It didn't exactly make headlines compared to other stories last week, but Bolivia just had a recall election calling into question President Evo Morales and all the State Governors. And the insidious political foe who called the election to try to bring down Morales was...
...Morales.
It was a trap. He took a page from parliamentary systems and basically called a snap election at the peak of his popularity, but in the midst of a constitutional crisis that could have led to devolution of the country.
Morales won. Three of the four biggest anti-Morales state governors survived. But there were political casualties.
Reuters, in English, on the effect of the outcome
So far, Bolivarian Socialism advances...
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Aren't the referendum results in Bolivia eerily similar to those in Venezuela a couple of years ago.
Venezuela: Pro Chávez 60%
Against CH 40%
(with a pie graph appearing in a book published by CNE head and Chavista Jorge Rodríguez, showing the exact opposite - the book was confiscated, but not before a few copies had been made).
Bolivia: Pro Evo 58%
Against 42%
Rumor had it that voting machines traveled from Venezuela to Bolivia.
Isn't it wonderful how consistent the results are?
LA PAZ, Bolivia: Bolivia's opposition governors and President Evo Morales tried to find a solution to the nation's political crisis Wednesday in their first meeting since a bitter nationwide recall election.
The heads of the independence-minded provinces of Beni, Tarija, Pando and Chuquisaca, and a representative from Santa Cruz, said they were prepared to meet with the leftist Morales to seek a national agreement.
"We are interested in reaching an agreement to calm the nation," Pando Gov. Leopoldo Fernandez told journalists as he entered Morales' office.
Just hours earlier the governors had been no-shows at the presidential palace, where Morales invited them for talks following the nationwide recall.
Bolivians broadly backed Morales in the referendum, reaffirming his stated mandate to empower the country's poor Indian majority. The governors of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija, which are seeking greater autonomy from Morales' government, were also easily reaffirmed in their posts by voters.
Two opposition politicians were among three governors ousted.
Electoral officials reported Wednesday that with almost 96 percent of the ballots counted, the president's "yes" vote had risen to near 68 percent.
Morales' agenda has put him at odds with the more prosperous east, which is home to most of Bolivia's natural gas deposits and has resisted the president's insistence that the central government control and distribute energy profits
2 hours ago-- Associate Press
La Paz-- my first place I visited when we moved to Bolivia-- Cochabamba is where we lived--
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