<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cocalero</i> is a documentary that follows Evo Morales during for the presidency of Bolivia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Directed by Alejandro Landes, it provides a first hand account on Morales’ 2005 campaign trail, which showed a complete different approach than Goni had in the previous film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it even showed Morales’ way got better results on the ballot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Evo Morales was a coca farmer, and greatly supported the indigenous way of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The film shows how the indigenous people of Bolivia became a determining factor in the way the country was run, by democratically electing a man who was willing to work for the people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Goni was elected president in 2001 with 22 percent of the vote, and Morales won with an actual majority, over 50 percent in 2005.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">This film doesn’t represent the first time indigenous people rose above its oppressors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Ecuador, the pan-Indians were tired of the abuse they received from the government in the 1990s (Fields).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pan-Indians demanded their ancestral lands be given back to them that had been taken from them by the Spanish, and then currently owned by the local government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These guys made the roads impassable by placing large rocks in the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This caused Ecuador’s economy to shut down, and showed the country how dependent they were on the native farmers (Fields, 39).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After they acted, there were national shortages in various goods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The indigenous people in Bolivia also blocked roads like this in the film, and Morales was right there helping them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pan-Indians demanded the return of the lands that were originally taken from them by the Spanish, and that tariffs on farm goods from small farms owned by indigenous people (Field, 41).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br /><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ecuador is also a target by foreign investors not for what lay on the countryside, but for what was buried underneath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a vast reservoir of oil underneath the Amazon rain forest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others are interested in the land for farming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem with these investments is that it will damage the rain forest and subsequently harm the indigenous tribes that live there. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The local tribes blocked the airport’s airstrip to prevent the explorer’s from leaving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They knew that the foreigners were plotting to destroy their homes (Sawyer, 69).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people marched to the capital to demand that the government revert back to their original ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tribes felt as if they were responsible for taking care of the forest, saying they are “the lungs of the world” (Sawyer, 71).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the film, Evo Morales seems to parallel to the ways of the indigenous tribes of Ecuador while trying to protect the cocaleros’ way of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The neo-liberal themes that were present in the Bolivian government at the time Evo Morales began campaigning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The coca farmers were left out of the new policies made during the presidency of Goni, and their way of life was at steak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than dismantle the government or demand a drastic change in their ways, Evo Morales rallied the indigenous population, gave them a rise in self-pride, and taught them how to recognize his name on the ballot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By backing his people, the indigenous cocaleros, he won himself the election.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Thank you for your time.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4519892394579927293-2808089577174339217?l=jeremiahglass.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
