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Geopolitics: Radical chic is thriving in the whirl of parties at the United Nations these days, and no one is being courted more solicitously as one of the downtrodden than Evo Morales of Bolivia. You remember "radical chic," don't you? The 1960s and 1970s phenomenon, described by Tom Wolfe in his "Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak-Catchers" tells how New York's glitterati threw black-tie parties to court supposedly "real" revolutionaries — like Black Panthers, Puerto Rican separatists or Indian liberationists — in a bid to feel "authentic." It's been a long time, but radical chic isn't dead. Which explains why...

As Bolivian President Evo Morales tries to implement a controversial "agrarian revolution", the BBC's Damian Kahya visits the east of the country to talk to both settlers and landowners. Settler building a house (Photo: Amy de Wit) The settlers say they will not give up and are still building houses Land is a cause of conflict now in Bolivia. A recent survey by the Catholic Church here found that just 50,000 families own almost 90% of Bolivia's productive land. Evo Morales, the country's first indigenous president, was elected earlier this year on a platform promising to redistribute land. Few...

(English-language translation) During a visit to [Guatemala], Bolivian President Evo Morales yesterday denounced the existence of a plot by the United States to destabilize his government's policies. Morales affirmed during a press conference: "There is a plot, an aggression from the United States so that the policies that seek a democratic change to achieve justice and equality fail." Regarding the strikes held last week in four of the nine regions of Bolivia, the President said: "It has been against our policies, against the nationalization of the hydrocarbons, against the Constitutional Assembly, against the new land policy, of agrarian revolution." He...

As the chasm separating Latin American nations deepens, worrisome events in Bolivia reveal how the dictator-rulers of Cuba and Venezuela operate. To understand the Bolivian situation, it helps to look over the Latin American scene and analyze the roles of its principal actors. Fidel Castro took power in Cuban coup forty-seven years ago. Shortly after assuming power, he declared himself a Marxist, imposed a Communist regime and reduced the unfortunate island to misery. Meanwhile, Castro enjoys a personal fortune calculated at $900 million. He was recently rated the world’s seventh richest ruler. His health appears to be failing and he...

Bolivia is on fire. The fiery democratic revolutionary babes of Santa Cruz are no more. Now, it’s angry citizens of The Media Luna - four provinces, led by Santa Cruz, fighting to the last man against the brutal expansionary communism of Evo Morales’ Bolivia. This is going well beyond peaceful demonstrations to the first stages of insurgency and maybe war. Revolutionary war. They are fighting tyranny. They’re fighting with axes, fists, and cudgels, in an action that began with a general strike Friday in four provinces against Morales’ effort to rewrite the constitution to maximize his own power. Attendence was...

(English-language translation) HAVANA - Cuban President Fidel Castro, who is recovering from intestinal surgery, met for two hours with his Bolivian colleague Evo Morales in this capital. The meeting was held in an "environment of extraordinary friendship", said an official note read by "Mesa Redonda" television program host Randy Alonso while images were being shown of the Andean leader arriving at the island's José Martí Airport. Morales, a political ally of Cuba and personal friend of the bearded Cuban leader, was received at the foot of his airplane's stairs by Army general and provisional President Raúl Castro and other high-level...

Latin America: Bitterly refusing to concede the presidential election he lost, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador vows to destabilize Mexico as payback for his defeat. The government will have to deal with him firmly. And that's a shame, because the final call, set for Sept. 6, on Mexico's July 2 presidential election should be pure celebration. The country should rightly recognize its free and fair vote, its emerging new parties and its solid institutions — all of which have come about in a mere decade of democracy from a one-party state — and winner Felipe Calderon should be able to begin...

There is something about Bolivian President Evo Morales that doesn't inspire confidence in a prosperous, democratic future for his country. And it's not only the fashion statement he makes with the striped sweater he wears like a uniform. For a good many Bolivians it's the erosion of civil liberties under his leadership. Just ask Marcela Nogales, a 47-year-old mother of two pre-teens who holds a master's degree in auditing and financial control from Bolivian Catholic University in a joint program with Harvard University. Mrs. Nogales, who was the general manager of the Central Bank of Bolivia for five years until...

Excerpt - LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP)--Bolivia's former president says Washington is refusing to clarify that he had nothing to do with the secret removal of anti-aircraft missiles to U.S. soil - an incident that has him facing treason charges under Bolivia's new leftist government. "They ought not to be leaving us hanging," said Eduardo Rodriguez, a former Supreme Court chief who stepped in as caretaker president last year after two Bolivian leaders were ousted by street protests. He organized December elections won by the radical leftist Evo Morales, a remarkably strife-free process for such a polarized nation. Twenty-eight Chinese-made shoulder-fired...

Bolivia's Morales fails to win assembly majority By: Dorothy Kosich Posted: '03-JUL-06 04:00' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2004 RENO--(Mineweb.com) Despite claims of a growing spread of an anti-neoliberal movement in Latin America, both Bolivian President Evo Morales and Mexican presidential candidate Manuel Lopez Obrador failed to score resounding victories Sunday in their respective national elections. Mexico's presidential election was considered too close to call late Sunday night. Meanwhile Morales' plans to exert more state control over the nation's economy sustained a setback Sunday when his party failed to win control of the constituent assembly, slated to redraft Bolivia's constitution. In fact,...

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Students attending a conflict resolution course in this politically tumultuous Andean nation got some unexpected extracurricular experience when Bolivia's leftist government accused the program's sponsor of being a front for U.S. spies.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales visited a coca-growing region on Saturday to open a Venezuelan-funded factory where coca leaves will be made into legal products such as tea and soft drinks. Morales rose in politics as the leader of Bolivia's coca farmers and part of his anti-drug policy is to encourage licit uses for coca -- the plant used to make cocaine, which is also revered by Andean peoples for its medicinal properties. "Manufacturing coca (products) doesn't do any harm because coca isn't a drug," Morales told hundreds of coca farmers gathered in a stadium in...

LA PAZ, Bolivia - President Evo Morales celebrated the birthday of Che Guevara Wednesday, the first time a top Bolivian leader has paid tribute to the revolutionary who was executed in the Andean nation four decades ago. Surrounded by Cuban and Venezuelan officials, Morales observed the 78th anniversary of Guevara's birth, using the occasion to praise his close allies President Fidel Castro of Cuba and President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Guevara, an Argentine, launched an armed revolt in 1966 to bring communism to Bolivia after helping lead the 1959 Cuban Revolution that ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista and thrust Castro into...

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia -- Adriana Gil braved death threats, public insults and social ostracism to campaign for Evo Morales in Bolivia's conservative eastern region during the presidential election last year. She now feels "betrayed" by the ruling Movement Toward Socialism, which expelled her and invaded her family's land.

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Leftist President Evo Morales launched a sweeping land reform plan on Saturday by handing over roughly 9,600 square miles of state-owned land to poor Indians. Morales marked the start of his "agrarian revolution" just weeks after nationalizing Bolivia's natural gas industry, giving foreign-owned energy companies six months to negotiate new contracts or leave. Thousands of Indians gathered in the eastern city of Santa Cruz to receive land titles, chanting "Evo!" and waving Bolivian and rainbow whipala flags, which represent 500 years of Indian struggle. "We want to change Bolivia together," Morales told the crowd. "Getting back...

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told Bolivian forces to be on guard against conspirators, suggesting again that President Bush is plotting against the country's left-leaning government. Chavez's comments during his weekly radio and television program Sunday were his latest response to Bush's remarks last week that he was "concerned about the erosion of democracy" in Bolivia and Venezuela. "When the U.S. president said a few days ago that he was worried because democracy is eroding in Bolivia it's because, you can be sure, he has a plan against Bolivia," Chavez said without elaborating. He urged "his brothers,...

SHINAHOTA, Bolivia - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who often accuses the U.S. of plotting to overthrow him, warned Bolivia's president Friday he could be facing the same prospect. Chavez spoke during a visit to the heart of Bolivia's coca-growing region with Bolivian leader Evo Morales and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage — a trip designed to bolster trade ties among three leftist governments. Chavez responded to President Bush's comment Monday that he was "concerned about the erosion of democracy" in Bolivia and Venezuela. "If the U.S. president says he's worried the democracy is eroding in Bolivia, this simply means that...

Vienna digs out its Che Guevara T-shirt for ChavezBy Colin Freeman in Vienna(Filed: 14/05/2006) The Che Guevara T-shirts and berets were out in force, as were the squads of Austrian riot police in case "la revolucion" finally kicked off.Staid old Vienna, where rebellion doesn't normally go beyond the odd parking offence, smelt the whiff of revolution yesterday as thousands of anti-globalisation activists gathered to hear the wisdom of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and his Bolivian ally, Evo Morales.Fresh from scolding world leaders at Vienna's European Union-Latin American summit last week, the Left-wing crusaders were invited to address an "alternative" summit...

(English-language translation) MADRID - [Guatemala] President Oscar Berger told the Spanish EFE news agency that his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez’s interfering in the internal affairs of other countries “will not be tolerated” and warned of a risk of polarization in Latin America. Berger was received yesterday in this city by the Spanish monarchs and will travel today from there to Vienna to participate in the European Union - Latin America Summit. The President expressed his concern, which he has shared with his Salvadoran counterpart Elías Antonio Saca, over the political influence Chávez may exert on countries in the region through...

Bolivia's President Evo Morales has met with Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala ahead of Peru's upcoming presidential runoff election. The meeting between the two leftist political leaders took place Monday in the Bolivian town of Copacabana near the Peruvian border. Mr. Morales invited Mr. Humala to attend the inauguration of an eye clinic in the town, funded by money from Cuba. Cuban President Fidel Castro's government has been training Bolivian eye doctors to provide treatment at the new clinic. Hundreds of Bolivians greeted Mr. Morales and Mr. Humala at the ceremony, chanting revolutionary slogans and waving Cuban and Bolivian flags....