Understanding Evo Morales

Part A:

Juan Evo Morales Ayma, known by many as Evo, was born on October 26, 1959 in Orinoca, Oruro. His father Dionisio Morales Choque and mother Maria Mamani had in total seven children, two of whom didn’t survive past childhood. His upbringing will later become clear foreshadowing of the way in which he would rule. The house he grew up in was an adobe house, no more than ten by thirteen feet, which had a straw roof. He began working with his father harvesting sugar cane in Argentina at age six and by age twelve he helped his father herd llamas from Oruro to Independencia, a province of Cochabamba. While continuing to herd llamas as a means of making a living, he organized a soccer team and was elected technical director of selection for the canton’s team only two years later at age sixteen. Evo then moved to Oruro in order to attend high school and paid the bills by laying bricks, baking and playing trumpet in the Royal Imperial Band. Although he attended Beltran Avila High School, he was not able to finish his schooling and completed mandatory military service in La Paz.

Evo Morales’ term as president of Bolivia reflects his childhood of hard work and perseverance. In an American’s eyes, it is easy to the see the negative effects of a drug such as cocaine. Evo Morales’ main fight was protecting the farmers of the coca plant, which is the origin of the drug cocaine. As he grew up working hard in the fields farming such plants as coca, he was able to relate with the many people whose lively hood revolved around the farming of the profitable plant. Although it is not documented that he is aware of the negative effects that any kind of drug has on not only the country that grows it but the world, I argue that he finds th...

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...d; however, that he received official power at the ceremony held in La Paz. Morales declared among his guests that this was an end to the 500 years of colonialism.

Morales was under fire early in his presidency, having conflicts with Governor of Cochabamba Manfred Reyes Villa, on such topics as his supporting of illegal militias. He faced a protest held by the miners who opposed his tax hike to the Complementary Mining Tax. Despite the resistance he faced by many, he survived a recall election called by the National Congress and won the vote with a 67% ‘yes’ vote. Morales survived not only through tough trials and opposition, but he has also survived through an alleged assassination plot. It is said that the assassins planned to bomb a boat on Lake Titicaca as Morales and his cabinet met on April 3, 2009.

Works Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales