"We are not interested in good relations with the US"

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/05/31/inenglish/1338474014_274705.html


Bolivian President Evo Morales. / CARLOS GARCÍA RAWLINS (REUTERS)

He doesn't sleep for more than four hours. What is his secret? The short naps he takes on the plane when he travels from corner to corner across Bolivia. "I sleep a little, and then I am wide awake," says Evo Morales Ayma.

It is difficult to match the stamina of the 52-year-old Morales, who became Bolivia's first indigenous president and has fought tooth-and-nail to transform his Andean country.

Question. After six years in government, what have been your most successful measures and your biggest failure?

Answer. The problem that still pains me the most was the violent confrontation in 2006 that took place in Huanuni between miners from different cooperatives and the government, which left more than 10 people dead and wounded. It wasn't a struggle against the government or state, but a conflict between miners who fought each other with dynamite. And, of course, the removal of government subsidies for gasoline products.