Bolivian President Offers to Resign Amid Mounting Crisis

President Carlos Mesa offered to resign late Monday after weeks of protest and political crisis that have seen tens of thousands of mostly Indian protesters lay siege to this capital city.

A historian and former television commentator who himself was brought to power by the Indian-led uprising that forced his predecessor from office in October 2003, Mesa has been undone by the ethnic and regional conflicts slowly pulling apart this impoverished Andean nation of 9 million people.

“I did what I could,” Mesa said in a televised address. “Our appeal to peace has been taken advantage of by the radicals. It doesn’t make any sense to continue with that philosophy when the only reply these last few weeks has been violence.”

On Monday, protesters blocked roads at 55 different locations in rural and urban areas across the country, issuing a variety of often-conflicting demands. This week, the barricades have brought shortages of food and fuel in La Paz.

It remained unclear who would succeed Mesa and when his resignation would take effect. In his speech, he said he would call a special session of Congress for today so the legislature could decide who would fill his office.

In March, Mesa submitted his resignation to Congress, saying he would step down unless the nation’s political, civic and labor leaders reached a “social consensus” that would end the dozens of road blockades.

No such agreement was forthcoming, but Mesa remained in office when Congress rejected his resignation.

On Monday, Mesa said he thought that he could no longer govern.

“I want to apologize to my country for not having been able to move things forward,” he said.

“I have no plans to travel to Miami or Washington,” Mesa added, in a reference to his predecessor, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who fled into exile in the United States when Mesa was vice president. “I will stay in my country.”

A consensus appeared to be emerging across the political spectrum late Monday that Congress should name the head of the Supreme Court, Eduardo Rodriguez, as president.

Many of the largest Indian groups in the western half of the country demanded the nationalization of the country’s oil and gas reserves, a move opposed by Mesa and leaders in eastern and southern provinces where the reserves are located.

Civic and business leaders in the relatively affluent eastern province of Santa Cruz last month announced that they would hold a referendum on regional autonomy.

Last week, the Santa Cruz newspaper El Mundo charged that Indian leaders were engaging in a “conspiracy” against the province.

Santa Cruz leaders want more control over the oil and gas reserves and have opposed calls by Indian and peasant leaders for a Constituent Assembly to rewrite Bolivia’s constitution.

Eastern leaders also fear that a new constitution would include agrarian reform that could hit hard at Bolivia’s largest landowners.

“It seems ever more clear that this country is really two countries now,” said Alvaro Garcia Linera, a La Paz political scientist. “One is a country led by Indian and peasant leaders who want to nationalize the oil industry. The other is based largely in Santa Cruz and supports a neoliberal economic model.”

With the vice presidency vacant, Hormando Vaca Diez, the president of the Senate, is next in the line of succession. A center-right senator from Santa Cruz, he has been bitterly opposed by Indian and peasant leaders.

Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian who leads the Movement to Socialism, said Monday that a Vaca Diez presidency would lead to more conflict.

“This is a battle between rich and poor,” Morales said. “The president showed himself incapable of negotiating with the social movements.... But his resignation is only part of the solution.”

Morales demanded that the presidents of both houses of Congress also resign, which would leave Rodriguez, as Supreme Court leader, next in the line of succession. The president of the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, is Mario Cossio, who also is opposed by peasant and leftist groups.

Branco Marinkovic, president of the Federation of Private Industry of Santa Cruz and a rival of Morales, said Monday he too believed that Rodriguez should assume office until a new presidential election can be held.

Rumors of military coups and secession movements have swept through the country in recent weeks, as Mesa’s popularity has tumbled rapidly. On Saturday, a group of Indian activists marched to an army base in the capital to ask officers inside to form a “civic-military” government that would nationalize the oil and gas industry.

Many Indian leaders believe that government control over petroleum reserves offers the only hope to ameliorate Bolivia’s unrelenting poverty.

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Times staff writer Tobar reported from Buenos Aires and special correspondent Penaranda from La Paz. Special correspondent Oscar Ordonez in La Paz contributed to this report.