Dreams and realities

摘要

In the five months since Evo Morales won Bolivia's presidential election, he has made enough headlines for a five-year term. Since declaring "long live coca and down with the Yanquis" in his acceptance speech, he has nationalised the gas industry, signed a trade treaty with populist Venezuela and communist Cuba, and accused Bolivia's judges of "representing the colonial state". All this seems to place Mr Morales on the extreme wing of Latin America's expanding contingent of leftist presidents. The drift is worrying, but it is too early to conclude that his government will be as irresponsible as his rhetoric.