As expected, Evo Morales was victorious in the Bolivian Presidential election.
Read the New York Times' (slanted as always) coverage here.
Morales comes from a poor, indigenous background, growing up as a llama herder and a coca grower, eventually becoming the head of the Cocaleros, or coca-growers union.
He won by much more than he was projected - I saw polls Sunday predicting 32 percent of the vote for him (I think they were taken in late November). It appears that he has won much more than that, but results won't be official for a few days.
This election makes Morales, as far as I know, the first formal representative of a union of producers of a prohibited crop to become the head of a State.
Morales' election will change the international war on drugs in ways we can't even suppose at the moment.
He's also the first indigenous President of Bolivia, which is one of the poorest (and on-and-off coca dependant) nations of Latin America.
This has been Morales' rhetoric about his drug policy for a while now. I don't know if he actually takes prohibition seriously or if it was just to temporarily pacify Washington, but either way, drug policy reformers should keep their eyes on Bolivia for the next couple of weeks.
“zero cocaine, zero narco-trafficking, but not zero coca”
Coverage in the Sydney Morning Herald
1 comment:
I want to call this irony, but I know better:
When I clicked on the link to read the New York Times article again, I got an ONDCP ad.
I've been saying this for a couple of years now, but I'll say it again: Outlets which accept ONDCP ads have slanted coverage of drug policy issues at times when the ads are running.
I mean, come on, how can a news outlet cover this issue and make you click through prohibitionist propaganda before you even get to the prohibitionist propaganda?
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