Evo won't play puppet prez to US interests

The White House isn't going to like this. Newly elected Bolivian president Evo Morales has thrown down the gauntlet in a speech to a civic organization. I Believe Only In The Power Of The People by Evo Morales; December 24, 2005. You really must read it all for yourself but here's a couple of random grafs.

It must be said, compañeras and compañeros, that we must serve the social and popular movements rather than the transnational corporations. I am new to politics; I had hated it and had been afraid of becoming a career politician. But I realized that politics had once been the science of serving the people, and that getting involved in politics is important if you want to help your people. By getting involved, I mean living for politics, rather than living off of politics. We have coordinated our struggles between the social movements and political parties, with the support of our academic institutions, in a way that has created a greater national consciousness. That is what made it possible for the people to rise up in these recent days.

When we speak of the "defense of humanity," as we do at this event, I think that this only happens by eliminating neoliberalism and imperialism. But I think that in this we are not so alone, because we see, every day that anti-imperialist thinking is spreading, especially after Bush's bloody "intervention" policy in Iraq. Our way of organizing and uniting against the system, against the empire's aggression towards our people, is spreading, as are the strategies for creating and strengthening the power of the people.

...We have no other choice, compañeros and compañeras ­ if we want to defend humanity we must change system, and this means overthrowing US imperialism.

I'm not entirely comfortable with the rhetoric or the policies of the Chavez, Morales, Castro triad but neither am I alarmed. They speak of economic resistance, not armed conflict and at least the first two should be afforded the respect due to democratically elected leaders.

In any event, it will be worth watching how this "power of three" develops and I have great hopes for Evo's postive impact on the war on some drugs in a post at Last One Speaks.

Update: I'm not the only one with high hopes for the Morales admininstration. His victory is being hailed among indigenous groups all over the Americas as a omen of better times ahead for the 33 to 40 million indigenous people in Latin America who have suffered poverty and discrimination under imperialist rulers.