Federico Fuentes
With the second overthrow of a president in less than two years, Bolivia's social movements have paved the way for a new round of presidential and national assembly elections, which will be held on December 4.
In the July 4 debate that set the date, the Bolivian parliament, controlled by the right wing, also voted to allow elections for a constituent assembly, which was one of the most popular demands in the May-June uprising that overthrew President Carlos Mesa. The parliament also decided to hold autonomy referendums in Bolivia's departments (states) on the same day, July 2, 2006.
This is a concession, in large part, to the right-wing wealthy elite of Bolivia's east, particularly centred around the city of Santa Cruz. Frightened by the growing strength of the social movements calling for more of the country's wealth to reach the poor and indigenous, the Santa Cruz elite has been openly pushing for autonomy, or secession, hoping to entrench its control of the oil reserves based in the east.
Mesa was ousted by an almost month-long wave of mobilisations by Bolivia's workers and peasants, angered at a new gas bill which fell far short of their demand of nationalisation of Bolivia's gas reserves.
In October 2003, Bolivia's social movements launched the first "Gas War", which threw out Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada after he threaten to sell Bolivia's gas to the US via Chile at ridiculously low prices. Mesa had come to power promising to increase Bolivian revenue and control over the gas.
However, the bill that was signed into law while he was president was viewed by most poor Bolivians as yet another example of the gas, the reserves of which are currently worth more than US$1.5 billion, being sold off to the rich rather than providing the poor as a way out of misery and poverty.
Even Mesa's resignation could not stem the tide of popular protest that erupted as a result of the bill. The social movements also secured the resignation of the two politicians who would have succeeded Mesa under the constitution: the president of Parliament's upper house, Hormando Vaca Diez; and that of the lower house, Mario Cossio. Cossio and Vaca Diez were both even more closely aligned to the gas transnationals than Mesa. With all three resigning, Supreme Court head Eduardo Rodr¡guez, now president, had a clear mandate to call early and full elections.
At first, the right-wing politicians resisted the call for full elections of a new parliament, as they saw their wages and lifestyle threatened. Instead, they argued that a new presidential election was all that was required. Only after negiotiations, along with continued pressure from outside parliament did they agree in the end to allow full elections.
The party most likely to benefit from a left-wing electoral shift is the Movement for Socialism (MAS), led by Evo Morales, who narrowly lost the presidency to Lozada in 2000. While MAS protested the parliamentary resolution â demanding that the constituent assembly elections be held at the same time as the parliamentary ones â the party decided to vote in favour. This decision sparked some criticism. Oscar Olivera, from the Coordination for the Defence of Gas, along with some of the main peasant groups strongly opposed the delay in the election of the Constituent Assembly. FEJUVE, the federation of neighbourhood committees in the militant city of El Alto, which was a key protagonist in the overthrow of both presidents, noted that the issue of nationalisation had not yet been resolved.
From Green Left Weekly, July 27, 2005.
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