Evo Morales, who fled to Mexico after resigning as president, may not be missed in Bolivia but his absence will be felt at the Vatican. One of the most curious aspects of the first Latin American pontificate is that Morales enjoyed the status he did. He was the Holy Father’s favourite leader in the Americas. Which was passing strange, as he was a tyrant.
Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, took office in 2006. A leftist populist, he was part of the socialist/ communist rise in Latin America: Chávez in Venezuela, Ortega in Nicaragua. It is generally acknowledged that Morales put the oil and gas boom to good use, reducing poverty and advancing the cause of indigenous peoples. He did not follow the full-on Chavismo of Venezuela, where state control of the energy sector has led to the pauperisation of what should be a rich country.
