Goodman: Bolivian president asks U.S. forces to step aside

Evo Morales knows about “change you can believe in.” He also knows what happens when a powerful elite is forced to make changes it doesn't want.

Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, the poorest country in South America. He was inaugurated in January 2006. Against tremendous internal opposition, he nationalized Bolivia's natural-gas fields, transforming the country's economic stability and, interestingly, enriching the very elite that originally criticized the move.

Yet last September, the backlash came to a peak. In an interview in New York this week, Morales told me: “The opposition, the right-wing parties ... decided to do a violent coup. ... They couldn't do it.”

You can submit a letter to the editor online:

• Letter submission form -click here-