BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT EVO Morales said he plans to open a barbecue restaurant after retiring from politics, a local newspaper has reported.

Morales is slated to win next year’s election to serve a third term until 2020, after he could turn his attentions from politics to hospitality.

Morales has “big dreams of opening a restaurant” featuring “excellent cooks specialising in barbecued meat,” the Bolivian leader said in an interview with the El Deber de Santa Cruz newspaper.

Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Morales, 54, was elected in 2005 with 54% of the vote and was re-elected in 2009 with 64% support.

He is estimated to win re-election with a resounding 74% in next year’s balloting, according to opinion polls.

Once he retires after serving his third term, Morales said he could open the eatery with two members of his Movement for Socialism party.

“This job sometimes keeps me up at night,” the 54-year-old leader admitted.

He promised to keep food costs down, but said he would find other ways to earn money.

“The menu won’t be expensive, but we will charge for the photos,” he said, presumably speaking about political partisans and well-wishers he anticipates would throng his establishment.

We will charge a lot for those.

There was no set plan on who would work in the restaurant, but Morales said that he could be among staff.

“The president will be a waiter,” Morales joked.

- © AFP, 2014

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