Daily Archives: April 14, 2009

A while back we told you about how Bolivian super president, Evo Morales, went on a hunger strike to put pressure on the Bolivian congress. Well, it seems el presidente knew what he was doing:

Morales had canceled a diplomatic visit to Cuba to maintain a vigil inside the presidential palace, where for almost a week he consumed only water and coca leaves, the raw ingredient in cocaine and a folk remedy used in Bolivia to suppress hunger. He slept on a bare mattress on the palace floor, surrounded by fasting union leaders who form part of his coalition party.

“The Bolivian people will never forget this revolutionary process,” Morales, 49, said today in the presidential palace, moments after concluding the strike. In remarks on state television, Morales said he hoped the fast would strengthen Bolivians’ support for “profound economic, social and cultural changes.”

The new bill guarantees increased representation in Congress for Bolivia’s indigenous communities, who broadly support Morales, an Aymara Indian and a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Opposition lawmakers argued that the measure would give Morales’s Movement Toward Socialism party, known as MAS, an advantage in both chambers. The bill, blocked in the opposition-controlled Senate, passed after Morales agreed to reduce the number of proposed indigenous voting districts to 7 from 14.

And we think our president is some crazy socialist. Until Obama sleeps on the floor with union leaders (hell, until *union leaders* sleep on the floor!!) to put pressure on Congress, I don’t want to hear anything about how our country is falling into an abyss of U.S.S.R communism. Please.