Bolivia Has a New President

The new president is Dr. Eduardo Rodríguez, head of the court, a man with grey hair and glasses, connected to the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR)… But some social movements, like those in El Alto, haven’t let themselves be demobilized so easily. As long as “the issue of hydrocarbon nationalization” has not been touched upon, as Edgar Patana of the Bolivian Workers’ Federation said, the demonstrations and blockades will continue. Hormando Vaca Diez himself presided over the Congressional session. Just before 10:00 at night, all the members of Congress present in Sucre sat down to deliberate in the House of Liberty, the legislature’s first center in 1825.

Vaca Diez asked for the two proposed resolutions to be read: the first to accept Carlos Mesa’s resignation as president of the republic, and the second the establish that Vaca Diez, as well as Chamber of Deputies President Mario Cossío, would decline the presidential succession outlined in the Constitution.

Both resolutions were approved, the first unanimously and the second by majority… in the end, Vaca Diez asked for a committee to find the president of the Supreme Court, Rodríguez Veltzé, who he now gave the title “constitutional president.”

Now only the formalities remain, but the El Alto residents keep watch in the streets with bonfires burning, as do many groups in Cochabamba, and the Ayamara peasant farmers; the issue of nationalization has not been forgotten.

And while Rodríguez Veltzé enters the House of Liberty for those formalities, we’re going to rest, because tomorrow, as always in this brave land, we don’t know what will be next in this immediate history…

Thank you for being with us on this day… un abrazo, and we’ll see you tomorrow…