His opposition—a mostly white, conservative establishment centered in the city of Santa Cruz—made several early attempts to oust him, ranging from nationwide strikes to a conspiracy to hire mercenaries to assassinate him. The Bolivian capital sits in a yawning crater in the Andean altiplano, more than twelve thousand feet above sea level.
During the past two decades, the city has boomed. In the slums that cover the sides of the crater, the old adobe houses have been replaced by red brick, and colorful cable cars whiz overhead, ferrying passengers up and down the mountainsides.
In Calacoto, a neighborhood with walled villas and luxury hotels, a travel agency advertised trips to Disney World. To ease inequality, Morales poured money into a universal basic pension, and started cash-transfer systems that encouraged pregnant women to seek health care and families to keep children in school.
His government distributed packages of food with his picture on them and built hospitals and schools with his name on them. His efforts were often theatrical—he liked to visit impoverished towns and hand out money to children—but they were effective. Still, the goals of economic growth and social uplift fitted together uneasily. Instead, Morales had deepened his commitment to mining, gas, and agribusiness.
The left grew frustrated by his emphasis on business and his lack of interest in environmental prerogatives. Then the commodities boom sputtered. During the unrest in November, hundreds of MAS activists converged on his house, on a quiet side street of La Paz, and set it on fire. As we spoke, I became aware that a young woman was listening to us from a chair a dozen feet away. She and Morales occasionally exchanged glances and smiled. At one point, Morales interrupted our conversation to tell my photographer not to take pictures of the woman.
Later, as Morales posed for photographs, she asked me to take her portrait using her phone. She stood with her back to the garden wall, giggling playfully at Morales, who was posing a few feet away.
Although no child ever appeared in public, Morales inflamed speculation by claiming that the baby had died, while the woman insisted that he was alive. In Mexico, Morales seemed insulated from the reality of his situation and oddly unaware of the impression he made. Many MAS loyalists I spoke to complained that he had been increasingly imperious as he extended his time in office, but that aides protected him from consequences.
In , Morales bought a new Presidential jet, for thirty-eight million dollars. Last summer, forest fires blazed through eastern Bolivia, ravaging the wilderness known as La Chiquitania. For weeks, Morales sat idle, refusing to accept international aid and blocking Argentine firefighters from entering the country.
By the time the fires subsided, more than four million acres of forest had been scorched. His desk was entirely bare. The desk overflowed with reports and papers, and a suit hung from a hook on a filing cabinet.
Crayon drawings by a young child were taped to the window. A slim, silver-haired man of fifty-seven, he was dressed in a neatly cut business suit. Everyone suspected that he was the real brains behind Morales. But he would not risk returning home anytime soon—not openly, anyway. Inside, I met with Eva Copa, the president of the Senate. Copa, an ethnic Aymara from El Alto, is thirty-three, with black hair and glasses.
She had assumed a role resembling that of her American equivalent Nancy Pelosi, having to work with a government to which she was deeply opposed. But, Copa explained, she had seen no other way to end the crisis, and ordinary Bolivians were suffering; she herself had young children, and, at the height of the violence, the MAS blockade had kept her from going home to see them for two weeks.
She did not directly criticize Morales, nor did she mention him much. We all know it. They are going to make us pay for it in the next elections, too. Controversially, he led the defense for two members of the Wolfpack, a group of five young men who were accused of a gang rape.
I asked him about the accusations that, even if Morales had committed electoral fraud, the new administration had responded with what amounted to a military putsch. In La Paz, politicians seemed ready for a grudging compromise, but in the indigenous country of the altiplano the mood remained defiant. On a dirt lane outside the museum, I met an ancient woman, who was tending a herd of llamas. The political upheaval of the last year appears to be easing off, but to ensure a stable government, Arequipa says Arce needs to fulfil his promise to build unity, and get to work building strong alliances with politicians, unions and the business community.
You need to recover. Write to Ciara Nugent at ciara. By Ciara Nugent. Related Stories. America Needs to Get Back to Facts. Already a print subscriber? Even as the grassroots resistance to Morales grows, it is clear the new Bolivia crafted under his tenure is thriving. Politics aside, El Alto is prospering, and planning ahead. The city is vibrant and young, with seven in 10 residents under 25 years old. The UPEA now has more than 40, students, and sends professors into the countryside, offering indigenous communities the skills they need in place, avoiding the disruptive migration.
It is also the entrepreneurship capital of the country, with , businesses, 93 percent of them small- and medium-size, said Roberto Alba Monterey, head of an El Alto business development network.
El Alto has become a sort of dry port, the link between the vast indigenous plains and La Paz, nestled in a canyon below, Alba said. This is fertile climate for the architect Mamani, who continues to build himself a future, one Technicolor construction at a time. We met at a job site, and talked over the din of saws and a tiny radio blaring Spanish pop. While plaster-speckled workers looked on, he put a pencil to a white pillar and sketched out, then and there, the details he wanted them to add.
The owner, Aymara like Mamani and the workers, observed and nodded. In due course, as his reputation and his revenue grow, he wants to build a museum in El Alto to share his vision of a uniquely Bolivian architecture, and to take his work abroad.
Juliana Barbassa was the former managing editor for Americas Quarterly. Search for:. Today, however, El Alto is restive. If not Morales, who? Like what you've read? Evo Morales, centre, was one of the longest serving leaders in Latin America. Reclaiming the coca leaf. Image source, Getty Images. Mr Morales is a big football fan and has often taken to the pitch during summits and charity events.
Bolivia: a timeline. Evo Morales 13 years, 9 months in power. Pope Francis denies chewing coca Morales boosts coca production First coca chewed 8, years ago. Coca leaves have been chewed and used to brew tea in the Andes for hundreds of years. Wealth distribution. In , left-wing presidents governed in Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and Ecuador. In , Bolivia adopted the wiphala, a rainbow-coloured indigenous flag, which is flown alongside the traditional red, yellow and green banner.
Access to the sea. Bolivians were sorely disappointed when their government lost the case. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Drone footage shows some of the damage done to Bolivia's Amazon. Extending power. Image source, Reuters.
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