Weekly Report - 8 July 2003

The man the Bolivian government most fears, MAS congressman Evo Morales, recently confirmed as leader of the peasant confederations that represent the coca growers, has just made a power bid for the broader peasant organisation, the Confederación Sindical Unica de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB). 

At a hurriedly convened congress of the CSUTCB, 2,000 delegates voted to replace their leader, Felipe Quispe, with Román Loayza, a senator for the MAS and a close ally of Morales. Loayza, like Morales, is Quechua; Quispe is Aymara -indeed is often accused of seeking Aymara dominance of Bolivia's indigenous movement.