Since becoming South America's first indigenous president in 2006, Morales has been in favour of a democratic revolution. “At that moment, I realized that the people will start organizing themselves. This struggle won't stop! This struggle will continue!” His party, the Movement for Socialism (MAS), strives to give more power to the country’s indigenous and poor communities and Morales has already introduced indigenous languages into rural primary schools. But if Morales wins this election the most significant reform to the Bolivian educational system is still to come. “The new constitution states that education should have a descolonizing effect. Through education, we want to break the existing hierarchies. We need a reform based on the values of indigenous people.” The indigenous population appears firmly behind their leader, “Evo will succeed because we, the indigenous people, are the majority. We support him. We will always win!” But not everyone is in favour of the reigning President. “He has only increased the divisions in this country. Now we have a war between the classes. ‘Divide and reign’, as Machiavelli used to say. That is exactly what Morales is doing, dividing the country into two.” Now it’s time to go to the ballots.

Rivals in Bolivia's rich eastern provinces argue that the new constitution is creating a split in citizenship, putting some people ahead of others in their 'totally irresponsible' government. The former government party Podemos warns that the expectations of the new constitution could be too high. ‘It will not create vacancies, it will not create wealth…and it will not improve the lives of ordinary Bolivians.’

“If he wants to govern, Evo must decide which path to take: horizontal or vertical? Aymara or Spanish?” Gerardo was Evo Morales’ teacher, and he is fully aware of the rocky pathway his former pupil is treading. The perils of power are great, and like many Bolivians, politics is a distant unpredictable game, “we will see what this government will do.”

00:00 man playing the violin
01:02 shots of cattles
01:40 man milking a cow
07:10 young people rehearsing for a concert
10:25 shots of monastery
20:50 men making violins

“The business elite hate us. They say we aren’t capable of government”, states coca farmer and senator, Leonida. The wealthy residents of Santa Cruz claim their region generates half of Bolivia’s wealth. They feel under attack by the new government. In a referendum last year, Santa Cruz voted for political autonomy. “Autonomy is very important because it permits you to manage your own resources”, explains businessman Ricardo Bilbao. Leader Sergio Anhelo alleges; “people are ready to confront the Bolivian state military”, if autonomy isn’t granted. But Evo Morales has threatened to send in the army if national unity is jeopardised.

The Chacaltaya glacier, once the highest ski run in the world, is now a sad sliver of ice. Within the next two years, it will disappear completely. “In twenty years all the glaciers will be gone”, predicts glaciologist Edson Ramirez. For millions of people in the cities below, this spells disaster. Glaciers provide 60% of their water. Already, taps in the shanty towns regularly run dry. “There’s nowhere for us to get water”, despairs one woman. “The global warming problem is being produced by industrial nations and we are facing the consequences”, complains official Javier Gonzales.

Evo Morales’ promised revolution is not going to plan. In the city of Cochabamba, riots have left several dead. Protestors are calling for the dismissal of Mayor Manfred Reyes – a man democratically elected but seen as personifying the hated old elite. “All of Cochabamba must physically crush the Right Wing!”, exhorts a speaker. Maintaining order and ensuring there is no more violence is the biggest challenge facing Morales’ government.

“These are the coca leaves that we step on. This is the paste”, states Roberto, showing us around his cocaine factory in the jungle. Promoting alternative uses of coca, such as in tea, is the heart of the government’s policy. “The coca leaf is a cultural issue and part of our identity”, explains Minister Felipe Casares. Officially, the jungles of Bolivia are producing fewer tonnes of cocaine paste. But Morales’ policy of ‘Coca Yes, Cocaine No’ has the sceptics worried. As Senator Rafael Loayez states; “If we have this very permissive policy, we are going to hve a problem with drug trafficking.”

Cerro Rico was once the largest silver mine in the world. Five hundreds years on, deposits are nearly exhausted. Miners are forced to work deeper and deeper, in increasingly dangerous conditions. “We’re forced into this business by poverty”, states one teenager. “I have to work day and night to support my family”. Officially, workers have to be 16 to go down the mines. But in the poorest regions of Bolivia, these rules are often ignored. Fourteen year old Jesus earns €4 a day from working in the mines. After a long shift, he has to go to school. “I always get headaches during my shifts and can’t concentrate on my studies”.

10:30:00 – 10:01:50 – Opening montage: Catholic rites, street-dancing, Bolivian GVs.

As a former union leader, Evo Morales is more accustomed to attacking governments than leading them. But Bolivia’s first ever indigenous President has ambitious plans for his country. “Sooner or later there must be a profound transformation”, he vows. “I want a new economic model.” Morales’ first objective is to seize back control of the country’s national assets, including its enormous natural gas reserves. “Oligarchies won’t just give up. They want to continue sucking the Bolivian people’s blood.” A series of forced privatisations imposed by the World Bank and IMF left Bolivia the poorest country in Latin America. Now, Morales has pledged to renegotiate existing oil contracts. Actions like this – and his close friendship with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro – have sent shivers down Washington’s spine. But any heavy-handed action from the White House could backfire. As analyst Jim Shultz explains: “America’s fear is that it will push Bolivia into the arms of Hugo Chavez.”

On a dusty mountain road out of La Paz, armed troops blockade the only route out of town. They are confronted by an angry crowd of desperate Coca farmers shouting ‘Coca or death’. Confronted by tear-gas and rubber bullets, they are trying to get out and join their comrades in the coca growing region deep in the Andes. We investigate why bloody battles have broken out between farmers and armed troops on the streets of La Paz. It seems that it is all for a plant the Bolivian people have traditionally grown and used as a herbal pick me up. The US has been implementing an $85 million dollar ‘Dignity Plan’ – in an attempt to substitute the economic reliance on coca production with other industries. But oranges are failing to match the coca leaf profits. According to Bolivia’s president his country is booming - the success of the coca substitution plan has attracted massive foreign investment. But the substitution plan has stripped the nation of nearly $300 million a year, leaving many coca-growers jobless and angry. Other groups have joined the cocaleros’ uprising in the capital as a result of the Government’s privatisation policies. Coca has become a symbol of national resistance. Now some regions of the country are virtual war-zones. The uprisings have blocked most of the mountainous roads that link Bolivia’s main cities and connect the country to its neighbours.

Bolivia’s government, reliant on US aid and vulnerable to US dictates, has been forced to uphold a war against coco producers. The ‘Leopards’ - anti-narcotic paramilitaries - patrol the tropical jungles of Chapere and destroy small cocaine factories. Local farmers, like Berto, are put under pressure to rip up their coco plants and rePlace them with alternative crops. But now Berto can’t sell his new produce and is more impoverished than ever. Human rights organisations report violent abuses committed by the ‘Leopards’ against men and women. US Ambassador coolly contests such reports and admits that Bolivia would be ‘hurt’ if it objected to US initiatives. Evo Morales leads the Chapere people in a protest rally. In their muddy villages, the tired faces don’t understand why their government is trying to destroy their livelihood.

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