Bolivia: To the Left, March!

Evo Morales once quipped that the coca leaf should be Bolivia's "new national flag." It almost looks as if he has fulfilled his prediction as he parties into the night wearing coca-leaf wreaths during the weeks leading up to his Jan. 22 inauguration as Bolivia's President. The leftist Morales, 46, won a stunning landslide in last month's election in no small part because he pledged to legalize far more cultivation of coca, which Aymara Indians like him have chewed for centuries for traditional medicinal purposes and which the U.S. has tried for decades to eradicate in Bolivia because drug traffickers use it to make cocaine. Morales impishly claims that coca-leaf extract is part of the formula of the classic American beverage Coca-Cola (a legend the company has consistently declined to comment on) and adds, "It's not right that exporting coca is legal for Coca-Cola but not for the rest of us!"

The Yankee baiting is part of Morales' stated intention to be the U.S.'s "worst nightmare." He flatters himself, given that Bolivia is, after Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. But the Bush Administration has reason to be spooked. Morales' win has helped build momentum for a resurgence of leftist and often anti-U.S. candidates around Latin America. At least nine presidential races are slated for the region this year, and leftists could win at least five--including those in the two most populous countries, Brazil and Mexico, as well as in coca producers like Peru and Ecuador. Leftists have toppled conservative governments in Uruguay and Honduras, and socialist Michelle Bachelet is favored to win Chile's presidential runoff on Jan. 15. To punctuate the situation, the radical left-wing President of oil-rich Venezuela, Hugo Chávez--the "new mayor of the Latin American street," says Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs--is all but certain to be re-elected at year's end.

The White House helped raise Chávez's profile when Washington was widely believed to have backed a failed coup in 2002 against the democratically elected revolutionary (a charge the Bush Administration denies). Since then, despite what critics call Chávez's penchant for authoritarian rule, his popularity has risen--not only in Latin America but also in some parts of U.S. cities like Boston and New York, where the Venezuelan government--owned company Citgo is providing low-income residents with cheap heating oil this winter. Chávez has surpassed his good friend Fidel Castro as the anti-U.S. idol of the Latin American masses--and as a model for other populist leaders in the region, although few have his petroleum resources to use as a cudgel.