Opposition walk out of Morales' speech (Evo gave a four-and-a-half-hour speech.. Nature calls? No.)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 1/22/07 | Alvara Zuazo - ap

[NormsRevenge]

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Opposition lawmakers marched out of Congress in protest Monday during a four-and-a-half-hour speech by Evo Morales marking his first year in office as South America's first indigenous president.

In Monday's address, Morales recalled being expelled from Congress in 2002 on charges he'd incited violence as leader of Bolivia's coca growers' union, a post he still holds.

He slyly called Sen. Luis Vasquez, who was president of the House when it voted to expel him, "my best campaign manager." Deputies of Vasquez's party, the main opposition group Podemos, then got up and filed out in silence.

Their leaders said Morales had violated an agreement not to verbally attack them in Congress.

Later Monday, at an anniversary rally attended by some 15,000 supporters in La Paz, Morales declared that while 2006 was the year of natural gas "nationalization," this is the year the state will take control of the mining sector.

In the speech to Congress, Morales praised and catalogued his government's achievements — chiefly the renegotiation of natural gas contracts to give the state the lion's share of revenue — while criticizing preceding administrations as crooks who bilked the nation.

He boasted that in boosting the government's share of annual gas revenues from $240 million when he took office to $1.6 billion, he'd obliged foreign oil companies to "line up, signing the contracts ... like an employee of the state."

Morales also remarked that it would be difficult to oust him before his five-year term ends. Morales' opponents, he said, "should be worried because this little Indian won't be leaving easily."

Morales, who won office in December 2005 with 54 percent of the vote, remains popular among Bolivia's poor mostly indigenous majority. However, a new poll in the newspaper La Razon found his popularity has dropped in cities to 59 percent from 74 percent when he was elected.

Morales made repeated references to aid received from his leftist allies Venezuela and Cuba, whose leaders are also known for long-winded speeches, but also mentioned aid from the United States.

And he also noted that his government has destroyed 20 square miles of coca, the basis of cocaine but also a plant with traditional religious and medicinal uses locally.

He did not mention his recent decision to increase coca cultivation in his political base, the central Chapare region, which upset the U.S. government.

The U.N. estimates Bolivian coca production at 100 square miles, just over twice the area permitted by Bolivian law.

__

AP writer Frank Bajak in La Paz contributed to this report.

[NormsRevenge]

Bolivia's president Evo Morales waves as he leaves National Congress after delivering a speech to mark the first anniversary of his government in La Paz, Monday, Jan. 22, 2007. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

[lqclamar]

I just said it on the Hugo Chavez thread, so let's make it a twofer. Bolivia needs a Pinochet.

[happygrl]

Maybe they had to go to the bathroom.....