AFP on Bolivia -- Cocaleros demand constituent assembly, masses prevent congress meeting

["Jose G. Perez" <jg_perez@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

        [Because AFP dispatches are rarely carried in English-language
media --I could not find this one through google news-- I am sending the
entire thing in, since it has more details, especially on the political
demand of the movement, for a constituent assembly, and Evo Morales's
statements that the new President will serve at the pleasure of the mass
movement provided he carries out all the demands made by the
demonstrators.

        [Vice-president Carlos Mesa is a scribbler, a practitioner of my
dishonorable trade, and said to be "popular" (with whom, I wonder?) TV
gasbag who had an interview show in the 90's and entered active politics
only in the June 2002 elections, making him an ideal compromise
candidate for the varying warring bourgeois factions in the weeks of
wrangling that followed that voting until a congressional majority could
be scraped together to anoint "Goni" as president.

        [This dispatch also makes clear that the difficulty people are
having getting to congress is the result of concerted, organized action
by the masses. --José]

*  *  *

    LA PAZ, Oct 17 (AFP) - Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de 
Lozada on Friday signed a letter of resignation and left La Paz, a 
businessman close to the leader said.
    Businessman Zvonko Matkovic and a congressional source told AFP 
that Sanchez de Lozada had also left a recorded message.
    Opposition strike leader and parliament member Evo Morales said 
Vice President Carlos Mesa, a well-known journalist and historian, 
would replace the outgoing president, whose letter of resignation 
was to be put to a special session of parliament.
    However, by nightfall, legislators from around the country 
attempting reach La Paz found themselves stuck at El Alto, 12 
kilometers (seven miles) from the capital, as protesters were still 
blocking the road.
    The special session, originally set for 20h00 GMT, was 
repeatedly postponed for lack of the required quorum.
    Bolivia's Constitution calls for the vice president to complete 
the term of a resigning president, but some sectors have asked Mesa 
to call elections within a few months.
    "So long as the new president, Carlos Mesa, backs (the demands 
made during the demonstrations), the social movements will dictate 
when his term shall end," Morales said.
    "Mesa must convene a constituent assembly, which the Bolivian 
people have clamored for," Morales said on Unitel television.
    Morales is a leader among indigenous peoples who grow coca, from 
which cocaine is extracted. Their unions, along with the Bolivian 
labor federation, have blocked highways and demonstrated over the 
past month to force Sanchez de Lozada from office.
    Violence erupting from those protests has killed at least 86 
people, deaths the unions blamed on the government.
    Sanchez de Lozada "should be tried for crimes against humanity, 
under Bolivian law and if not, we will go to the International 
Criminal Court," Morales said.
    Union leader Jaime Solares called Sanchez de Lozada "a bloody 
murderer and a psychopath.
    "Do not let down your guard and be vigilant," he told the crowds 
in San Francisco Plaza.
    The unions opposed Sanchez de Lozada's plan to build a 
five-billion-dollar pipeline through Chile to deliver land-locked 
Bolivia's natural gas to the US and Mexican markets.
    Many Bolivians mistrust Chile, which took away Bolivia's outlet 
to the sea in an 1879 war.
    The opposition has seized upon the pipeline issue to push a 
series of grievances against the president, especially anger at his 
free-market economic policies.
    Thousands of miners, peasants and native people converged on 
downtown La Paz Friday to celebrate their victory outside Bolivia's 
Labor Federation.
    Morales said his party, the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), 
backed Mesa's succession to the presidency but would not participate 
in his administration "because we have great cultural and 
ideological differences."
    Matkovic, who had contacted Sanchez de Lozada's family, said 
that after signing his resignation letter, the president left for 
Santa Cruz, 900 kilometers (560 miles) east of La Paz, where his 
wife, Ximena Iturralde, awaited him.
    From there, he would head either to the United States or 
Argentina, Matkovic said.


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