May 24, 2013
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Description
Juan Evo Morales Ayma, popularly known as Evo, is a Bolivian politician and activist, who has served as President of Bolivia since 2006. Politically a democratic socialist, he leads the Movement for Socialism party and the Cocalero trade union. His administration has focused on the implementation of leftist reform, poverty reduction and combating the influence of the United States and transnational corporations in Bolivia.
Born to an Aymara family of subsistence farmers in Isallawi, Orinoca Canton, Evo undertook a basic education before mandatory military service, in 1978 moving to Chapare Province. Growing coca, he joined the cocalero trade union, rising to prominence in the campesino union, campagining against the United States and Bolivian government's attempts to eradicate coca as a part of the War on Drugs. Entering electoral politics in 1995, he became leader of MAS, focusing on issues affecting indigenous and poor communities, advocating land reform and redistribution of gas wealth. Gaining increasing visibility through the gas conflict and the Cochabamba protests of 2000, in 2002 he was expelled from Congress, though came second in that year's presidential election.
(via Freebase)
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