I posted yesterday about Bolivian President Evo Morales' intention to be in power till 2018. Today I have found this article in Christian Science Monitor in which they explain the Bolivian citizens exodus mostly from middle-class.
Like scores of his friends and family, Cesar Torrio (photo, right), a lawyer in Cochabamba, voted for change - for Evo Morales in Bolivia's presidential election in December of 2005. "We all wanted change," says Mr. Torrio, "and Evo was the only one who could bring it."
Now he shakes his head. "This is not what we wanted. He is re-creating a nation with just one identity."
President Morales, an Aymara Indian and former coca-leaf grower, ushered in a new era of hope in Bolivia, quickly becoming a symbol of the poor in his alpaca sweater and promising a new nation for the long-oppressed indigenous majority. Across Bolivia the indigenous celebrated the promises they had fought so long for: a new constitution, control of natural resources, and a shift away from free-market policies in a nation where two-thirds of the population still lives in poverty.
But the indigenous were not the only ones to rejoice. Thousands of middle-class voters, who were tired of the deep divisions in the country, reached out for a figure they likened to South Africa's Nelson Mandela. Analysts say that without their support, Morales could not have won 54 percent of votes.
Today, some of those voters are questioning their choice. While Morales remains a popular president, lawyers, teachers, police officers, and taxi drivers interviewed across the country claim he is governing for the indigenous only and say they disagree with his policies. Many are going to Spain. Others wonder where they fit within the "new Bolivia."
"It is impossible to understand [Morales's large mandate] if you don't see what the vote of middle class was," says Gonzalo Chavez, a political analyst at Catholic University in La Paz. "Many people feel like he is losing the middle. In Bolivia we don't have a huge middle class. ... but politically it is very important, and has a lot of influence in public opinion."
The exodus to Spain is booming [link in Spanish] as next April is going to be applied a new visa by which immigrants will have to be provided with a job contract and the employer will have to pay Social Security. There are 300 people asking for visas per day and around 250 actually given per day. This visa is already applied to people from Colombia or Peru. [I wonder why it is not applied to pther nationals? Especially Maghrebis...].
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