Evo Morales

Juan Evo Morales Ayma ( Spanish: [xwan ˈeβo moˈɾales ˈajma]; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come from its Indigenous Bolivian population, his administration worked towards the implementation of left-wing policies, focusing on safeguarding the legal rights, improving the socioeconomic conditions of Bolivia's previously marginalized Native Bolivian majority, and combating the political influence of the United States and resource-extracting multinational corporations. Ideologically a socialist, he led the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party from 1998 to 2024.

Born to an Aymara family of subsistence farmers in Isallawi, Orinoca Canton, Morales undertook a basic education and mandatory military service before moving to the Chapare in 1978. After growing coca and becoming a trade unionist, he rose to prominence in the union of campesinos (rural laborers). In that capacity, he campaigned against joint U.S.–Bolivian attempts to eradicate coca as part of the war on drugs, denouncing these actions as an imperialist violation of Indigenous American Andean culture. His involvement in anti-government direct action protests resulted in multiple arrests. Morales entered electoral politics in 1995, was elected to Congress in 1997 and became leader of MAS in 1998. He campaigned on issues affecting indigenous and poor communities, advocating land reform and more equal redistribution of money from Bolivian gas extraction. He gained increased visibility through the Cochabamba Water War and the Gas War. In 2002, he was expelled from Congress for encouraging anti-government protests, although he came second in that year's presidential election.