Language

No Congressional Session Last Night

Submitted June 1, 2005 - 10:32 am by Luis Gomez
Among the things the people chant and shout in the massive demonstrations here, there is a song dear readers, that goes like this: “Achuete, achuete, el Mesa es un alcahuete, los ministros una mierda, el Parlamento una cagada.” (Roughly translated: “Mesa is a squealer, the ministers are shit, Congress is cowardly.”) This tune has been heard in all the mobilizations of recent days… and yesterday (Tuesday), while the throng of people took to the streets once again, they didn’t just sing it, they predicted what was coming.

At 8 pm, after hours of incertitude, the expected session of the National Congress was suspended, leaving the issues of the autonomy referendum and the Constituents’ Assembly up in the air. While the deputies and senators of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) demanded that legislative work begin, Senator Hormando Vaca Diez hid in a hotel and declared that he would not attend… the majority of the right wing representatives and a little more than half of the senators did the same.

Things go unchanged then within the Bolivian political class: there is no response to the demands which have raised marches and blockades… and the people, who with great effort spread out across all of La Paz while keeping El Alto shut down, were subject to police repression during the night. There are several injuries from low-caliber “crowd-control” bullets.  

The legislators who were in the Congress, nearly all from the MAS party, later met informally. Around 10 pm, they released a document distancing themselves from Senator Vaca Diez and asking for his resignation… Vaca Diez was accused of coup plotting (and not just by the MAS, but also by some right-wing deputies).

Late last night, several hundred demonstrators were still in the Plaza de los Héroes, where they have constructed barricades from cobblestones and metal scraps. The police dispersed them with teargas…

The Congress should be in session today… nothing less should be expected than the people coming out to reclaim what rightfully belongs to them, in the streets… until then…

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