Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

More on Bolivia...this gets into potential successors.


Bolivia's President Submits Resignation

Updated 10:51 AM ET June 7, 2005


By BILL CORMIER

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - President Carlos Mesa, his 19-month-old free-market government unraveling amid swelling street protests and a crippling blockade of the Bolivian capital, offered his resignation in a nationally televised address.

The resignation, if accepted by Congress, could ultimately usher in new elections, raising the prospect of Bolivia becoming the seventh Latin American country to move to a leftist government suspicious of U.S. intentions in the region.

"This is as far as I go," Mesa said late Monday. "I have decided to present my resignation as president of the republic."

Mesa vowed to stay in office "until Congress makes a decision about the future of the country."

Mesa submitted his resignation during similar protests in March, arguing the country was becoming ungovernable, but lawmakers rejected his offer, essentially giving him a new mandate.

Lawmakers signaled they were not inclined to do the same this time, saying an emergency congressional session would be held as soon as possible to name a new leader.



Mesa's resignation offer came after more than 100,000 Indians, labor leaders, miners and coca-leaf farmers marched Monday in the capital on a day of rolling clashes between riot police firing tear gas and violent fringe groups armed with slingshots, sticks of dynamite and wooden clubs.

Despite Mesa's offer to leave power, leaders of the poor Indian satellite city of El Alto on the heights just above this capital of 1 million people vowed there would be no letup in the near-daily protests and road blockades that have stifled La Paz.

Thousands of demonstrators were expected to march into the city again Tuesday.

The protests marked the fourth week of unrest in which protesters have erected road blockades, strangling the capital and causing gas and food shortages in this poor Andean nation of 8.5 million people.

Water supplies ran short in several La Paz neighborhoods on Tuesday as the blockade took its toll. Bread was scarce, prices rose on vegetables in Indian markets and public bus drivers in La Paz declared an indefinite strike because of gasoline shortages.

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America and home to an Indian majority that has helped trigger the crisis by demands for greater say in national power.

The crisis pits Indian and labor groups from the poorer eastern highlands, including La Paz and its poor satellite city of El Alto, against ruling blocks from Santa Cruz in the east and the oil-rich gas fields to the south that are pursuing greater autonomy.

The protests have steadily increased since Bolivia's Congress last month raised taxes on foreign oil companies that have descended on the country to develop its natural gas reserves _ the second largest in South America after Venezuela.

Lawmakers had hoped to calm tensions in a country where anti-globalization anger runs high. But the tax increase touched off fresh demands for the nationalization of the oil industry and a new constitution giving more clout to Indians, who represent about half the population.

A historian-turned-politician, Mesa had no political sponsorship when he was thrust into the presidency in October 2003. He succeeded former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who resigned after street protests over plans to export the country's natural gas reserves left at least 56 people dead.

Senate President Hormando Vaca Diez, who would be next in line to succeed Mesa, said he expected Mesa to stay on at least until Congress decides on a political transition. Vaca Diez said he was opening urgent consultations with all parties on when and where to call an emergency session of the legislature.

Many indigenous leaders have openly declared they would repudiate a Vaca Diez presidency, or even the next-in-line, House leader Mario Cossio, both from traditional parties.

One scenario, analysts said, included the possibility the third-in-line, the popular Supreme Court President Eduardo Rodriguez, could assume the presidency to then call early elections.

A top candidate would likely be Evo Morales, the leader of poor Indians who have been pressuring one government after another for greater Indian power share. He is an admirer of populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has clashed frequently with Washington.

Morales is a leader of the Aymara Indians, while Felipe Quipse, a leader of the dominant Quechua Indians, is even more radical. Those two groups make up 60 percent of Bolivia's population.

Morales has been helped as several South American presidencies have gone to moderate leftists in recent elections, but his more populist style is more in keeping with Chavez and he has astutely organized coca leaf farmers from the lowlands and highland Indians historically left in poverty.

The United States had stood behind Mesa throughout the crisis, seeking to avoid another flashpoint in the conflictive Andean region.

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=050607&cat=news&st=newsd8air9681&src=...