Thursday, February 02, 2012

Bolivia's Morales Caught Between Indigenous Roots, Economic Demands | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS

Bolivia's Morales Caught Between Indigenous Roots, Economic Demands | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS: One of South America's most controversial leaders finds himself -- yet again -- squeezed between two competing demands and constituencies.

Bolivian President Evo Morales this week encountered another protest related to a controversial road-building project through an Amazon rainforest that he canceled last year -- this time from supporters hoping to revive it.

The support of the government's plan comes a little too late, since the project was canned, and there are no prospects of a reversal, said Simeon Tegel, a Lima, Peru-based correspondent who reports on Latin American issues for GlobalPost. "Arguably, they're probably complicating his life a little bit given that he's now backtracked on the road."