs have ever been part of the Andean culture.''

He is not only against the US-backed coca eradication programmes.

He also seeks some form of national control over Bolivia's huge gas reserves — the second largest in the region.
Bolivians are divided over Morales.

Some believe he is a dangerous leader who could shut down Bolivia and isolate it internationally, pushing the nation further into poverty.

But for others he brings hope, he is someone who can open the horizon of a better future in South America's poorest country.

Morales claims to have once gone without food for 18 days in his time as a union leader.

–With inputs from www.bbc.co.uk