Evo Morales
Evo Morales
Juan Evo Morales Ayma, popularly known as Evo, is a Bolivian politician and cocalero activist who has served as President of Bolivia since 2006. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come from the indigenous population, his administration has focused on the implementation of leftist policies, poverty reduction, and combating the influence of the United States and multinational corporations in Bolivia. A democratic socialist, he is the head of the Movement for Socialismparty...
NationalityBolivian
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth26 October 1959
CityOrinoca, Bolivia
CountryBolivia (Plurinational State of)
The contracts were signed when a barrel of oil cost 18.0 or 19.0 dollars, whereas nowadays a barrel is more than 60.0 dollars.
We are going to strengthen relations with state oil companies ... We are going to guarantee that partners have all the right to recover their investment.
Bolivia also depends not only on tin and other minerals, but also depends on the gas and oil. A rational extraction should be made, taking care of the environment. We should give added value to this natural resource, and generate revenue to fight poverty with more resources, that come from natural resources.
In Iraq, [American administration] said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction endangering mankind. With this pretext, the U.S. intervened militarily, and all they did is take control over oil fields, and oil wells.
Venezuela's oil is unimportant for Bolivia. We are not dependent on Venezuela. We complement each other. Venezuela shares its wealth with other countries, but that doesn't make us subordinate.
It is something we will have to deal with. We will deepen investigation and the Justice will have to try army officers under charges of treason .
We were right when we denounced the episode and when we tried to impeach the Commander in Chief (President Eduardo Rodriguez). The facts prove now that we were right.
In 2006, I entered the presidential palace in the main square of La Paz as the first indigenous president of Bolivia. Our government, under the slogan 'Bolivia Changes,' is committed to ending the colonialism, racism and exclusion that many of our people lived under for many centuries.
I don't mind being a permanent nightmare for the United States.
It's easy for people in an air-conditioned room to continue with the policies of destruction of Mother Earth. We need instead to put ourselves in the shoes of families in Bolivia and worldwide that lack water and food and suffer misery and hunger.
The most important thing is the indigenous people are not vindictive by nature. We are not here to oppress anybody - but to join together and build Bolivia, with justice and equality.
We are not a government of mere promises, we follow through on what we propose and what the people demand.
The people who are responsible must be punished harshly. Disarming a country and its armed forces really is a crime.
I forgive the people in the White House for their numerous humiliations and accusations. I forgive because we must embark, through dialogue, on the search for peace and social justice.