Evo Morales, presidential candidate: Press conference, La Paz, August 1, 2002

Abstract

The peasant leader Evo Morales explains his anti-neoliberal government program, which seeks to recover national sovereignty and build socialism. He calls on Indigenous peasants, workers, the unemployed, impoverished middle classes, popular sectors and the marginalized in general. He proposes new terms for foreign relations on various issues and, above all, defends the right of Bolivia and of coca-growing peasants to maintain coca leaf production, not for drug trafficking but for traditional consumption. He also explains the qualitative change in relations between the Bolivian working class and peasantry in recent decades that made his electoral success possible.