Evo Morales is one of the world's most controversial political leaders. His story is extraordinary: poor shepherd-boy, persecuted coca grower, self-professed admirer of Ché Guevara, hero of the anti-globalization movement, and first indigenous president of modern Latin America. The story of the social movement turned political party he is a part of -- the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) -- is also exceptional: originally founded as a splinter of an ultra-right party, it was given as a gift for the coca growers after they had been banned several times for spurious reasons to register their own party, and went on to become an irresistible force for indigenous rights in Bolivia. In this insightful and revealing book, Sven Harten explains the success of the MAS and its wider consequences, showing how Morales has become the symbol for a new political consciousness that has entailed de-stigmatizing indigenous identities. In many ways, the analysis of Morales's political trajectory serves as a mirror for democracy in Bolivia. It reveals the challenge of squaring the rupture with a discredited past with the continuity of democracy and the aim of representing an entire society.

The fascinating Bolivian president Evo Morales is vying with the brash and provocative leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, to be the most influential figure in South American politics today. Since coming into office four years ago, Morales has been intensely critical of the United States, speaking out against the drug war at the United Nations and implementing socialist programs at home, including the nationalization of British Petroleum holdings and other foreign investments. And he has reached out to America's political enemies, including Cuba and Iran. Based on personal interviews and unprecedented access, Sivak traces the rise of Morales from his humble origins in a family of migrant workers to his youth as union organizer and explosion onto the national stage.

An accessible account of Evo Morales's first six years in office, offering analysis of major issues as well as interviews with a wide variety of people, resulting in a valuable primer on Bolivia and Morales's "process of change".

In 2005, Bolivians elected their first indigenous president, Evo Morales. Ushering in a new "democratic cultural revolution," Morales promised to overturn neoliberalism and inaugurate a new decolonized society. Nancy Postero examines the successes and failures in the ten years since Morales's election

Evo Morales is one of the world's most controversial political leaders. His story is extraordinary: poor shepherd-boy, persecuted coca grower, self-professed admirer of Ché Guevara, hero of the anti-globalization movement, and first indigenous president of modern Latin America. The story of the social movement turned political party he is a part of -- the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) -- is also exceptional: originally founded as a splinter of an ultra-right party, it was given as a gift for the coca growers after they had been banned several times for spurious reasons to register their own party, and went on to become an irresistible force for indigenous rights in Bolivia. In this insightful and revealing book, Sven Harten explains the success of the MAS and its wider consequences, showing how Morales has become the symbol for a new political consciousness that has entailed de-stigmatizing indigenous identities. In many ways, the analysis of Morales's political trajectory serves as a mirror for democracy in Bolivia. It reveals the challenge of squaring the rupture with a discredited past with the continuity of democracy and the aim of representing an entire society.

This volume reflects on the first administration of Evo Morales and his party, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), the history of the movement, and Bolivian politics and society under the MAS since 2005. Morales has been widely touted as the first indigenous leader of a South American country since the European Conquest. The book originated in a November 2009 symposium, held when Bolivia's presidential elections were imminent, with the support of the Bolivia Information Forum at the Institute of the Americas (ISA) in London. It includes chapters from contributors to the symposium and additional essays commissioned from other leading experts. Contents 1. The Historical Background to the Rise of the Movimiento al Socialismo, 1952-2005 2. Towards a Traditional Party? Internal Organisation and Change in the MAS in Bolivia 3. Bolivia's New Constitution and Its Implications 4. Electoral Validation for Morales and the MAS (1999-2010) 5. The Bolivianisation of Washington-La Paz Relations: Evo Morales' Foreign Policy in Historical Context 6. Pachakuti in Bolivia, 2008-10: A Personal Diary Contributors include Herbert Klein (Columbia University and Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University), Sven Harten (International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group), Willem Assies (Wageningen University, the Netherlands), John Crabtree (Latin American Centre, Oxford University), Martin Sivak (author of four books about contemporary Bolivia), and James Dunkerley (Queen Mary, University of London).

Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president, won reelection three times on a leftist platform championing Indigenous rights, anti-imperialism, and Bolivian control over the country's natural gas reserves. In Bolivia in the Age of Gas, Bret Gustafson explores how the struggle over natural gas has reshaped Bolivia, along with the rise, and ultimate fall, of the country's first Indigenous-led government. Rethinking current events against the backdrop of a longer history of oil and gas politics and military intervention, Gustafson shows how natural gas wealth brought a measure of economic independence and redistribution, yet also reproduced political and economic relationships that contradicted popular and Indigenous aspirations for radical change. Though grounded in the unique complexities of Bolivia, the volume argues that fossil-fuel political economies worldwide are central to the reproduction of militarism and racial capitalism and suggests that progressive change demands moving beyond fossil-fuel dependence and the social and ecological ills that come with it.