But he is a typical product of Peru's provincial middle class: he is mestizo (of mixed race), speaks no Indian language and went to a private school.

ECONOMIST: Peru

They accuse the president of stirring up racial conflict in a country where many people have been happy enough to define themselves as mestizo (of mixed race).

ECONOMIST: Too much confronting and voting, too little governing

We spoke with rich and poor, white, mestizo and African.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Humbled by the Honduran people

The number of Mestizos increased significantly during the 1980s as a result of conflicts in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which triggered an influx of Mestizo refugees into Belize.

BBC: Belize country profile

It is wrong to impose a constitutional reform whose legitimacy is based on a form of a contract between him and the indigenous populations while excluding the mestizo and white populations of the country.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Crisis in Morales' Bolivia

These states form a giant half-moon across Bolivia's relatively prosperous eastern half, an area dominated by a largely mestizo and white population that has began to see with skepticism the newfound influence of the Aymara and Quechua Indian population of Bolivia's western Andean highlands.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Quietly following Chavez's lead

Street confrontations rightly pushed Morales into negotiations but quickly Morales bypassed all the rules in order to obtain what he really wanted: which was a constitutional reform whose legitimacy will take the form of a contract between him and the indigenous populations while excluding the mestizo and white populations of the country.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Quietly following Chavez's lead