The cable car is pulling hard, and at an angle of 45 degrees makes the last leg of the journey between ‘la Hoyada’, the popular name for La Paz, and El Alto, the rebel Aymara city that during three decades has constructed an identity by means of colorful buildings and a heavy population and commercial density. From four thousand meters above sea level the one million strong population of El Alto brought down two presidents in the early years of the new century and voted massively voted for Evo Morales in three elections, but recently surprised by choosing as mayor Soledad Chapetón, a young woman and leader of a new Andean right that dreams of coming to power through the ballot box.
On March 29, 2015, defying the President’s call to vote for the MAS (Movimiento Hacia el Socialismo) aspirant, El Alto voted in Chapetón, candidate of the National Unity (Unidad Nacional - UN) party led by Samuel Doria Medina, one of the richest men in the country and second in October 2014 presidential elections. Her victory put a dent in the local structures attached to the ruling national party, and she hopes to become the popular face of a party associated with the name of a millionaire businessman. Her first weeks in office, on the other hand, were not exactly quiet.
