Word: bolivia
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...Morales once quipped that the coca leaf should be Bolivia's "new national flag." It almost looks as if he has fulfilled his prediction as he parties into the night wearing coca-leaf wreaths during the weeks leading up to his Jan. 22 inauguration as Bolivia's President. The leftist Morales, 46, won a stunning landslide in last month's election in no small part because he pledged to legalize far more cultivation of coca, which Aymara Indians like him have chewed for centuries for traditional medicinal purposes and which the U.S. has tried for decades to eradicate in Bolivia...
...Yankee baiting is part of Morales' stated intention to be the U.S.'s "worst nightmare." He flatters himself, given that Bolivia is, after Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. But the Bush Administration has reason to be spooked. Morales' win has helped build momentum for a resurgence of leftist and often anti-U.S. candidates around Latin America. At least nine presidential races are slated for the region this year, and leftists could win at least five--including those in the two most populous countries, Brazil and Mexico, as well as in coca producers like Peru and Ecuador. Leftists...
...Bolivia, Morales got his boost by being the enemy of the enemy. In 2002 the former coca growers' union chief and head of the Movement Toward Socialism Party was just another presidential candidate--until the U.S. threatened to cut economic aid to Bolivia if Morales won. That backfired, catapulting Morales into a runoff vote he narrowly lost. The often violent demonstrations that followed led to the resignation of two successive Bolivian Presidents. But now Morales faces his own unrest. His economically shaky plans to nationalize Bolivia's natural-gas reserves--which are South America's second largest and coveted...
...teenage girls about condoms to prevent AIDS; but in Tanzania they're encouraged to. How you cut an umbilical cord can determine whether a baby risks a fatal infection, but every culture has its own traditions. They cut with a coin for luck in Nepal and a stone in Bolivia, where they think if you use a razor blade the child will grow up to be a thief. There is no one solution to fit all countries, and so the model the Gates Foundation and Bono have embraced pulls in everyone, at every level. Think globally. Act carefully. Prove what...
...Altough Morales, who leads voter polls with about 36%, has made bashing Washington a centerpiece of his campaign, he may not be able to keep his populist promises. The U.S. campaign to eliminate coca may be widely unpopular in Bolivia, where chewing the leaf is deeply entrenched in the culture, but by legalizing its cultivation Morales would risk losing the more than $200 million in essential aid Bolivia receives from Washington. Similarly, while it may be politically popular to call for nationalization of natural gas reserves, that would likely alienate the U.S. and other multinational firms that Bolivia needs...