Evo Morales: A portrait

Evo Morales Ayma was born on 26th October 1959 in the village of Lasllave near Oruro. School was six miles away on foot. There were no school benches. The children sat on piles of clay tiles. Only three of his seven siblings survived. "Often there was nothing to eat”, he remembers. "But we weren’t poor. It was the same for everyone.” At the age of 13 he went to Oruro and apart from going to school he worked in a bakery, earning money also as a bricklayer and trumpeter. When he was called up to the army his family went to the Chapare to cultivate coca. They did not want to stay on the Altiplano. "Frost or hail meant the destruction of our crops, there was no help from the state or the government. It became clear to me at that time that we ourselves had to fight, that we were responsible for defending ourselves.”

After his military service Evo followed his family to the Chapare, first of all helping his father with the coca, who responded by supporting his studies in Cochabamba. Finally he bought land himself and cultivated coca. In his sindicato he was the sport officer, organising football matches, which gave him the nickname with the girls of "the young footballer”.In 1984 he was elected dirigente, the chief of his sindicato. Since 1991 he has chaired the coordination committee of the six cocalero-federaciones of the Chapare. Since 1997 he has been a member of parliament.

As one responsible for protests he has been constantly arrested and deported. Once his parliamentary mandate was withdrawn because he was made responsible for violent clashes, in which some policemen were killed. This brought him additional votes in the 2002 elections, because the withdrawal of his mandate was seen as unjustified. He has constantly been accused of conspiring together with people from the drug trade. He denies this energetically. Against this speaks his modest demeanour (luxury seems to be a matter of indifference to him by nature) and above all one thing: these accusations have never been proved, a charge has never been placed.

Quotations from the chapter: "Ein Bauernführer erzählt” in.Robert Lessmann: "Zum Beispiel Bolivien”, Lamuv-Verlag, Göttingen, 2004.