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Top court judge takes Bolivia presidency
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-10 13:29
Bolivia's high court chief took office as the country's president late
Thursday during an emergency congressional session, setting the stage for early
elections aimed at curbing violent protests that have paralyzed much of this
Latin nation.
The action came after lawmakers gathered following a day of demonstrations
and under a warning by the military of possible intervention if the spreading
chaos isn't quelled.
![Bolivia's Supreme
Court
President Eduardo Rodriguez, is seen is at his office in Bolivia's historic capital of Sucre, Bolivia on Wednesday, June 8, 2005. [AP]](xin_32060210133185765477.jpg)
Bolivia's Supreme Court President Eduardo
Rodriguez, is seen is at his office in Bolivia's historic capital of
Sucre, Bolivia on Wednesday, June 8, 2005. [AP] |
Congress rapidly accepted the resignation of President Carlos Mesa. Then both
the Senate and House leaders rejected the job, automatically giving it to
Supreme Court Justice Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze, who had been third in the line
for the presidency.
"Bolivia deserves better days," Rodriguez told lawmakers after swearing in.
"I'm convinced that one of my tasks will be to begin an electoral process to
renew and continue building a democratic system that is more just."
The actions appeared to meet the demands of protesters who have been calling
for both Senate leader Hormando Vaca Diez and House leader Mario Cossio — the
first two in the line of succession, respectively — to step aside in favor of
Rodriguez Veltze, who had been promising quick elections.
Lawmakers roundly applauded after voting to accept the resignation of Mesa,
whose 19-month U.S.-backed government collapsed in the face of nationwide
opposition protests.
The developments took only minutes during a session that was called hours
after raucous street demonstrations in this historic colonial capital, some 450
miles southeast of La Paz, thwarted a similar attempt to meet earlier in the
day.
The weeks-old unrest registered its first death Thursday as protests erupted
in violence near Sucre with hundreds of miners and farmers clashing with riot
police outside the whitewashed hall.
Vaca Diez later said during a televised news conference that he would reject
lawmakers' efforts to name him president in hopes that that would bring an end
to the spreading protests.
"I would decline irrevocably the presidency," Diez Vaca said. He also accused
opposition leader Evo Morales of sending protesters into the streets to block
lawmakers from carrying out their duties.
The lawmakers had moved their session from La Paz to Sucre in a failed effort
to avoid the protests that have effectively shut down La Paz.
The clashes in Sucre eventually subsided as scores of riot police threw up
cordons around downtown Sucre and kept protesters behind the barricades,
allowing the late-night session.
Much of Bolivia has been paralyzed for weeks with strikes, highway blockades
and oil field takeovers that forced the last president to offer his resignation
Monday.
Earlier Thursday, the head of the armed forces, Naval Adm. Luis Aranda
Granados, warned both sides to avoid violence, and said the military was
prepared to safeguard democracy.
"As long as there is no break in the constitutional and democratic system, we
will continue to safeguard this entire process," Aranda Granados said.
He urged lawmakers to respect the "will of the people."
The demonstrations and road blockades have spread to many cities in the
stricken Andean nation of 8.5 million people, as an eclectic opposition
coalition of highland Indians, labor activists, leftist students and coca-leaf
farmers has crippled South America's poorest country.
The restive opposition is clamoring for broad changes that would give more
political power to the poor majority, nationalize the oil industry and move away
from U.S.-backed free-market policies.
"We will win! We will triumph!" a column of club-wielding peasants from the
coca-growing lowlands chanted as they snaked through cobblestone streets in La
Paz on Thursday.
Other columns followed the farmers: disgruntled miners in hardhats, ill-paid
teachers and Indian women from the teeming hillside slums of nearby El Alto in
black bowler hats with babies on their backs.
Segundo Oviedo, a 45-year-old farmer from Cochabamba wearing a tattered farm
cap, said the poor were fed up after decades of rule by members of the country's
elite failed to improve their lot.
"What we are demanding is wholesale reform in Bolivia," he said.
The miners' leader was killed as his group made its way to the Sucre
protests. The miners said he was shot as their truck caravan approached soldiers
on a highway. Government minister Saul Lara confirmed the death but said the
circumstances were under investigation.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would send Jose Antonio Ocampo,
undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, as his personal envoy to
Bolivia. The timing of the trip depended on "developments in the country," he
said.
"Bolivians should resolve their differences peacefully and democratically,"
Annan said.
The crisis has reverberated from the high mountain plains of La Paz to the
tropical lowlands. Activists have seized several oil field installations,
crippling the national economy. La Paz has run short on gasoline and food as the
city of 1 million idled under a public transportation strike.
Strapped hospitals are sending non-critical patients home, mountains of trash
are accumulating uncollected, inmates at one prison near La Paz were reportedly
running short on food and hundreds of people lined up for scarce bread and
cooking gas.
Hungry peasants looted an outdoor market in La Paz on Thursday, carting away
sacks of potatoes and other vegetables.
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