Bolivia

I don't follow South American politics as much as I should. I've already written about how little I knew about Chavez before America tried to depose him. There are a number of other South American countries that have leaders are called left-wing. Some of them aren't so much. The recently elected leader of Chile started by comitting herself to structural readjustment, which is about as left-wing as the fourth labour government.

But I'm prepared to acknowledge that the nationalisation of extractive industries is actually left-wing. Evo Maroles has instructed the army to occupy oil and gas reserves so that the companies will re-negotiate. I know a little about negotiations, that sounds like a good way of negotiating.

"It's been up and down," says José López, a Santa Cruz native. "For the first 100 days of his rule, Evo didn't do the things he said he would. But this was much better. Now everyone is behind him again."

Such was the swing of popular support behind Mr Morales this week that a general strike planned for Thursday in the Santa Cruz region was called off.

It sounds like he was driven to it. So I pay tribute to all those who organised to make this a reality.