Optimism and living standards rising together

People say they never imagined such changes and it is so good to see a government, like those in Cuba and Venezuela, that really puts the people first.

The renegotiation of the gas contracts - Bolivia's biggest export - and nationalisation of electricity and telecommunications has put real money back into the economy and into people's pockets.

For example, the minimum wage has increased by 127 per cent since Evo came to power and this year it will rise by a further 27 per cent.

Unemployment has fallen to 5.5 per cent from 9.3 per cent in 2004, and each year 138,000 people (of a population of 9 million) cease to live in conditions of poverty.

As Evo says in his First of May message "Today the country is for everyone, brothers and sisters, and the work of each one - however humble it may be - helps to construct this new plurinational state that requires such an effort from us.

"The contribution of each person enriches the country and this wealth is distributed to everyone so that the economic and social gaps should not be so great among Bolivians.

"This is the difference between the firsts of May nowadays and previously."

Mark Burton
Manchester