“Bolivia’s Supreme Court head, Eduardo Rodriguez, has been sworn in as president,” reports the BBC, “paving the way for an early election aimed at ending unrest.” Adds Democracy Now!, “After taking the oath of office, the Harvard Law graduate [who also has a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard] briefly addressed the country.”
“Democracy and the sense of union and peace is the best destination for Bolivians.”
“The BBC‘s Elliott Gotkine in Bolivia’s main city, La Paz, says Mr Rodriguez is untainted by politics and seen as the only man capable of ending the unrest that was tearing the country apart. Demonstrators in La Paz have been celebrating by setting off thunderous charges of dynamite. [PHOTO ABOVE]”
: : : More news and photos below : : :
The right-wing head of the Bolivian Senate, Hormando Vaca Diez attempted to take power as constitutional successor, but “declined the post after protesters blockaded parliament to prevent his appointment,” reports DN!
From the introduction to DN!’s featured discussion today of developments in Bolivia (audio/video) — and note that the roster of guests includes Tom Hayden who’s written for The Nation on Bolivia:
The indigenous-led rebellion in Latin America’s poorest country, Bolivia, has taken yet another dramatic turn. After a tense day and rumors of coup plots and possible civil war, the country has a new president. The Bolivian Congress named Supreme Court chief Eduardo Rodriguez to replace Carlos Mesa, who resigned earlier this week amid massive protests. Rodriguez is president of the Supreme Court with a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University. After being sworn in, he called for general elections. While he did not set a date for the polls, the constitution stipulates that new elections must be held within six months. Congress endorsed Rodriguez after accepting the resignation of Carlos Mesa. Hours earlier, the President of the Bolivian Senate – Hormando Vaca Diez – announced that he would not seek to assume the Presidency.
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Hormando Vaca Diez:
“For the unity of our country, so the clashes end, so that Bolivia can recover its normality and so that the experience we’ve lived through in our country may never be repeated, I resign the succession as mandated by Article 93 of the State Political Constitution.”
Vaca Diez made the announcement after protesters blockaded parliament to prevent his appointment. Rodriguez assumed the presidency after the head of the lower house of Congress also declined the post. The country’s airports were also shut down after air traffic controllers started a strike to oppose Vaca Diez.
Congress met in Sucre, instead of its headquarters in La Paz, to try to avoid massive indigenous-led protests but the demonstrators followed them. Security forces had tried to seal off Sucre from demonstrators but they got through and battled police in the downtown area.
Protesters took over three oil fields belonging to British Petroleum and four belonging to Spain’s Repsol. They have also taken over a pipeline station on the border with Chile. At the request of the government, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan dispatched a senior official to the country to act as an observer.
The mainly peaceful protests turned violent when Coro Mayta, a miner union leader, was shot dead by a soldier near Sucre. This is opposition leader Evo Morales
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Evo Morales:
“What’s happened in Bolivia is unfortunate. Because of Hormando
Vaca Diez, President of Congress, we’ve lost the life of a comrade like Carlos
Coro. It’s unfortunate because, despite everything, the attitude of Mister
Hormando Vaca Diez doesn’t change.”
Immediately after Rodriguez assumed power, Morales urged him to promise to nationalize the oil and gas industry and to convene a constitutional assembly.
- Marcela Olivera, Bolivian researcher and activist who works at the Democracy Center in Cochabamba. She was a member of the Coalition in Defense of Water and Life that organized a popular uprising against the privatization of the Cochabamba water system by Bechtel and the World Bank. Last year she worked with Public Citizen in Washington to develop an Interamerican water activist network.
- Jim Shultz, Executive Director of the Democracy Center in Cochabama, Bolivia. He writes a blog on the situation in Bolivia that can be found at DemocracyCtr.org.
- Tom Hayden, former California State Senator. He traveled to Bolivia last year, interviewed Evo Morales and wrote an article for the Nation magazine titled Bolivia’s Indian Revolt.
From the BBC:
“Bolivia deserves better days,” Mr Rodriguez told deputies.
“I am convinced that one of my tasks will be to begin an electoral process to renew and continue building a democratic system that is more just.”
Under the constitution, an election must be held be held by the end of the year.
This is good news, I’m so glad that Diez backed down! I was worried about that, not that it’s been easy on the people and I grieve for the dead but at least they have a chance now!
Let’s hope! I’m watching DN! right now … can’t wait to hear the comments from Jim Shultz and the other experts.
I haven’t looked up Tom Hayden’s article on Bolivia at The Nation yet. Must do.
Great news for a change-although Bush’s new low in approval ratings also brought a smile to my face today!
BBC has a wealth of info, including this:
Main protest groups in Bolivia — a snippet:
BBC regional analyst
Bolivia has a long tradition of organised political protests. It was the first country in South America to have a left-wing revolution in 1952, which nationalised the mines and gave universal suffrage.
It has a history of strong civil society and weak government. The latest surge in protest movements began in the late 1990s, largely provoked by little improvement in the conditions of the poor, largely Indian, majority and disillusionment with the traditional political parties.
Slum dwellers of El Alto
They have been the biggest protest group in recent weeks.
Indians from El Alto have been flocking to protests in La Paz
Based in the huge township of El Alto, on the altiplano (highland plain) above La Paz, they have frequently blockaded one of main roads into the city.
El Alto has a fast-growing population of 750,000, most of whom are recently-arrived Aymara rural migrants. …
Thank you susanhu for yesterday’s and today’s postings on the events in Bolivia, I’m in Europe and only got some very early and vague news reports this morning. New, and potentially very interesting Democratic developments. Also very interesting to see the kind of people involved with Bolivian politics. Let’s see what develops…
Enron and BP have been involved in Bolivia .. other oil co. names that i missed (but i’ll listen again at 9AM via FreeSpeech TV)
Tom Hayden just mentioned that Clinton’s campaign people were heavily involved in the election of the president who’s been ousted. I went hunting and found this at SourceWatch.org:
GO HERE to access the links in this quote.
May I just say that there’s something of the Karzai-ish-ness of Rodriguez that has me a bit worried?
Those Harvard degrees … means the guy comes from money, most likely, and has been in the money circles most of his life.
Means he may be malleable to BP, etc. ?
Just speculating.
There is a vision of an equitable future (several alternate visions) that can be shared by “even” the wealthy and educated . . . we can hope, as apparently a large number of Bolivians hope, that Harvard did not corrupt Rodriguez, but did empower him to better serve that vision. We’ll see soon whether he believes that the wealth (and labor) of Bolivia belongs to the Bolivian people or to a few oil companies and New York banks.
From what I’ve been reading, I think the same could be said for pretty much any of the politicans currently in office there. I think that’s been the basic problem along with the concrete issues — the people feel they have no representation and their issues have been ignored.
They wanted this guy because they’re trying to work within the system and he was the one in line who would be required by law to hold an election within 180 days.
The protesters were asking for three things — the guy who’d hold an election before the current term is out in Aug. ’07; a plan to nationalize the gas and energy; and prehaps most importantly, to form a “Constitutional assembly” which will represent the people’s interests in government.
As of last night, there still didn’t seem to be a consensus on whether the demonstrators would disperse or whether they’d keep at it until they had some concrete evidence that these other changes would be made. This morning it looks like it might be ending.
… has a great overview of the situation and background:
http://americas.org/item_19790
Izzy, i can’t get that to open…. not even the home page (americas.org)
I dunno, it works for me, so I’m at a loss. Maybe you could try a google search?
The article is by Teo Ballve and is called
Far From Over: Bolivia on the Brink of Civil War — or Revolution
or I could post or email the text.
The US has been interfering in Bolivian affairs. First, they attempted to get Vaca Diez, an extremely divisive figure whom the blogger compared to Tom DeLay. Now since that plan has collapsed, the US is now trying to pin the blame for the turmoil on Chavez. The problem is that people are not putting up with that kind of stuff anymore, so they are not nearly as successful as they were back during the Cold War years. Also, since Communism has collapsed, they can no longer use the specter of Communism to keep the people in line.