Evo Morales
Evo Morales
80th President of Bolivia
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 22, 2006
Vice President Álvaro García Linera
Preceded by
Eduardo Rodríguez
Born
26 October 1959
(1959-10-26)
Orinoca, Oruro, Bolivia
Political party MAS
Religion
Roman Catholic[1] /
Indigenous religions
Juan Evo Morales Ayma (born October 26,
1959 in Orinoca, Oruro), popularly known as
Evo (pronounced [ˈeβo]), has been the Presid-
ent of Bolivia since 2006. He has been de-
clared the country’s first fully indigenous
head of state in the 470 years since the Span-
ish Conquest.[2]
Morales was first elected President of
Bolivia on December 18, 2005, with 53.7% of
the popular vote in an election that saw the
participation of 84.5% of the national elector-
ate. [3] Two and a half years later he substan-
tially increased this majority; in a recall ref-
erendum on August 14, 2008, more than two
thirds of voters (67.4%) voted to keep him in
power. [4]
Morales is the leader of a political party
called the Movement for Socialism (Movimi-
ento al Socialismo, with the Spanish acronym
MAS, meaning "more"). MAS was involved in
social protests such as the gas conflict and
the Cochabamba protests of 2000, along with
many other groups, that are collectively re-
ferred to as "social movements" in Bolivia.
The MAS aims at giving more power to the
country’s indigenous and poor communities
by means of land reforms and redistribution
of gas wealth.[5]
Morales
is also
titular president of
Bolivia’s cocalero movement — a loose feder-
ation of coca growers’ unions, made up of
campesinos who are resisting the efforts of
the United States government to eradicate
coca in the province of Chapare in central
Bolivia.
Background
Morales was born
in the highlands of
Orinoca, Oruro. He is of indigenous Aymara
descent.[6] He was one of seven children
born to Dionisio Morales Choque and Maria
Mamani; only Morales and two of his siblings
survived past childhood.[7] He grew up in an
adobe house with a straw roof that was "no
more than three by four meters."[7] At age
s