a personal account from Bolivia
(translated from Spanish, original article at
 http://www.intergalactique.lautre.net/article.php3?id_article=636)

----------------------------

Being in Potosí, Bolivia during those last hours…..

The situation in Bolivia is very serious, Thursday 9th
June at 14.00 hours…

Although in Potosí I’m fine because here things are
quiet; everyday there are
small road blocks, all the access points to Potosí
city are closed.
Nevertheless, because of the blockages all around the
country, the markets are
starting to empty out and you can almost no longer
find any fruits or dairy
products.

The situation in La Paz and Alto is alarming, vehicles
are not longer moving
because there is no petrol left; hospitals don’t have
oxygen or food; in La
Paz prison serious troubles are developing because
they don’t have what to eat
and most families no longer have enough gas to cook
with: this is a terrible
suffering for people living in La Paz.

Apart from this, the political situation is getting
worse in the last few
days, the president Carlos Mesa has resigned because
some social movements so
demanded and he never wanted to use violence, there
hasn’t been any death in
all this time of conflict (and it is incredible that
we should be happy about
this…), but his resigning generates an even more
complicated situation because
according to the constitution his successor would be
the president of
senators, a politician from Santa Cruz (Hormando Vaca
Diez) and one from the
political party MIR (one of the allies of Gonzalo
Sanchez de Lozado) who
clearly represents the interest of the business class
and bourgeoisie; this is
why the people demand that he relinquishes this
possibility of taking over the
Presidency so that then the president of the Supreme
Court can call for early
elections.


After the resignation of Carlos Mesa, the parliament
should have met to put to
consideration whether they accept or not the
resignation presented by Mesa and
then to choose the person who would temporarily
assume the Presidency of the
country and later also decide on the subjects of
nationalisation of
hydrocarbons, and the constituent assembly. However,
the president of the
Senators Chamber decided to delay the meeting until
today (Thursday) due to
lack of guaranties for the parliamentarians and he
also decidied³ to do it in
Sucre. This morning most of the parliamentarians
arrived at this city, and
they met on their own to arrive to some agreements
before they were due to
meet in session at 6 pm. However, during the course of
the day, several groups
of miners and farmers travelled towards Sucre to march
and to demand that Vaca
Diez renounces to the presidency and so allows the
president of the Supreme
Court to summons the elections. The displacement of
the groups of farmers and
miners sadly generated confrontations with the army
and a miner of Potosí
died, we still do not know if it was by a bullet, and
this death now causes
the social movements to take even more radical
measures and all the press
blames Vaca Diez as the person responsible of this
death for his zeal to cling
to power and not to propose solutions.

I have just seen on the news that Vaca Diez has left
the House of the Freedom,
which is the place where they were going to celebrate
the session meeting and
he went to the Army barracks of Sucre protected by
several police and the
military, thus there will be no session of the
parliament which seems to me
totally irresponsible, because it is to leave one more
day the country without
no possibility of solution (that was at 18.00 hours).



In fact what Vaca Diez wanted to do was to leave Sucre
altogether, but from
this afternoon today no airport is operating, all
national and international
flights have been suspended for 48 hours. On the other
hand, there are rumours
that the U.S.A., the industrialists of the east,
Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and
the traditionalist parties MNR, MIR and NFR, that have
done so much damage to
this country, have united forces so that Vaca Diez
stays as president of
Bolivia and that The military intervenes to break the
blocks in the country s
and to demobilize to social movements.


At this moment we lived a situation of total
uncertainty, several comments go
around, and while Vaca Diez does not have the
political will to reinitiate the
sessions of the parliament the country is getting more
wreck every minute.


On the other hand, all this conflict that we are
living is also useful to
value and to learn much of those lived historical
moments in Bolivia, to
understand the difficult construction of a democracy,
the complicated
strengthening of that democracy and the learning of
handling these democratic
tools. This is all a learning that is difficult for
Latin-American people
because it involves as well the capacity to listen to
social demands, to
prevent conflicts, to trust each other, a certain
amount of honesty and the
ability to reach agreements. We left president Carlos
Meza, different to what
we are used to, to confront weeks of social
mobilizations, but without
violence, without deaths, and now he is doing all he
can to ask Vaca Diez not
to cling to power so that peace can return to the
country.

And finally, thanks to the popular pressure, at 22.30
hours of this Thursday 9
of June, the congreso session took place in the city
of Sucre. The
parliamentarians did not dear leave the country in
this state, they had to
meet ...there was no choice!!!! : And a new president
is been named, a
president for the transition period, because in 5 or 6
months he must call
elections. The new president, a lawyer, EDUARDO
RODRIGUEZ, is president of the
Justice Court, the highest representative of the
judicial power, as the
constitution of the state establishes.

At midnight of Thursday, in SUCRE, the president has
been named and he has
taken his oath. This Friday 10 of June will be
different!!!!!

I WISH the country pacifies and things come back
slowly to normal.....so that
the country can continue working for a better future,
better understanding
between Bolivians and better balance.

I have spent hours and hours in front of the radio, of
the television....but
really I have learned a lot, is a human enrichment to
live all this.....such
learning... lessons of democracies, politics,
sociology...

Steve (with Olivier), of Bolivia