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06.06.2005

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My Chicago trip ended today, and I'm back in Kalamazoo. The weather's breezy, nice. But Bolivia's heating up (isn't it always?).

Two protest marches are supposed to hit, one in the Zona Sur of La Paz, the other a days-long march to the city of Santa Cruz. Both sets of residents have organized self-defense forces to defend themselves against the "invaders". To add fuel to the fire, El Alto COR leader Roberto De la Cruz threatened Santa Cruz, saying he has 1,000 men (ages 18-30) armed & ready to march to Santa Cruz to raise the wiphala (Andean indigenous flag) in that department. In response, the Comité Cívico de Santa Cruz let the army know that if they don't defend the city, the comité will. The whole La Razón article paints a bleak picture.

As I write this, Mesa renounced the presidency. He did it once before, and parliament said no; unclear what'll happen now. He did say he'll stay in the presidential palace until parliament names a successor (though, constitutionally, it's Hormando Vaca Diez).

But reports of street battles throughout La Paz, make this more chaotic than October 2003. In his resignation speech, Mesa highlighted that he never used force to quell conflicts. History will judge him for that. And the outright failure that was his 19 months in office. Did his inaction make a future crackdown necessary and/or inevitable? And w/ both likely successors — Vaca Diez (MIR senator, Santa Cruz) & Mario Cossío (MNR deputy, Tarija) — less sympathetic to El Alto demands, how can this possible smooth things over?

Posted by Miguel at 10:26 PM