(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

Bolivian President Evo Morales vowed to increase state control over the economy and strengthen political power for indigenous groups, after he was re-elected on Dec. 6 in a landslide.

     Jubilant supporters waving Bolivian flags jumped up and down in La Paz's central Murillo square after polls closed, chanting "Evo! Evo!" In a booming victory speech punctuated by fireworks from the balcony of the presidential palace, Morales called on all sectors of society - including the opposition - to unite behind him.

     "We have the enormous responsibility to deepen and accelerate this process of change," he said.

     Morales won about 63 percent of the vote, more than 35 percent points ahead of his closest challenger, rightist former Governor Manfred Reyes Villa. The president's Movement Toward Socialism party also looked likely to win two-thirds of the seats in both houses of Congress, leaving his divided conservative opposition with little power to oppose revolutionary reforms during his five-year second term. Reyes narrowly led in the opposition bastion of Santa Cruz state in the eastern lowlands with 50 per cent, compared to 43 per cent for Morales.

     The three political parties that dominated Bolivian politics for decades have now been all but erased. The last survivor was the National Union. Its presidential candidate, Samuel Doria Medina, a cement magnate, got just 6 per cent of the vote.

     Morales, an Aymara Indian, is Bolivia's first indigenous president. He is hugely popular among the Indian majority that also supported a constitutional reform earlier in 2009 to allow him to run for a second consecutive term.

     "Bolivians have given us an enormous responsibility to deepen this transformation," he said after his victory. "Bolivians have punished the people who are traitors of this process."

     "Evo Morales has a mandate unlike any other president in the hemisphere, including Barack Obama," said analyst Jim Shultz of the non-profit Democracy Center in Cochabamba. "This is the fifth national election in four years and his margin of victory has only increased each and every time."

     By taking two-thirds of Congress, the MAS could call for new referendums to amend the constitution. The result also gives Morales control of judicial appointments, reducing the chances the opposition could successfully challenge his policies. Morales will have greater political power to expand on radical changes he already has made, such as indigenous autonomy and land reform.

     The re-election to a new five-year term comes under the new constitution which "refounded" Bolivia as a "plurinational" state, allowing self-rule for the country's 36 native peoples.

     Twelve of Bolivia's more than 330 municipalities voted on indigenous autonomy, which would allow them to restructure in favour of traditional governance based on consensus-building. Still to be defined by the new Congress are larger territorial autonomies for indigenous groups that could redraw the political map and redefine how government funds are disbursed.

     During his first term, Morales launched a state takeover of the energy industry, and raised taxes on foreign companies in Bolivia, bringing a windfall to fund popular social programs. The government now issues cash payments to school children, mothers and pensioners, reaching a quarter of Bolivia's 10 million people.

     "For the first time in Bolivia's ... history, the state is reaching every home," he said during the campaign. "It's not a solution, but for many families it's a big relief."

     Morales has already given Indian communities more authority over investment in natural resources in their territories. The new constitution enshrines traditional religions and practices after centuries of harsh discrimination since the Spanish conquest.

     During this campaign, he pledged to launch state-run paper, cement, dairy and drug companies and develop iron and lithium industries to help Bolivia export value-added products instead of raw materials.

     Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez congratulated Evo Morales, calling his landslide electoral win a victory for all of Latin America.

     "Yesterday there was jubilation throughout the continent," Chavez said on Dec. 7 during his speech at the First International Conference celebrating ten years since the adoption of the Bolivarian Constitution of Venezuela.

     Chavez said he was sure Morales would continue "fighting without rest to diminish poverty" and improve the welfare of his people, "based on indigenous philosophy."

     Chavez said that governments like that of Morales embody a social movement which he dubbed "popular constitutionalism," that exists throughout Latin America is also promoted by the governments of Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Brazil) and Cristina Fernandez (Argentina).

     "This process that I dare to call constitutionalism is a new force," and "I say with humility that the initial outbreak began here in Caracas," he said, referring to the adoption of the new constitution in 1999, which many refer to as the beginning of the Bolivarian revolution.

     He stressed that more needs to be done to deepen this social process across Latin America "with the variations of each case, of each country... to build a new path in peace...The other way would be to take up arms. I think that is what the bourgeoisie wants but they are at a disadvantage even though they count on the support of the Empire."

     Chavez pointed out that when the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, proposed to consult the people about the possibility of convening a Constituent Assembly, he was deposed in a military coup. The threat of a coup also exists in Bolivia and Ecuador, said Chavez, in order "to stem the rising tide" of independent governments.