Coca growers unions in Bolivia have elected former president Evo Morales as president of Premier League football club Palmaflor, an administrator said on Thursday.
“The Palmaflor team is led by our brother Evo Morales Aima,” said Raleigh Haldin, a member of the Tropical Coca Growers Union in Carrasco, in the center of the country, and a former President of Bolivia between 2006 and 2019.
Morales, 63, mentioned a project to take over the club last year without specifying his role. Six coca unions, led by the left-leaning ex-president, also agreed last year to take over the club for free.
Morales, who belongs to an Amerindian minority in Puno’s Aymara region, worked on coca farms in his early years.
Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, resigned in 2019 under pressure from opposition protests challenging his re-election for a fourth term.
“A board of directors has been formed that will lead and manage the entire Palmaflor club,” Khalidin added.
Among the members of the club, who are mostly members of the Union of Coca Producers, is Andronico Rodríguez, chairman of the Senate of Bolivia, who grows coca. For the time being, the position of sports director will be taken by Tito Montano, a football player and former sports minister under Morales.
Palmaflora belonged to the small gold merchants Kyakuyu. The club’s headquarters moved to Villa Tunari in Chapare, a coca-growing countryside. The Bicentenario stadium has a capacity of 25,000 spectators.
Last season, Palmaflor finished fifth in the league, and this season they are participating in the Copa Sudamericana, where on March 9 they will meet their compatriot Blooming in the first match of the tournament.
Source: AFP