Why Bolivia's middle class feels left out by Morales

Lawyers, teachers, police officers, and taxi drivers disagree with his policies and claim he governs for the indigenous only.

from the March 27, 2007 edition

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"There is a huge sense of identity with him among the indigenous and rural," says Jim Shultz, a political analyst at The Democracy Center in Cochabamba. "He is the embodiment of their hope."

But some say it has come at the cost of alienating others. "He is just the president of some, not all of us," says Claudia Garcia, an elementary schoolteacher in Cochabamba. "He is always talking about the natives, but I consider myself native, too, because I was born here. If I'm not native, then what am I?"

Jose Pimentel, a congressman from Morales's party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), denies that the president is excluding the middle class. The problem, he says, is that the middle- and upper-classes do not need the same level of attention or resources that the poor do. "What they need is economic stability," he says. "And Morales is providing that."

According to the government, for example, per capita income has increased by 8 percent in the past year. High prices for tin, oil, and natural gas have created a favorable macroeconomic picture. Economic growth was 4.5 percent last year.

If elections were held today, Morales would likely still win. His approval rating in February stood at 64 percent, according to the polling firm Equipos Mori. Right now, says Eduardo Gamarra, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University, "Nobody would beat Evo."

But Mr. Chavez says that Morales's support overall has fallen by 10 percentage points from this time last year, and analysts say most of that decline comes from the middle class. Unemployment, registering around 8 percent, he says, has remained the same since Morales became president, but that is due in part to the fact that so many Bolivians are emigrating from the country, particularly to Spain.

The Spanish Embassy in La Paz, according to local reports, estimates that some 200,000 Bolivians currently reside in Spain. That is more than a 10-fold increase in the last five years.

Taxi driver Richard Villca is one of those packing. He plans to leave for Spain by next month. He supported Morales at first, especially his move to renegotiate contracts with foreign energy companies. But he says Morales favored loyalists over competent managers. "His government is full of people who don't know what they are doing," he says. "Things aren't going to get better here."

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