By Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, Jun 3 2005 (IPS)

Bolivian President Carlos Mesa’s decision to call a referendum on regional autonomy and convene a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution did nothing to calm the social unrest that has continued for nearly two weeks.

Mesa decreed an Oct. 16 date for the referendum and the election of delegates to a constituent assembly, after Congress failed to hold a session on these two demands put forth by opposing social sectors.

But he left it up to Congress to draft the special laws needed to set the terms of the referendum and the election of delegates.

The president, noting that the constitution gives the executive branch the authority to call referendums, said the decision was aimed at ensuring national unity and at putting an end to the unrest.

Indigenous groups, small farmers, miners and students have virtually paralysed La Paz over the past two weeks, demanding that the constitution be rewritten to give greater participation to indigenous people.

In response to their call for the nationalisation of Bolivia’s natural gas reserves – the second-largest in South America after Venezuela’s – Mesa suggested that the question be put to the constituent assembly.

In Bolivia, South America’s poorest country, 70 percent of the population of 9.2 million lives in poverty, including the majority of the country’s indigenous people, who make up at least 60 percent of the population.

Lawmaker Evo Morales, the leader of the country’s coca farmers and the head of the strongest opposition party, Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), said Mesa had ”good intentions,” but added that the president’s decree was aimed at demobilising the peasant farmers who marched on La Paz and have been blocking roads and highways.

”This is a new ‘show’ put on by the government, and the social movements will decide what actions to take,” said Morales.

Trade unions and indigenous associations have been demanding a new constitution as part of a series of reforms promised by Mesa when he became president in October 2003 after a month of protests in La Paz and the nearby slum city of El Alto forced his predecessor Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (2002-2003) to resign and flee the country.

At the same time, ”civic committees” representing mainly business and large landowners in the wealthy eastern region, where the country’s natural gas is concentrated, have been demanding a referendum on regional autonomy.

The civic committees are pushing for stronger regional control over, and greater benefits from, the natural resources found in the prosperous eastern part of the country.

But the protesters in La Paz are staunchly opposed to the regional autonomy referendum.

The two opposing positions have pitted legislators from different regions against each other, above and beyond their party affiliation, and have created a climate of uncertainty amidst rumours of a coup d’état announced by two colonels who were immediately disciplined, and a failed police riot incited by former agents.

Community leader Abel Mamani from El Alto told Mesa that the protesters would continue pressing for the nationalisation of the country’s natural gas, which is currently exploited by 12 foreign oil companies, including Brazil’s Petrobras, British Petroleum and France’s Total.

Oscar Ortiz, the president of the influential agribusiness chamber of the eastern region, CAO, and Rubén Darío Cuellar, the head of the Civic Committee of Santa Cruz (the country’s richest province), downplayed the importance of the president’s decree, saying the call for a referendum or elections for a constituent assembly should have come from the legislature.

”Congress will decide whether a referendum can be called by decree,” said Cuellar, who predicted even more intense protests.

This week, CAO called for Mesa to step down, while the Confederation of Private Business proposed that early elections be held.

On Thursday evening, police vehicles came to the rescue of dozens of legislators who were hemmed in by peasant farmers and indigenous protesters near the Murillo Plaza, where the government and legislative palaces are located.

Prior to the ”rescue” operation, police used tear gas and rubber batons in an attempt to disperse the demonstrators.

The lawmakers were leaving the legislature after declaring a new recess until next Tuesday, thus prolonging the decisions on issues that are dividing this Andean country.

For the past 10 days, the streets of La Paz have been blocked by 10,000 to 20,000 campesinos, teachers, health workers, shopkeepers and university students.

Groups of demonstrators came down to La Paz from El Alto every day to protest and blockade traffic, clashing with police who have cracked down on the protests with tear gas and water cannons.

El Alto is also in its second week of labour strikes that have affected all of the local residents who depend on street hawking for a living, and prompted American Airlines to suspend flights in and out of the area due to a ”lack of security”. Traffic to other regions has also been cut off.

”The country is in the midst of a grave, profound crisis,” said Mesa, who urged the Catholic Church to mediate in talks between the different sectors mounting protests.

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