Castro clone takes office in Bolivia

Evo Morales

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A former coca grower – and a fierce critic of the U.S. – was sworn in as president in Bolivia today.

Evo Morales vowed to end discrimination against Bolivia's Indian majority and lift the Andean nation's poor out of misery by tapping profits from national gas reserves, as he assumed the presidency.

Morales led violent street uprisings that toppled two predecessors. He raised a clenched fist in a leftist salute to become Bolivia's first Indian president.

"I wish to tell you, my Indian brothers, that the 500-year indigenous and popular campaign of resistance has not been in vain," Morales said, promising his government would end discrimination dating to the Spanish conquest in 1520.

Morales' election is widely seen as part of Latin America's shift toward the political left and socialism.

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