Oruro (Bolívia), 1959
By Álvaro García Linera
Juan Evo Morales Ayma, leader of the coca leaf-producing farmers of Chapare, head of the political party Movement for Socialism (MAS), and the most prominent indigenous figure in electoral political struggles, was born on October 26, 1959, in Orinoca, in the Aymara indigenous community of Llama Isallavi in the ayllu Sullka, in southern Carangas, Oruro Province.
He spent his childhood and youth in the countryside, engaging in agricultural activities and standing out as both a soccer player and a team manager.
In the 1980s, after completing mandatory military service, he and his family moved from the highlands to the tropical region of Chapare, in Cochabamba Province, in search of land and better job opportunities.
Like many leaders of agrarian communities, Evo Morales’ path to leadership began in sports. In 1981, he was appointed Sports Secretary of the agrarian union. He later became a union leader, then secretary of records for the Central (a territorial union of several agrarian unions), and eventually, its main leader. In 1988, he was elected Executive Secretary of the Tropic Federation, and since 1992, he has served as president of the Coordinating Committee of the Six Federations of the Tropics, representing around 700 communities throughout the Chapare region.
In 1995, alongside other rural leaders, he supported the formation of the Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (later MAS) to participate in municipal and parliamentary elections. In 1997, he ran for the Chamber of Deputies and was elected with the highest percentage of votes in the country.
In 2002, Morales ran for president for the first time, finishing in second place. This established the indigenous left as a decisive force in Bolivia’s political system, both electorally and in social movements.
Evo Morales’ sociopolitical trajectory has been shaped by his involvement in two major periods of social tension in Bolivia, which helped define his leadership and political profile.
During the 1980s and 1990s, as the labor movement weakened, the Chapare region became the most militarized area in the country and the main focus of U.S. intervention, aimed at eradicating coca leaf production. The unions of coca-producing farmers united and, for a decade, formed the most persecuted and active social movement. Morales became a key figure due to his ability to build consensus among unions, his unwavering defense of affected communities, and his efforts to form alliances with urban and regional social sectors. His long-standing opposition to the U.S. government contributed to shaping his indigenous and agrarian political identity. This anti-imperialist stance also attracted support from former leftist militants who, though not necessarily aligned with indigenous movements, shared his opposition to U.S. influence.
The second defining moment in Morales’ rise to national leadership came with the wave of large-scale social mobilizations between 2000 and 2001. He supported rural unions in Chapare, backed urban rebels in Cochabamba who sought to expel a foreign company, and participated in the indigenous rebellion of October 2000, which began in La Paz Province. His anti-imperialist rhetoric and advocacy for indigenous rights quickly gained support from other groups disillusioned with free-market policies.
A man of extraordinary political intuition, Morales stands out from other indigenous leaders due to his charisma and ability to unify scattered popular forces. He is also the only indigenous leader who successfully built alliances with urban middle-class sectors negatively affected by neoliberal economic reforms.
His ability to form flexible alliances with Bolivia’s fragmented social movements led to a surprising electoral result in the 2002 elections, solidifying his status as the country’s most important indigenous and leftist leader—and the first in Bolivia’s republican history with a realistic chance of winning the presidency.
Committed to gaining state power through strictly electoral means, Morales sought in later years to expand dialogue with urban sectors that held moderate positions on social movement demands. As a result, both MAS and Morales fluctuated between pushing for social and political demands—such as the nationalization of hydrocarbons and a constituent assembly—and adopting moderate initiatives to attract urban middle-class voters, deemed essential for electoral victory.
Evo Morales was elected president of Bolivia in December 2005 with more than 50% of the vote, becoming the first indigenous leader to hold this office on the continent. He was re-elected in December 2009 and again in October 2014.
