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INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 5495
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RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LA PAZ 000007 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR WHA PDAS CSHAPIRO, WHA/AND LPETRONI, INR/IAA KSMITH 
ARMITAGE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/04/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON PINR BL
SUBJECT: MORE INFO ON EVO 
 
REF: A. LA PAZ 3755 
     ¶B. LA PAZ 3763 
     ¶C. LA PAZ 1238 
     ¶D. LA PAZ 1062 (2004) 
 
Classified By: Amb. David N. Greenlee for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C) Evo Morales rose to the presidency on a wave of ethnic 
identification and widespread frustration, embodying the 
aspirations of his own indigenous majority and signaling for 
the middle class a break from the corrupt, inept political 
elite and the social upheaval it increasingly produced. 
Morales speaks only halting Aymara and Quechua, the main 
indigenous languages, but his roots in poverty and later in 
syndicate politics lend him legitimacy for most Bolivians as 
their first truly representative elected president. 
 
¶2.  (C) Born Juan Evo Morales Ayma on October 26, 1959 in 
Orinoca, Oruro, in Bolivia's western highlands, he was one of 
seven children, only three of whom survived childhood.  His 
family tended sheep and llama and, during high school, 
Morales balanced his studies with work as a breadmaker and 
bricklayer.  He performed obligatory military service in 
Cochabamba and then returned to Oruro and played trumpet in a 
local band.  Morales described his life on the altiplano as 
"survival, hunger, and misery." 
 
¶3.  (C) Morales's family moved for economic reasons from 
Oruro to the Chapare (Tropico de Cochabamba) in 1979, joining 
a flood of migrants, mostly former miners and their families, 
to plant coca.  He showed leadership early on by organizing a 
soccer league and captaining one of its teams.  He also 
claims to have been exposed for the first time to labor 
unions and favorably contrasts cultivating coca, the symbol, 
he says, of political power, with his harsh experience on the 
altiplano.  But Morales also developed in the Chapare deep 
distrust of the Drug Enforcement Administration.  He claims 
to have watched a friend burned to death as an accused 
narcotrafficker and reports watching DEA agents machine gun 
campesinos from a helicopter, supposedly leaving five dead. 
While the facts may not support his memory, Morales continues 
to feel deeply wounded by charges that he is variously a 
narcotrafficker or narcoterrorist - both of which he 
vehemently denies. 
 
¶4. (C) Morales began his career as a labor leader in 1983, 
when a Chapare union (Sindicato de Colonizadores en el 
Chapare) named him their Secretary of Sports.  After two 
years, Morales rose to be the organization's Secretary 
General.  In 1988, he became Executive Secretary of the 
Cocalero Federation of the Tropics, and then assumed the 
presidency of the six federations of coca growers of the 
Chapare in 1996.  Morales organized a political party, called 
the Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the People 
(IPSP in Spanish) in 1995, but had difficulty obtaining 
recognition from the Supreme Electoral Court.  He 
transitioned from a labor leader in the Chapare to national 
politics in 1997, when he was elected to Congress (as a 
uninominal deputy on the now-defunct United Left party 
ticket).  In 2002, Morales formed an alliance with the 
Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party (founded July 23, 
1987) to run as its presidential candidate (and also to run 
as a uninominal deputy in the event he didn't win the 
presidency).   Morales came in second in the June 2002 
presidential elections with 20 percent of the vote.  He did 
not contest his loss, but  accepted his place in Congress. 
 
¶5. (C) Morales's poor working class and cocolero background 
influences his leadership style.  He can be proud, stubborn 
and suspicious of outsiders, particularly Americans.  He is 
most comfortable with coca growers in the Chapare and within 
the familiar labor union structure, where his 
"anti-imperialist" rhetoric is well-received.  In meetings 
(including with foreign diplomats in Bolivia or dignitaries 
 
LA PAZ 00000007  002 OF 002 
 
 
abroad) he seldom tailors himself to his audience, often 
monopolizing conversations.  In a recent pre-election meeting 
with the OAS observer mission, he lambasted the United States 
and directed his comments toward a member of the team who 
looked (and was) American, without regard for the 
representative's OAS employment.  In his own party, there is 
much speculation about tension between he and VP-elect Alvaro 
Garcia Linera, perhaps because of Garcia Linera's publicly 
perceived intellectual superiority.  At the same time, 
Morales is perfectly capable of slapping down in-house 
rivals, like former MAS founding member and senator Filemon 
Escobar, when he feels they are no longer loyal to him. 
 
¶5. (C)  On a personal note, Morales is notoriously single 
with at least two illegitimate children.  During the 
campaign, he dodged press questions about his marital 
intentions by saying that he would soon reveal the identity 
of his future first lady, who some believed was Adriana Gil 
Moreno, a 23-year-old MAS activist who is an alternative city 
council member in Santa Cruz.  Gil finished high school in 
the United States and studied international relations in 
Alabama; she is now studying law at the Private University of 
Santa Cruz.  Since the landslide victory, however, talk of 
Morales's family life has quieted. 
 
¶6. (C)  Comment: In his first meeting with the Ambassador on 
January 2 (ref), Morales seemed self-assured, if a little 
suspicious, but clearly was the senior partner in his 
relationship with VP-elect Alvaro Garcia Linera, also present 
at the discussion.  Morales generally showed more pragmatism 
than ideology and seemed interested in opening and 
maintaining a dialog with the Embassy.  At the same time, he 
responded in-kind but proportionately to the Ambassador's 
no-nonsense, no-platitudes approach and seemed willing to 
take on board information that may have challenged some of 
his preconceived notions of the U.S. role in Bolivia.  The 
meeting ended on a reasonably cordial note and indicated that 
treating Morales with respect but without kid gloves may hold 
the most promise for future cooperation.  End comment. 
GREENLEE