Evo Morales

Evo Morales
Official portrait, 2018
65th President of Bolivia
In office 22 January 2006 – 10 November 2019
Vice President	Álvaro García Linera
Preceded by	Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé
Succeeded by	Jeanine Áñez
President pro tempore of CELAC
In office 14 January 2019 – 10 November 2019
Preceded by	Salvador Sánchez Cerén
Succeeded by	Jeanine Áñez
President pro tempore of UNASUR
In role 17 April 2018 – 16 April 2019
Preceded by	Mauricio Macri
Succeeded by	Vacant
Leader of the Movement for Socialism
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 January 1998
Preceded by	Party established
Member of the Chamber of Deputies from Cochabamba circumscription 27
In office 2 August 2002 – 22 January 2006
Alternate	Luis Cutipa
Succeeded by	Asterio Villarroel
In office 6 August 1997 – 24 January 2002
Alternate	Valentín Gutiérrez
Preceded by	Seat established
Personal details
Born	Juan Evo Morales Ayma (1959-10-26) 26 October 1959 (age 64) Isallavi, Oruro, Bolivia
Political party	Movement for Socialism
Children	Evaliz Morales Alvarado Álvaro Morales Peredo
Parent(s)	Dionisio Morales Choque María Ayma Mamani
Relatives	Esther Morales (sister)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Bolivia
Branch/service	Bolivian Army
Years of service	1977–1978
Unit	Fourth Ingavi Cavalry Regiment

Juan Evo Morales Ayma (Spanish pronunciation: [xwan ˈeβo moˈɾales ˈajma]; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come from its indigenous population,^[a] his administration worked towards the implementation of left-wing policies, focusing on the legal protections and socioeconomic conditions of Bolivia's previously marginalized indigenous population and combating the political influence of the United States and resource-extracting multinational corporations. Ideologically a socialist, he has led the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party since 1998.

Born to an Aymara family of subsistence farmers in Isallawi, Orinoca Canton, Morales undertook a basic education and mandatory military service before moving to the Chapare Province in 1978. Growing coca and becoming a trade unionist, he rose to prominence in the campesino ("rural laborers") union. In that capacity, he campaigned against joint U.S.–Bolivian attempts to eradicate coca as part of the War on Drugs, denouncing these as an imperialist violation of indigenous Andean culture. His involvement in anti-government direct action protests resulted in multiple arrests. Morales entered electoral politics in 1995, was elected to Congress in 1997 and became leader of MAS in 1998. Coupled with populist rhetoric, he campaigned on issues affecting indigenous and poor communities, advocating land reform and more equal redistribution of money from Bolivian gas extraction. He gained increased visibility through the Cochabamba Water War and gas conflict. In 2002, he was expelled from Congress for encouraging anti-government protesters, although he came second in that year's presidential election.

Once elected president in 2005, Morales increased taxation on the hydrocarbon industry to bolster social spending and emphasized projects to combat illiteracy, poverty, and racial and gender discrimination. Vocally criticizing neoliberalism, Morales' government moved Bolivia towards a mixed economy, reduced its dependence on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and oversaw strong economic growth. Scaling back United States influence in the country, he built relationships with leftist governments in the Latin American pink tide, especially Hugo Chávez's Venezuela and Fidel Castro's Cuba, and signed Bolivia into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. His administration opposed the autonomist demands of Bolivia's eastern provinces, won a 2008 recall referendum, and instituted a new constitution that established Bolivia as a plurinational state. Re-elected in 2009 and 2014, he oversaw Bolivia's admission to the Bank of the South and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, although his popularity was dented by attempts to abolish presidential term limits. Following the disputed 2019 election and the ensuing unrest, Morales agreed to calls for his resignation. After this temporary exile, he returned following the election of President Luis Arce.

Morales' supporters laud him as a champion of indigenous rights, anti-imperialism, and environmentalism, and he was credited with overseeing significant economic growth and poverty reduction as well as increased investment in schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. Critics point to democratic backsliding during his tenure, argue that his policies sometimes failed to reflect his environmentalist and indigenous rights rhetoric, and that his defense of coca contributed to illegal cocaine production.

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