Evo Morales, the coca farmers' leader who became Bolivia's president in 2005, has been re-elected with an increased majority of 63% of the country's 5 million voters. His slightly hesitant Spanish is a clue to his immense popularity. A native speaker of Quechua, one of Bolivia's two main indigenous languages, he is the first president who can claim to represent the 65% of Bolivia's population who belong to indigenous communities. The constitution, finally ratified in January of this year enshrines an initial promise to acknowledge, again for the first time, Bolivia's "plurinational" character and its cultural and linguistic diversity.
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