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Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, will complete a year in office on 22 January amid rising civil unrest.

The first-round victory of Evo Morales in the December 2005 presidential election profoundly altered Bolivia’s politics and the way South America’s poorest nation is seen abroad.

Bolivia and Peru are becoming a second, though compared to Colombia still relatively small-scale, pole of cocaine production in the Andes, feeding in particular a growing Latin American market in addition to the traditional U.S. and European markets.

Bolivia is in the midst of its most dangerous power struggle since the mid-1980s and still smarting from the violence of 2003, which left nearly 100 people dead and forced the resignation and flight of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada after barely six months in office.

The five states that comprise the Community of Andean Nations (CAN) -- Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela -- all face serious crises that taken together call the stability of the entire region into question.