“Perhaps we need to start saying ‘Long Live pineapples, Long Live oranges,’ I don’t know… I think we’re wrong to be shouting ‘Long Live coca’ now. I think it has passed out of fashion.” Bolivia’s President Evo Morales in a speech in the Chapare, where he is head of the coca growers’ organisation. “Europe and the US disdain happiness.” Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro defends his creation of a deputy ministry for the supreme social happiness of the people. “Let’s agree that Mercosur, which is a food factory, must put an end to poverty and extreme poverty in a given timetable,…

Former president Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010) could win the presidential elections on 17 November in the first round, crushing her main opponent, Evelyn Matthei, in the process, according to a poll released on 29 October. Bachelet has long been the overwhelming favourite for victory but it had still been widely assumed she would have to go to a second round run-off to secure it. The first televised debate featuring all of the presidential candidates took place hours after the release of the poll. Bachelet is on course to win 47% of the vote to just 14% for Matthei, according to a…