Atrip on the new cable car that links La .Paz, the Bolivian capital, to El Alto, a satellite city perched 400 metres up the cliffs, takes eight scenic minutes. Zig-zag-ging up the mountains in a bus normally takes 40. The cable car wins plaudits for President Evo Morales. "Evo is actually investing in the country," says Juan Diaz Crespin Quispe, who sells natural remedies concocted from plants and lizard parts in El Alto's twice-weekly market. "He's developing and redistributing, not just lining his own pockets like past governments." Such sentiment is common. That, and the smothering of the opposition, will help Mr Morales get a third term in presidential elections on October 12th. Bolivian presidents are technically limited to two consecutive terms, but after pushing through a new charter in 2009, Mr Morales persuaded pliant courts to ignore his first term, which was under the old dispensation.
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