Leftist Coca Farmer Is Favorite in Bolivia
As a little boy in Bolivia’s bleak highlands, Evo Morales used to run behind buses to pick up the orange skins and banana peels passengers threw out the windows. Sometimes, he says, it was all he had to eat. Now, holding the lead ahead of Sunday’s presidential election, he’s threatening to be “a nightmare for the government of the United States.” It’s not hard to see why. The 46-year-old candidate is a staunch leftist who counts Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez among his close friends. Moreover, he’s a coca farmer, promising to reverse the U.S.-backed campaign to stamp out production of the leaf that is used to make cocaine. Full Story