Deciding not to decide

05.17.2005

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This is a dangerous gambit. Not only for himself, but for the country as a whole. President Mesa decided that he will neither sign, nor veto the hydrocarbons law passed by Bolivia's parliament. Meaning, he wants to wash his hands of the whole thing, put the blame for the entire mess on parliament's shoulders (and the political parties there represented), but will not make a public pronouncement on the law one way or the other. In short, he's publicly stated that he wants no responsibility. Even though, as president, he is responsible for the execution of state authority.

Meanwhile, the city of La Paz is virtually under siege, w/ protesters trying to go directly to the government's jugular, by seizing Plaza Murillo. The plaza, btw, is the where the Presidential Palace and the Congress are located; the attempts not to seize the plaza, but to topple a government (the stated purpose of Solares & De la Cruz, syndicalist leaders).

And w/ two people injured by police forced defending government buildings, Mesa's promise to never use "repression" is put to the test. The Santa Cruz newspaper El Nuevo Día ran the banner headline "Mesa estrena repression ..." (Mesa debuts repression ...). But, at some point, the government must decide whether it wants to defend some basic constitutional guarantees — such as a functioning parliament. Frankly, Mesa let things get out of hand for too long.

Meanwhile, things are quite calm in Santa Cruz, although regional leaders expect the government to guarantee the referendum on regional autonomy soon (as promised), or they'll have their own referendum & prefect elections regardless on 12 August. Tarija has joined the bandwagon. Not surprisingly, the issue of regional autonomy was first on parliament's agenda; no word yet on the decision.

In my opinion, Mesa has never wasted an opportunity to waste an opportunity. Given almost a two years grace period to govern based on nothing but his popularity, he's lost all that. After a while, his constant TV appearances started to ring hollow. His tradition of going out to "walk among the people" (which, let's face it, is so populist-Peronist) have started to fail (on his last walk, he was booed & shouted down by people).

Because, in the final analysis, the news-anchor-turned-president never learned a valuable lesson: Governing a country (especially Bolivia) isn't the same was winning a ratings war.

Mesa must learn to decide. It's difficult, I'm sure. But being president means making decisions, even if they later turn out to be the wrong ones. If Santa Cruz decides to secede, and Mesa can't decide what to do about it. Or if Solares & his gang decide to use weapons to assault the government (or some other group, since more evidence that terrorist groups, supported from outside, are popping up), and Mesa can't decide how to handle the situation. Well, then the military will decide. Or someone else will. I hope Mesa finds his backbone, and soon.

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MORE: From MABB, Barrio Flores, and Publius Pundit.

Posted by Miguel at 05:36 PM

Comments

If you ask me, I think Mesa is playing his cards well. He doesn't want to be the only one who'll have to take the rage of the social movements. He's spreading the responsibility with congress.

As evidence, we have the attempts to take over the Congress, expell the congressmen and perhaps even punish some of them. There were already attacks on congressmen by crowds.

Mesa, at the same time of spreading responsibility is seriously weakening his government.

Posted by: Miguel (MABB) at May 18, 2005 06:20 AM

This is crazy, and I hope things can return to something more stable soon... thanks for keeping up with the news on this. You are my easy Bolivian news outlet.

Posted by: sam at May 18, 2005 12:52 PM