This afternoon, in a session lasting just over four and a half hours, the Bolivian National Congress rejected President Carlos Mesa’s proposal to hold early general elections in August… but President mesa, in press conference given at 11 pm sharp local time, says that the new scenario (the lifting of highway blockades), along with the supposed support he has received from the people, have made him reconsider his position: he will no resign his post and plans to stay in power until 2007, when his legal mandate ends.
(Posted in Spanish March 17 at 10:40 pm)
There was an enormous tension in the today’s joint session of Congress. Nearly all the speakers, deputies (members of Bolivia’s lower house) and senators, rejected President Mesa’s call for early elections. All of their speeches, from 12 pm until nearly 5, had an incendiary political tone that rejected the president’s blackmail.
Finally, despite a long list of speakers yet to speak, the proposal from Antonio Peredo, deputy from the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), to end the discussion was approved.
The president of the National Congress (and of the Senate, therefore Mesa’s successor by law), Hormando Vaca Diez, proposed a document to the legislature that categorically rejected Mesa’s proposal, and it was approved almost unanimously… ten minutes later not a single member of congress remained in the room…
The tension then moved twenty meters away, to the Palace of Government, where Carlos Mesa held successive meetings with the high command of the armed forces, with loyal members of Congress, and with his cabinet… until 11 pm, when he gave a 10-minute press conference.
“It Makes Sense to Stay”
When President mesa stood before the reporters, his face was serene, that of one who knew his opponent of the moment (Congress) would reject his proposal… and he began by criticizing its position. “They have told me no to my proposal for early elections,” he confirmed.
And after making himself out as the victim, because he felt his position was little understood, and after accusing the deputies and senators of clinging to their own jobs, he spoke of “detachment,” of always gambling with his job and being always ready to walk away.
But, he said, in the last two days (since he proposed early elections), “a knew scenario has been created.” Something he had to take as an opportunity: “the removal of the blockades.” For him, this opened up a new reality for the country.
Immediately, Carlos Mesa mentioned, once again, the support he has received all over the country, without any specifics. But he made it clear that in the midst of all this support (of people that told him, “Mr. President, you are not alone”), he realized that his proposal to leave would be like “leave the people in the lurch.”
And so Mesa spoke once again of his version of what he understands as the “national agenda.” And he made it clear that it made no sense to leave power to the person who would succeed him – that is, Vaca Diez.
Alter exhausting his strategies for reconciliation with the movements, and, especially, with the Bolivian political class, Mesa decided: “I am not going to shrink from my responsibility.”
Outlining the necessity of a new political reality, with “transparency, honesty, all our cards on the table,” the Bolivian president called on the National Congress to be generous, to accept his political terms for the most import issues, such as the hydrocarbons.
Before retiring for the night, Carlos Mesa, serious but confident, said, “it makes sense to stay…” and thus he left his grasping for the presidency and his intention to move forward with his administration.
