Morales may first visit South Africa

Bolivia: The likely first trip abroad of Bolivia's first president from its Indian majority will be a visit to South Africa, in a symbolic demonstration of the end of "apartheid" in Bolivia.

The invitation was reportedly extended by Nelson Mandela during a call to congratulate Evo Morales on his stunning victory in Sunday's vote, which marked the end of five centuries of rule by the white minority, dating back to the Spanish conquest.

President-elect Morales is also said to have received an invitation to visit Caracas from his friend and ally Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela. Mr Chávez made no secret of his support for Mr Morales during the contest and said his victory had turned Bolivia "into a front of the struggle for justice and dignity of nations, and South American integration through the spirit of Bolivar and Sucre" - the two Venezuelan-born independence heroes who liberated Bolivia.

Mr Chávez is expected to offer Mr Morales financial and technical help to allow Bolivia rebuild its state energy company. The assistance will probably come under the umbrella of Mr Chávez's Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alba), an organisation he is building in opposition to the US-proposed Free Trade Area for the Americas and which currently comprises Venezuela and Cuba.

Washington suspects Mr Chávez of using his oil wealth to fund the campaigns of radicals like Mr Morales across the region in an attempt to win more partners for his radical anti-US, anti-globalisation campaign. No financial links have ever been proved.

Another Chávez protégé who has welcomed Mr Morales's victory is the Peruvian Indian leader Ollanta Humala, like Mr Chávez a rebellious former military officer.

Like Mr Morales, Mr Humala draws his support from among Peru's marginalised Indian-descended majority and promises to break the power of his country's corrupt European elite. He also favours nationalising key industries and the free cultivation of coca.

Even though Mr Humala is more xenophobic than Mr Morales and his MAS party - his opponents accuse him of being an indigenous fascist - analysts say the links between Peru and Bolivia mean an indigenous win in Bolivia will boost the indigenous campaign in Peru.

"Evo is a symbol of the Latin-American Indian world and his victory will have repercussions in countries like Peru and Ecuador. This will help Humala," Bolivian writer Edmundo Paz Soldán told La Tercera.

In recent weeks Mr Humala has come from nowhere to a close second in opinion polls ahead of Peru's presidential elections due in April.

"Once Morales drops down the news agenda Humala will come more and more into the US State Department's cross hairs and we can expect more statements against him," says Larry Birns, director of the Washington think-tank, the Council of Hemispheric Affairs.

Meanwhile, Bolivia's relations with neighbouring Brazil and Argentina are as expected shaping up to be dominated by the energy question. Both countries welcomed the mandate won by Mr Morales, which analysts say increases their chances of being able to better exploit Bolivia's huge gas reserves.

Energy companies from both countries have invested heavily in Bolivia's gas fields to secure a stable energy supply for their growing economies. But investment has dwindled in recent years, even as demand for gas has grown, because of the political turmoil that has engulfed Bolivia, largely as a result of disagreements over how best to exploit the gas reserves.

Officials in Brazil and Argentina say they expect Mr Morales's mandate will make him strong enough to impose a solution in Bolivia on how to run gas exports. Brazil in particular is confident that the fact that its state energy firm Petrobras alone accounts for over 11 per cent of Bolivia's GDP, as well as being the biggest customer for Bolivian gas, means it will be able to help shape that outcome.

Mr Morales seems to understand this, reiterating since Sunday he does not want firms like Petrobras to leave but also making clear he wants a better price from his neighbours.