Bolivia Doesn't Want a President for Life

Calling out a head of state at his own ceremony might seem like political folly. Not least when it’s Evo Morales, Bolivia’s willful three-term president who is now stumping for a fourth -- public opinion and the constitution be damned. But if veteran Dakar Rally quad racer Leonardo Martinez had second thoughts when he recently gave Morales a piece of his mind after crossing the finish line in the Bolivian capital, he didn’t show it.

“Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, the majority of us voted ‘No,’” Martinez stated on the podium before Morales and his entourage. “When I entered (the) Dakar (race) I submitted to all the rules. I’m not a politician, I only ask that you respect the constitution and February 21,” Martinez said, nodding to the date of a referendum last year in which 51 percent had voted against changing the constitution to abolish presidential term limits.