Bolivia‘s President-Elect Visits Argentina =17 January, 2006

http://www.heraldnewsdaily.com/stories/news-00126150.html

Bolivia‘s President-Elect Visits Argentina =17 January, 2006By BILL CORMIER

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - When he was a child, Evo Morales sold homemade sweets on street corners in Argentina to help support his migrant Indian family. On Tuesday, Morales returned to this country as the first Indian president-elect of Argentina‘s northern neighbor, Bolivia.
"It‘s not that way," he continued. "We are human beings. We are happy that we are finally being recognized — thanks to the vote of the people, they will know what Bolivia is."
Morales urged Argentines to accept the rich variety of South American peoples after reporters pressed him to talk about his own childhood in Jujuy, which borders Bolivia and is one of Argentina‘s poorest provinces.
Like most Bolivian migrants at the time, Morales, then 4 or 5, was part of a despised underclass. He got his first taste of school on the plantation where his father harvested sugar cane, but said he soon dropped out because as an Aymara Indian he didn‘t understand Spanish.
Bolivia has exported more than 7 million cubic feet of gas daily since 2004 to energy-hungry Argentina, South America‘s second-largest economy. And while he would welcome increased exports, Morales said supplies for Bolivians should be increased first.
Morales — who joined with Kirchner last year in opposition to the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas, said he and Kirchner also discussed plans to tackle poverty, illiteracy and rampant corruption in Bolivia.
And Morales reiterated that he welcomes dialogue with the United States, though he referred to it as "the empire."
Morales also renewed his assurances that his government would protect property and the rights of businesses.
Still, Morales‘ open admiration for Cuba‘s Fidel Castro and Venezuela‘s Hugo Chavez have rattled some conservatives. The Venezuelan leader is expected to attend Sunday‘s inauguration, and Morales said Tuesday he had asked Castro to come when the two talked in Cuba recently.
"When I met him, I joked with Fidel: ‘If you don‘t come to the inauguration, I‘m not going to take the oath‘" of office, he said.
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