44 CultureShock! Bolivia
2003 July: Referendum
A referendum is crafted into four ambiguous yes-or-no
questions which apparently provide the Bolivian people
with the right to determine the fate of their oil and gas but
which also seem to give Mr Mesa leeway for negotiating with
the impatient foreign corporations. More than 86 per cent
of voters support the ‘yes’ for a new hydrocarbon law, and
92.2 per cent demand the recovery of hydrocarbon property
upon its exit from the wells.Attempting the Impossible
During his temporary presidency, Mr Mesa receives the
guarded support of sectors of the opposition and tries to
satisfy both the majority of the Bolivian people, who now
are demanding nationalisation of gas and oil, and the oil and
gas companies who demand that their contracts be fulfilled.
Perhaps Mesa will one day write an article telling us if he
actually believed it was possible to satisfy both sides at the
same time.2004
With protesters across the country giving Carlos Mesa the
benefi t of the doubt, an apparent lull settles upon Bolivia.2005: May and June
A month long blockade begins on 16 May and extends
to more than a hundred barricades accross the country.
The epicentre is El Alto. As Mesa has promised, there
are no deaths. He resigns. Subsequently, one person is
killed by repressive forces as he protests in the main
plaza of Sucre, where a decision is to be made as to
presidential succession.
Following Mesa’s resignation, two members of the
traditional oligarchy stand in line to take over the presidency.
Mesa publicly begs them to put aside their private goals,
which would further enfl ame the nation, and allow the third
in line, the non-partisan Supreme Court president, Eduardo
Rodríguez, to assume command.