June 22, 2008

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The Bolivian president and vice-president enjoy a high level of public support, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado. 56 per cent of respondents agree with the way Evo Morales and Álvaro García Linera are leading the country.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The Bolivian president and vice-president enjoy a high level of public support, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado. 56 per cent of respondents agree with the way Evo Morales and Álvaro García Linera are leading the country.

Morales—an indigenous leader and former coca-leaf farmer—won the December 2005 presidential election as the candidate for the Movement to Socialism (MAS), with 53.7 per cent of the vote. He officially took over as Bolivia’s head of state in January 2006. García Linera was Morales’ running mate.

Morales’s tenure has been focused on "re-founding" Bolivia through a new constitution. In November 2007, a draft constitution was approved with the support of all pro-government National Constituent Assembly members. Opposition parties boycotted the vote. The proposed draft includes articles that allow for consecutive presidential re-election, the creation of 36 autonomous indigenous communities, and tighter government controls over private media outlets. The new charter has yet to be ratified in a national referendum.

Earlier this month, former defence minister Carlos Sánchez Berzaín revealed that the United States granted him political asylum more than a year ago and he now lives in Florida. Sánchez Berzaín is facing genocide charges in Bolivia for overseeing a military crackdown on public protests that killed at least 60 people in 2003.

On Jun. 9, thousand of Bolivians protested in front of the U.S. embassy in La Paz, Bolivia’s capital, and called for Washington to extradite Sánchez Berzaín. On Jun. 17, Morales sided with the protesters, saying, "[The protest] is not any attack, [it] is the reaction of the people against U.S. government policies."

Polling Data

Do you agree or disagree with the continuity of the process of change spearheaded by Evo Morales and Álvaro García Linera?

Agree	56%
Disagree	37%
Not sure	7%

Source: Ipsos Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado
Methodology: Interviews with 1,000 Bolivian adults in La Paz, El Alto, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, conducted in May 2008. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.