Versión Español
EspañolBolivia’s President Evo Morales has a new museum, and a new nickname to go with.
The opposition has dubbed him “Ego” Morales following the US $7.1 million museum he built to glorify his life story and legacy.
He led the inauguration of his museum, called the Museum of the Democratic and Cultural Revolution, in the remote village of Orinoca, where he grew up.
In an opinion column on Friday, February 10 published in Nuevo Herald, Andrés Oppenheimer described Morales as an authoritarian populist.
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The building was reportedly built with government funds, and features a life-size statue and several portraits of world leaders and Morales’ honorary degrees from several universities. He also displayed t-shirts from his soccer collection and childhood memories, such as a trumpet.
Minister of Culture Vilma Alanoca said it is “the largest and most modern museum” in Bolivia, proclaiming with tears in her eyes that its opening marks an important date in history.
“This museum is the heritage of those who fought for the liberation of our people,” she said.
Orinoca is located in a remote area and has only 900 inhabitants, 90 percent of whom live in poverty, according to an Associated Press report on February 3rd.
This is not the first time Morales has spent public funds on his own legacy. In 2015, the Ministry of Communications published a book containing poems written by Morales, titled “The Process of Change Turned Into Verse.”
This book was published shortly after a scandal surrounding a military anthem written by army officers praising Evo Morales, which many at first thought was the country’s new official song.
In 2014, the government distributed part of another book, this time for children, titled The Adventures of little Evo, about the President’s childhood, and which included illustrations called Little Evo Plays Soccer and Little Evo Goes to School.
Morales has also tried hard to change Bolivia‘s constitution to remain in power, but he lost the referendum in February of last year.
Source: El Nuevo Herlad
