Rise of Evo Morales and the MAS

Sven Harten

Evo Morales is one of the world’s most controversial political leaders. His story is extraordinary: poor shepherd-boy, persecuted coca grower, self-professed admirer of Ché Guevara, hero of the anti-globalization movement, and first indigenous president of modern Latin America. The story of the social movement turned political party he is a part of — the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) — is also exceptional: originally founded as a splinter of an ultra-right party, it was given as a gift for the coca growers after they had been banned several times for spurious reasons to register their own party, and went on to become an irresistible force for indigenous rights in Bolivia.

In this insightful and revealing book, Sven Harten explains the success of the MAS and its wider consequences, showing how Morales has become the symbol for a new political consciousness that has entailed de-stigmatizing indigenous identities. In many ways, the analysis of Morales’s political trajectory serves as a mirror for democracy in Bolivia. It reveals the challenge of squaring the rupture with a discredited past with the continuity of democracy and the aim of representing an entire society.
 

Contents

• Preface: A Journey
Part I
1. Bolivia’s Political History
2. Evo’s youth and upbringing
3. Rise of Coca Growers (mid 1980s to early 1990s)
Part II
4. Morales’s Political Instrument? The creation of MAS (early 1990s)
5. Outside challengers rise amidst waves of protests (1995-2002)
6. MAS rises to political dominance (2002-2005)
7. Compañero Evo: The Symbol of the Pluricultural People
Part III
8. Bolivia´s first indigenous President (2005-2010)
9. Refounding the State – The Foundational Promise of Populism
10. Conclusion: The difficult road ahead President Morales and the MAS
 

About the Author

Sven Harten has done extensive fieldwork in Bolivia, and holds a PhD in Political Science from the London School of Economics (LSE). He currently works as Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for the IFC-World Bank Group in Lima, Peru.