Morgan Freeman: Evo Morales, 'A Rebel Who Became President'

The Bolivian President is the focus of one episode of U.S. actor Morgan Freeman's new documentary series “The Story of Us,” soon to be broadcast by the National Geographic Channel.

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“I came from Santa Cuz in order to meet with Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous President,” says Freeman as an introduction to his interview with Morales.

Freeman starts narrating various aspects of Morales' life before he was elected president, recalling that from poor extraction, he was one of the three children who survived birth out of seven.

“Evo grew older, became a coca campesino,” continues the episode, showing how he ended leading the labor union representing the interests of coca campesinos in Chapare.

During the interview, Morales explains that he is drinking an infusion of coca flour, as the coca leaf has many health and nutritional benefits.

Morales condemned the U.S.-led so-called policy of “war on drugs” that has deeply harmed the campesinos of the Andean country: “Washington believes that whoever consumes coca is consuming a drug.”

The President also remembered one of his first moments of political struggle, when he fought the military raid in Chapara and saw one of his comrades burnt alive.

Then Freeman goes back on the history of the movement for the defense of Chapare, and how it extended at a national level, with massive marches towards the government's facility.

One of the marches was meant to demand the release of Morales, then arrested as a leader of the social movement.

“In 2005, Evo was elected President, and as president, he brought his socialist rebellion to the international scene,” concludes Freeman.