President Evo Morales of Bolivia was the first Bolivian president ever to skip the famous Expocruz, the Santa Cruz cow show. He did so because he considers its denizens capitalists.

Out in Bolivia’s Butch-and-Sundance territory, nothing’s more important than this show. Miguel Centellas, in this post here, noted that Morales’ absence from the show worried his Cruceno parents every bit as much as renewed violence in the streets. He writes:

But threats by Evo’s supporters to shut down the Feria Expocruz, a small scale regional, industrial “world’s fair” in Santa Cruz has my parents worried (not least, of course, because they live near the fair’s site). I remember attending the event as a kid growing up in Bolivia. It was an opportunity for Santa Cruz businesses of all stripes (agricultural, chemical, industrial, etc.), as well as foreign companies (Chinese, Argentine, Brazilian, etc.) to showcase. In short, it was an annual celebration of the country’s dynamic economic engine. Efforts to disrupt this symbol of the very essence of the comit???? c????vico image of Santa Cruz ???????? “the Bolivia that works” ???????? could be disastrous.

On the front page of today’s La Razon, you can check out for yourself what Morales opted to miss in that annual Santa Cruz cow show:

Santa Cruz’s finest leading export
Source: La Razon, Bolivia