March 2005 Archives

Reuters is reporting that the Bolivian Congress will vote to reject President Carlos Mesa's resignation offer.

I hope that turns out to be the case, and that the parties like MAS are forced to vote in support of Mesa. I also hope Mesa can win some of the concessions he is calling for from Evo Morales and the Santa Cruz elite.

It's funny to me that Evo yesterday accused Mesa of using his resignation as a form of "blackmail." What does Evo think all the blockades, protests, and strikes are that he orchestrates throughout the Andes? They are blackmail. He is guilty, too; far more guilty, in fact. I think it's quite just that he's gotten a taste of his own medicine.

You know things in Bolivia are bad when even my Nanny who lives in San Antonio, Texas, has heard the news.

Bolivia's president, Carlos Mesa, has offered his resignation to the Bolivian congress. In a television address to the nation, he said that Bolivia could not go on �with this dynamic of madness, of the tribe, of the region. We cannot continue with this irrational logic.�

The "dynamic of madness" he is referring to is the unending cycle of protests and blockades sponsored by various political factions. These protests continually cripple the country economically. Mesa refuses to use force to stop them, though. His predecessor, Sanchez de Lozada, took the military tack, and 67 protestors ended up dead. The people rose against Lozada, forcing him to flee the country. Now Bolivians want Lozada tried for "genocide."