Evo Morales

[Cubby]

I have known about him since 2002. Here is a Wiki article for those of you who don't know about him:

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

He is despised by the U.S. for opposing the Drug War.  A recent article (I can't remember if it was in the NY Times or online) said he is the frontrunner for the upcoming election, the third in 3 years I believe. In the 2002 one he came in second place.

Do you think he will be assassinated before the next Bolivian Election? Now that he has a chance at winning I am worried he will be because he has made public statements supporting nationalization of the oil and gas industries and he would be a leader somewhat in the mold of Hugo Chavez, but also like Nelson Mandela in that he'd be the first of Bolivia's oppressed natives to be President. He is seen as anti-American which historically is a dangerous position to take in South America.

[Cubby]

nah. He'll win and the Bush admin will just whine a ton.

I'd love to see the guy win, he rocks. Yet another hardcore left wing extremist victory in Latin America. Far left wing extremists already have Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and soon will have Mexico. It'd be great to add Bolivia to that list.

Hopefully you're right. I'll admit that his economic policies might not be totally sound but the Left Wing wave across South America is one of the few liberal bright spots left in international politics.

Did anyone read the Time Magazine article last week on Hugo Chavez? It was very biased and since its the first many Americans have heard of him, obviously it was trying to create a bad impression. To scare people it linked him to Castro in every paragraph and also said Chavez is a threat to our oil supply. The piece seems like the anti-Saddam articles the mainstream media published in the months before the Iraq War.