Evo Morales, Bolivia’s left-wing President, proclaimed a “triumph of the anti-capitalists and the anti-colonialists” after being re-elected for a third term at the weekend. He dedicated his victory to Fidel Castro and the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
The former coca farmer’s landslide win of 60 per cent was due to his success in promoting economic growth while at the same time funnelling dividends from booming gas prices and other commodities to welfare programmes that have lifted half a million people out of poverty.
Mr Morales, 55, was the first indigenous president Bolivia had ever elected when he came to power in 2006. While having numerous spats with the United States, including expelling the US ambassador and the Drug Enforcement Agency for allegedly conspiring against