Fuck Columbus, and fuck the plague-ridden ships he rode in on. The natives are taking their country back, peacefully and democratically. And in yesterday’s presidential elections, Bolivia made that abundantly clear:
I believe this is what’s known as a LANDSLIDE.
Viva Evo PRESIDENTE, carajo.
EDIT: The landslide is even bigger than it looked yesterday. Here’s the latest:
The Bolivian president was re-elected for the second consecutive time, according to an exit poll by the Mori firm, published last night by the newspaper El Deber, of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
According to the poll, the president won in eight of nine Bolivian departments [provinces], and carries the support of at least 25 senators and 86 deputies, which approaches control of two-thirds of both chambers.
His closest follower, Samuel Doria Molina, received 24% of the vote, according to exit polls. Meanwhile, former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga took 9.6.%.
Although presidents of Bolivia can only take two consecutive terms, Evo Morales was able to run a third time, since the Constitutional Tribunal considers that his first term took place before the refoundation of the land in 2009, and for that reason, doesn’t count.
In 2005 Evo Morales won more than 50% of the vote, and in 2009 he increased his support to more than 60%. More than 5 million Bolivians went to the polls, and not only in Bolivia, since, for the first time, Bolivians residing in 33 foreign countries were able to exercise their right to vote as well.
Thousands gathered today to celebrate the president’s victory. Murillo Square, near Quemado Palace, the seat of the Legislative Assembly and the Foreign Ministry, was filled with people cheering their president.
An emotional Evo Morales called out hurrahs to all the Bolivian departments amid the jubilation of the people, who were carrying flags in the blue-and-white colors of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS).
“I want to tell you, after hearing the news of the results of these elections, in my own name and that of my brother the vice-president [Álvaro García Linera], and of those who fought alongside us for our freedom, thank you for this great support.
“Many thanks, brothers and sisters, for this new triumph of the Bolivian people. In all departments, we have grown and in eight departments, we have won. There could still be a surprise in one department [Beni, the only one not won by MAS]. The fight is neck-and-neck,” Morales pointed out.
Morales also recalled that there is “a feeling of liberation for our peoples. How much longer will we be under the thumb of the North American empire and capitalism? This triumph belongs to the anti-imperialists and the anti-capitalists. It belongs to the Bolivian people.”
Also, Morales considers that “it has been important to seek the integration and unity of the Bolivian people. Once more we have ratified that in Bolivia there is no “Media Luna” [“Half Moon”, a reference to the departments who tried to break away during the failed coup of 2009], but a Full Moon!
“Now, with more than 60 percent, nationalization has won,” said an emotional Morales, as the people chanted his name.
“Your efforts, those of your comrades and base directors, and the commitment of the national directors, of CONALCAM [the National Confederation for Change] and the Bolivian Workers’ Central, of the ministers, the institutions, has not been in vain,” Morales insisted.
“I want to say to the people of La Paz and Bolivia that we must always think of the great and the small. When we talk about satellites, some said that that was for the United States and Europe. And now we have a satellite,” Morales recounted.
Morales also emphasized that “when we say we want atomic energy for peaceful purposes they said that that was for developed countries. And we will have it, we will think of the great. And we will be the energy centre of South America.
“I am amazed and this class of results will commit us much more to keep fighting for the Bolivian people. In these elections solidarity has won, unity and sovereignty of the Bolivian people have won, and this triumph will be dedicated to all the peoples of Latin America and the world who fight against capitalism and imperialism. This triumph is dedicated to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, may he rest in peace,” Morales concluded.
Translation mine.
So, there you have it. Definitive proof that Bolivia has arrived in the 21st century. And thanks to Evo’s already impressive achievements, it’s going nowhere but up. This is a big fuck-you not only to the conquistadors of 500 years ago, but their wanna-be emulators of 2009, whose misadventures I’ve documented here. Remember how those foreign mercenaries came to grief when half the Bolivian provinces tried to break away, taking the oil and gas with them, so that the privatizers could keep their loot? Yeah, this is a fuck-you to THEM, too. And one they could not deserve more. And it was handed to them, not from above in La Paz, but from below, by the people of all of Bolivia.
¡¡¡VIVA EVO PRESIDENTE, CARAJO!!!
