Posted on 11/14/2005 10:32:43 PM PST by ncountylee
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — The leader of Bolivia's coca farmers is running neck-and-neck with a center-right former president ahead of next month's presidential election, according to an opinion poll published Monday.
Leftist congressman Evo Morales has 30.7 percent support to Jorge Quiroga's 28.7 percent, according to the poll conducted by IPSOS Captura for a group of Bolivia's largest newspapers and television stations. Businessman Samuel Doria Medina lags with 13.9 percent.
The survey's 2 percent margin of error makes the result a technical tie.
Morales has said he would decriminalize coca farming if elected. Coca is used to make cocaine, but it is also has traditional uses among Bolivia's Indians. U.S.-backed efforts to eradicate coca plantations have led to clashes with Andean farmers.
Quiroga wants to keep Bolivia on a free-market track. The Texas A&M alumnus promises to attract foreign investment and to be tough on coca-leaf farmers who sell to the cocaine industry.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Guess who Chavez is supporting. This election will be important to us. IMO
Better get Peanutboy to go down there and give his blessing to this foregone conclusion.
| Bully for Bolivia ^ |
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| Posted by Kitten Festival On News/Activism ^ 10/25/2005 4:06:02 PM CDT · 7 replies · 275+ views Investor's Business Daily ^ | Oct. 25, 2005 | Staff Latin America: A weekend march by 5,000 Bolivians in favor of a free trade pact with the U.S. got little attention. But it was a clear signal to step up commerce in a troubled region we often don't know what to do about. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. The prospect of a growing free-trade movement, coming from humble factory workers, is startling. It surprised even other Bolivians who often hear anti-free trade rhetoric. After all, just about the only thing we ever hear about Bolivia is that a far-leftist, Evo Morales, leads in the presidential polls for... |
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| Bolivia's Nightmare ^ |
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| Posted by Stultis On News/Activism ^ 12/01/2005 5:01:22 PM CST · 11 replies · 284+ views Tech Central Station ^ | 29 November 2005 | Alvaro Vargas Llosa The forces of Latin American populism are arrayed behind Evo Morales, the former coca grower who toppled two Presidents of Bolivia through violent street action and promises a nationalist revolution if he wins the elections on December 18th. Although he is ahead in the polls, a parliamentary vote will decide who the next President is if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the ballots. But even if Morales does not, the next President, possibly center-right candidate Jorge Quiroga, will be at the mercy of Morales' movement. Unfortunately, Morales is not a character in a Romantic novel by Chateubriand,... |
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Morales has said he would decriminalize coca farming if elected
ttttttttttttttttttttttt
I understand the problem with a potential election of Morales...but why not use the opportunity of a lifetime to send our druggies down there?
Seriously, the result of that would be what for the US? Plunging prices for cocaine?
No doubt Jimmy Carter will certify the election.
Bolivia set for landmark voteThe tight race which ends with elections on Sunday pits Evo Morales, 46, a leftist coca farmer who would become Bolivia's first Indian president, against Jorge Quiroga, 45, a conservative former president.
al Jazeera
Sunday 18 December 2005, 7:00 Makka Time, 4:00 GMT
Morales, who holds a slight lead in the polls, is promising to be Washington's "nightmare".
He has vowed to reverse US-backed efforts to eradicate coca fields, and counts Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez among his friends. His election would follow wins by leftists in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Uruguay.
the view from L.A.:
Bully for Bolivia
Investor's Business Daily | Oct. 25, 2005 | Staff
Posted on 10/25/2005 2:06:02 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1509094/posts
Good for Bolivia
It's time someone told the United States what it could do with it's war on some drugs. The United States has no right to tell other countries what to do wiith it's national product.
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