Evo Morales

Juan Evo Morales Ayma (born October 26, 1959 in Orinoca, Oruro), popularly known as Evo (pronounced [ˈeβo]), has been the President of Bolivia since 2006. He has been declared the country's first fully indigenous head of state in the 470 years since the Spanish Conquest.
Morales was first elected President of Bolivia on December 18, 2005, with 53.7% of the popular vote in an election that saw the participation of 84.5% of the national electorate. Two and a half years later he substantially increased this majority; in a recall referendum on August 14, 2008, more than two thirds of voters (67.4%) voted to keep him in power.
Morales is the leader of a political party called the Movement for Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, with the Spanish acronym MAS, meaning "more"). MAS was involved in social protests such as the gas conflict and the Cochabamba protests of 2000, along with many other groups, that are collectively referred to as "social movements" in Bolivia. The MAS aims at giving more power to the country's indigenous and poor communities by means of land reforms and redistribution of gas wealth.
Morales is also titular president of Bolivia's cocalero movement — a loose federation of coca growers' unions, made up of campesinos who are resisting the efforts of the United States government to eradicate coca in the province of Chapare in central Bolivia. Morales was born in the highlands of Orinoca, Oruro. He is of indigenous (Aymara) descent. He was one of seven children born to Dionisio Morales Choque and Maria Mamani; only Morales and two of his siblings survived past childhood. He grew up in an adobe house with a straw roof that was "no more than three by four meters." At age six, he traveled with his father to Argentina to work in the sugar cane harvest. As a result of his indigenous heritage, his parents made offerings of coca leaves and alcohol to mother earth, or Pachamama. At the age of 12, he accompanied his father in herding llamas from Oruro to the province of Independencia in Cochabamba. When he was 14, Morales showed his organizational skills by forming a football team with other youths; he continued herding llamas to pay the bills. Three ayllus (network of families) within the community elected him technical director of selection for the canton's team when he was only 16 years old. That same year, in order to attend high school, he moved to Oruro. There he worked as a bricklayer, a baker, and a trumpet player for the Royal Imperial Band (which allowed him to travel across Bolivia). He attended Beltrán Ávila High School but was not able to finish school, and fulfilled his mandatory military service in La Paz.
His behavior contrasts with the usual manners of dignitaries in Latin America. For example, in January 28, 2006 he cut his salary by 57% to $1,875 a month. He is single and, before the election, he shared a flat with other MAS officers. Consequently, his older sister Esther Morales Ayma fulfills the role of First Lady. He has two children from different women. He also aroused much interest in his choice of dress after being pictured often in his striped sweater with world leaders during his world tour. Some speculated that he would wear it to the official inauguration, where he actually dressed in a white shirt without tie (itself unheard of in Latin America in modern times for a head of state at their own inauguration) and a black jacket that was not a part of a conventional suit. The sweater (in Bolivian Spanish, a chompa, from the English word jumper) became his unofficial symbol and copies of it sold widely throughout Bolivia. Some accounts described Morales's signature sweater as alpaca-wool; others reported that it was actually made of common acrylic, because native materials had become too expensive for most Bolivians and were sold mostly in the tourist trade.
Evo Morales is a soccer enthusiast and plays the game frequently, often with local soccer teams. Morales is also a big admirer of Che Guevara and in 2007 held a memorial on the anniversary of Guevara's killing by the Bolivian army in 1967. (wikipedia - www.narconews.com - www.indymedia.ie - pwowfg.blu.livefilestore.com)