Forced by demonstrators to leave La Paz and meet in Sucre to discuss President Carlos Mesa's resignation, Bolivia's Congress yesterday could face the same music, as protesters vowed to take their fight all the way to the country's political capital.
Evo Morales, a leftist leader of coca farmers and one of the most influential protest leaders, called on Quechua Indians in the Sucre area, 740km southeast of La Paz, to prevent the meeting, set for 10:30am.
Protesters will tighten their blockade of roads leading to Sucre, Morales said Wednesday, adding that militant area miners were heading towards the city. Some 2,000 Quechua Indians were also heading to Sucre from the city of Cochabamba, a top Morales lieutenant said.
PHOTO: AP
Mesa, who resigned Monday, warned in a speech Tuesday that Bolivia was so polarized it was heading towards civil war.
"Let us avoid lost lives, let us avoid a violence that devours us all," he said, calling for early elections. He also warned that Bolivia was "on the brink of civil war."
Felipe Quispe, an Aymara Indian protest leader, seemed to relish the idea. "That is much better, because that way we can define (the future of) this country with weapons," he said in an interview with a Peruvian radio stations.
"There is a racial battle between whites and Indians," he said. "It was high time for us (Indians) to take power, that the invaders return our territory," he added.
Demonstrators are demanding new presidential elections, the nationalization of the oil and gas industry and constitutional reform to establish regional autonomy.
Mesa called on Senate leader Hormando Vaca Diez -- first in line to succeed him -- and House of Deputies leader Mario Cossio to resign in order to facilitate early presidential elections.
If both step aside that would allow Supreme Court chief justice Eduardo Rodriguez to become interim leader and call for early elections.
Congress could also reject Mesa's resignation, as it did on March 7, when he also offered to step down amid popular unrest.
Mesa served as president for 20 months, after his predecessor Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was also driven from office by protests over control of Bolivia's gas reserves.
A successor would serve out the remainder of Sanchez de Lozada's term, through August 2007.
Bolivia's social meltdown pits the poorer Andean regions surrounding La Paz against interests in the modern, relatively prosperous eastern and southern plains, where most of the natural gas wealth is located.
The government has raised taxes on oil and gas companies doing business in Bolivia in a bid to quell discontent, but protest leaders vowed demonstrations would continue until their goal of nationalization is met.
In eastern Bolivia, protesting Guarani Indians took over three oil fields belonging to British Petroleum and four belonging to Spain's Repsol, a spokesman for a group representing the 20 foreign energy concerns operating in Bolivia said.
Protesters earlier took over a pipeline station on the border with Chile, cutting off crude exports to the northern Chilean port of Arica.
The political system is dominated by people of mostly European descent -- many descending from 16th century Spanish conquistadores -- oriented to global markets. But grassroots activism has stirred demonstrators in the majority indigenous Aymara and Quechua nation of 8.5 million to a greater share of their country's wealth.
Bolivia, South America's poorest country, has the second-largest gas reserves in South America, after Venezuela.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS