Evo Morales Aima is frontrunner in Bolivia elections

heraldtoday: Coca farmer poised to win presidency

While fireworks boomed and thousands of supporters cheered, presidential front-runner Evo Morales Aima shyly took the stage Wednesday night as if he were embarrassed by all the spectacle around him.

But there was nothing timid about the 46-year-old coca farmer's speech as he unleashed the kind of rhetoric that's made him one of Latin America's most divisive figures.

"The hour has arrived where we liberate ourselves completely," he said. "I feel a wave of uprising and rebellion all around Latin America and a growing courage to stop our subjugation at the hands of the North American empire."

Bolivians will vote Sunday, and recent polls suggest that Morales is running 5 to 8 points ahead of his closest challenger, former President Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga. That means that not only is Morales likely to become Bolivia's first indigenous president in its 180-year history, but also that Latin America is about to have another government that openly challenges American influence in the region. Read more