Evo Morales elected president of Bolivia

On December 18, 2005, Evo Morales and his Movement toward Socialism (MAS) won Bolivia's election with about 54 percent of the vote, an unusual outright majority in a country of many parties. He took office in January 2006. Born into a poor Aymara family in the highlands, he had led coca growers' unions, and he became the first Indigenous president of a country with a large Indigenous population.¹²

Bolivia had been shaken by protests in the early 2000s. The Water War in Cochabamba in 2000 stopped the privatization of the water system, and the Gas War of 2003 forced out President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada over plans to export natural gas. On May 1, 2006 Morales nationalized the hydrocarbon industry, and a new constitution in 2009 created the Plurinational State of Bolivia, recognizing 36 Indigenous nations and languages. Gas revenues and high commodity prices funded social programs, and poverty fell during his rule. Morales was reelected in 2009 and 2014. After he lost a 2016 referendum on term limits but ran again, the disputed October 2019 election led to protests, and he resigned on November 10, 2019 and went into exile. His party returned to power in 2020 under Luis Arce. Supporters called his rule a decolonizing revolution, and critics said it concentrated power.¹²