- Title: ARGENTINA/BOLIVIA: Former Argentine Nobel backs Bolivia's Morales for peace prize
- Date: 17th March 2010
- Summary: TIWANAKU, BOLIVIA (FILE - 2006) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) INDIGENOUS PEOPLE DANCING MORALES SURROUNDED BY CROWD
- Embargoed: 1st April 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVADJL69S54UJJU5L1BT6I8QRKUU
- Story Text: A former Nobel Peace Prize-winner nominated on Tuesday (March 16) Bolivia's indigenous president Evo Morales for the peace prize in 2010, saying the leftist leader has provided hope for the disenfranchised.
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who won the Nobel in 1980 for non-violent defense of human rights in Latin America, had already nominated Morales in 2007, a year after the leftist took over as Bolivia's president.
Surrounded by activists and journalists, Perez Esquivel spoke on Tuesday at a cultural centre in Buenos Aires, saying Morales is committed to the needs of the people he governs.
"It's his commitment and coherence with his people, his capacity for resistance and the hope that he gives that change is possible. That it is possible to build, that dignity for the people is possible," he said.
Morales took over as president in 2006, ending generations of rule by conservative leaders of Spanish descent. He set out to 'refound' the country in the name of the poor, indigenous majority by strengthening the state's grip on key industries like the energy sector.
He increased state revenue by nationalizing several oil facilities with the idea of redistributing wealth through social programs in South America's poorest nation.
Morales has also worked to redistribute land, mostly in the eastern Amazon lowlands where wealthy farmers have scooped up large tracts, often leaving land fallow.
In 2009, Morales led an overhaul of the constitution to enshrine traditional religions and practices and give indigenous groups greater rights over their ancestral lands, a move that helped his popularity.
He won a landslide victory for a second term in December 2009.
Perez Esquivel made it clear he felt Morales was more deserving of the award than last year's winner, U.S. President Barack Obama.
"I wrote in a letter to Obama that it surprised me that they gave him the prize. But now that he has it he must try to be coherent, to try to work for peace and not justify war. That's it," he said.
Perez Esquivel set up a human rights organisation called Servicio Paz y Justicia during Argentina's bloody Dirty War (1976-1983). The group was fundamental in documenting human rights abuses during the dictatorship and now has three offices in Latin America. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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