The video: It's one way of asserting Presidential authority. During a 'friendly' soccer game against political rivals in La Paz, Bolivian president Evo Morales was filmed kneeing an opponent in the groin. (Watch video below.) The president's target, Daniel Gustavo Cartagena, a civil servant in La Paz's city hall, collapsed to the ground in agony during a match between members of Morales' Movement Towards Socialism party and its political rival, the Movement Without Fear party. Cartagena, who apparently provoked the attack by fouling the president, was threatened with arrest.
The reaction: This incident betrays tensions between two political parties who were "firm political allies until last year, when they fell out," says Tom Worden in The Daily Mail. It's unusual behavior for Morales, who "usually tackles political rivals with his populist message," not his knee. You have to wonder how this went over in American political circles, says David Rothkopf at Foreign Policy. Is it too much to imagine Republican senator Jim DeMint calling the White House to see if "the president and his inner circle would be up for a little friendly soccer match"? Watch the clip:
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