Goni speaks

10.15.2003

Finally, just before 9:30pm, the president and the heads of the two major coalition parties (MIR and NFR) gave a brief press conference. They proclaimed themselves as the Government of Responsibility and Change. After their meetings, they produced a brief document w/ four major points, meant to address popular demands.

First, the announcement of popular referendums, by departments (states), to discuss the topic of natural gas exports.

Second, a revision of the Ley de Hidrocarburos.

Third, the agreement to convene a Constituent Assembly.

Fourth, a reaffirmation to preserve the democratic system.

They underlined that these were the basic popular demands expressed from the very beginning of this conflict, three weeks ago. If the opposition's dirigentes reject the government's agreement to concede on all these points, then the protests are meant to do nothing short of promote personal or sectorial political interests.

Of course, all of these four points were presented a week ago, before the protests turned violent.

Posted by Miguel at 09:43 PM

Comments

.... w ill Goni step down.. should he ... it seems that if he does ... it just means that reseaon cannot win in Bolivia. ... I;m troubled.. keep writing.

Posted by: Andres at October 15, 2003 11:51 PM

"Second, a revision of the Ley de Hidrocarburos.

Third, the agreement to convene a Constituent Assembly."

Would u explain what these 2 points are ab?

Posted by: Steph at October 17, 2003 06:46 AM

Steph:

OK, I can't explain the Ley de Hidrocarburos very well (since I've not read up on it), but it's the law that dictates the management of gas & oil resources. Bolivia uses code law, so everything has a very specific, drawn out legal statute. This is the law that dictates how those resources are mined, exported, etc. One of the protest demands was to rewrite this law to better benefit the people (most importantly, to raise the export tax to at least 50%).

The second is the agreement to hold a Constituent Assembly, which would first mean revising the constitution (which allows for no such provision). I'm not sure what new kind of constitution (or ammendments) the protesters want (they've never elaborated on these points), but they want to get a chance to rewrite the constitution.

There's one small problem to this, that might bite them in the ass. Once the pressure increased to rewrite the constitution increased, the comite civicos (very powerful civil society organizations) of Santa Cruz and Tarija joined the movement but they have very clear interests: either direct federalism or some form of regional autonomy. The problem for Evo and the rest? Santa Cruz and Tarija (which have NOT joined the protests) are the eastern states where the gas & oil deposits are located. They want to export THEIR gas & oil (and are pisssed off that western syndicates are fighting to prevent the export of resources that aren't theirs). A new constitution might give those states more autonomy, which means they'll decide on their own to export their gas & oil, which most likely means that economic benefits from those exports will be even more localized to only those two departments, further damanaging the economy of the very people fighting to prevent the gas & oil exports. At least that's one (very likely) scenario.

Posted by: miguel at October 17, 2003 12:16 PM