I'm sure this is not what Washington has in mind when giving its lip service to the spread of freedom and the domino effect - but the spread of freedom in South America is actually taking those countries like dominoes. Bolivia's president of 17 months has just resigned amidst popular protest.
Between the residents of El Alto, who call, primarily, for the immediate exit by the French multi-national water corporation Suez, and the groups close to Evo Morales and his Movement Toward Socialism party (MAS, in its Spanish initials) fighting to change the new gas law (that doesn’t benefit the Bolivian people), Mesa has opted to “half resign,” and his statement now (it’s 11:36 p.m. in Bolivia) has begun to provoke a more open confrontation in the country.
The State intelligence agency has informed Carlos Mesa that by Thursday the main roads of the entire country will be completely blockaded. However, there has not been any order to repress the demonstrations, neither by the police or the military forces who are remaining on their bases...
Tonight, Congressman Evo Morales accused Mesa of a “manipulation” to defend the multinationals and not the poor, of being with “the empire, not the people”
“He wants to resign to avoid bringing forward the agenda of October (2003, when President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada had to resign under pressure from social movements),” said Evo.
Narco News article
President Carlos Mesa will resign as roadblocks and demonstrations targeting multinational firms wrack the country.
"First thing tomorrow morning, I will submit to the Congress my resignation as president of the republic so that Congress may consider it," Mr Mesa said in a message from the presidential palace late yesterday.
"I am not ready to prolong this shameful comedy we are in," the President said, as coca growers blocked roads and tried to cut Bolivia's gas and electricity supplies for a fifth day.
On Saturday, Bolivia deployed the army's 9th Division and police to oil fields to stop protesters from taking over gas installations to demand a new law governing gas exploitation.[...]
Mr Mesa came to power in October 2003, after president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was toppled by street demonstrations, which killed as many as 80. Mr Mesa, an intellectual and historian, was vice president at the time.
[...]
Mr Morales called protests aimed at blocking highways and occupying electrical and gas sectors.
He said the existing fossil fuel law would convert Bolivia "into a country controlled by the international community".
His movement seeks to raise royalties paid by multinationals from 18 to 50 per cent and calls for a constitutional convention to "found the country anew".
Mr Morales led the protests that toppled Mr Sanchez de Lozada.
Mr Mesa promised not to use force to open highways, after the use of force by Mr Sanchez de Lozada two years ago turned deadly.
"Here there will be no deaths," he said, adding that he would not "deploy the armed forces nor the police to unblock the streets".
Mr Sanchez de Lozada was toppled after trying to implement a plan to sell Bolivia's natural gas, one of the largest reserves in South America, to the United States.
Australian News article
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