Evo Morales, the socialist coca farmer, indigenous Aymara Indian, and ideological near-soulmate of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, is the new president of Bolivia. Morales, a leader of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), wants to further nationalize the resource-rich natural gas industry, and beat back a U.S.-led initiative to eradicate coca farming. He says the coca leaf has legitimate traditional uses in native culture. True: it keeps chewers lightly buzzed and energized while they do manual labor, or locomote; and as Wikipedia reminds us, is a powerful symbol of indigeneous (Bolivian) Aymara Indian cultural and religious identity. But Morales insists he will ensure Bolivian coca leaf is not refined into cocaine. I guess that'll take care of that.

Anyway, while some 480 articles accessed today via Google News include the words "Evo Morales" and "socialist," the International Herald Tribune's fairly sizeable piece on Morales' victory online this morning - which has now been entirely "disappeared" from the Internet - did not. Nor did the early post-election story even mention MAS. The IHT, owned by the the same parent company as The New York Times, instead parsed its phraseology very carefully, referring to Morales instead as "anti-imperialist" (his term); and "leftist" (theirs). (NOTE: THEY'VE SINCE CORRECTED THEIR GAFFE, SEE MY UPDATE BELOW).

I must be an old capitalist fuddy-duddy: I have a real hang-up about nationalization of industries; and about "anti-imperialist" rhetoric, which serves to innoculate a "victim" nation from their responsibility to improve living conditions, foster a private sector and wealth creation. As well, Morales' coca identity politics will ensure the international cocaine trade always has plenty of Bolivian leaf to refine into street cocaine in the U.S. Why doesn't he just come clean, and talk about nationalizing the Bolivian coca leaf export trade, too? Please: let's call a Red a Red.

Coming soon: an IHT feature on Cuba's marvellous health care system.

UPDATE: The International Herald Tribune has re-posted the story, updated and edited so as to prominently include the word "socialist" in describing Morales. As you will see when clicking on the IHT story link above. They even mention MAS, and quote Morales saying he will not confiscate private land unless it is "vacant" or "unproductive." That's some commitment to private property rights, Commandante. We'll have to explore that last troublesome caveat another time. For now, we can rejoice that once again, Rosenblog reverberates in the highest reaches of global media.

TECHNORATI TAGS: BOLIVIA, EVO MORALES, COCA LEAF, SOCIALIST, INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at December 19, 2005 10:23 AM