Morales wins, but Bolivia remains divided

A bold gamble by President Evo Morales to break a political deadlock and re-energize his leftist revolution paid off as Bolivia's voters resoundingly endorsed him in a recall referendum. Bolivians voted on Aug. 10 to keep Morales in office, with unofficial returns giving him a victory even larger than the one that put him in office more than two years ago. More than 63 percent of voters in this bitterly divided Andean nation ratified the mandate of Bolivia's first indigenous leader and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia, in the vote. Morales had sought the referendum to reaffirm his popular mandate and to challenge governors who have frustrated his bid to improve the plight of Bolivia's long-suppressed indigenous majority. His leftist agenda has met with bitter opposition in the landlocked country's unabashedly capitalistic east, where protesters blockaded airports last week to keep Morales and his ministers from touching down for campaign visits. Morales' aim was also to delegitimize the opposition's attempts to blockade his push for a new constitution to transform Bolivia and increase the power of its indigenous majority. The radical reformer, a former coca farmer, hopes the landslide will revive his stalled effort to "refound" South America's poorest country as a socialist state to benefit the long-neglected indigenous masses in the western highlands. The new constitution, if approved, would extend the powers of the central government and allow Morales to run for a second consecutive term. "What happened today is important, not only for Bolivians but for all Latin Americans," Morales told a cheering crowd from the balcony of the presidential palace in La Paz. "I dedicate this victory to all the revolutionaries in the world." But that doesn't mean Bolivia is entering a new era of reconciliation. Fierce opposition in Bolivia's relatively prosperous eastern lowlands has provoked turmoil and political violence. Despite his solid win–improving on the 54 percent support that elected him in December 2005–Morales is facing a polarized country. In the eastern lowlands, where the opposition governors rule, his authority was just as roundly rejected. The divisions are ethnic, economic and historic. The president relies on massive support among Bolivia's indigenous majority, which accounts for six out of 10 of the country's inhabitants. They live mostly in the Andes to the west and have become increasingly assertive under Morales in their demands for a greater share of the national wealth. But the elite, mostly of European descent, sitting on much of that wealth in the eastern lowlands in the form of farmland and gas fields, are just as determined to resist. The governors of the states of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Pando and Beni overnight celebrated their own strong wins in the referendum. Ruben Costas, of Santa Cruz, struck out in his speech against the president's "dictatorship" and vowed Morales would not be able to step foot in his state. Of the other four state governors whose jobs were also on the line in the plebiscite, three were seen to have been ousted–two of them Morales critics, and one an ally. Another Morales ally was reconfirmed to office. One of the opposition leaders rejected in the referendum, Manfred Reyes of the central state of Cochabamba, has vowed to fight any attempt to make him stand down. Bloody street clashes broke out in the province last year when Morales supporters tried to oust Reyes. Natural gas and precious metals revenues have boomed since Morales nationalized the gas fields in 2006 and renegotiated extraction contracts. Bolivia now keeps about 85 percent of these profits, and combined with rising global energy and mineral prices, exports have nearly doubled since 2005 to US$4.7 billion last year. "What the Bolivian people have expressed with their votes today is the consolidation of the process of change," Morales said. "We are here to keep advancing in the recovery of our natural resources, the consolidation of nationalization, and the state takeover of companies."