Bolivian President Carlos Mesa has handed in his resignation, a day after making a surprise announcement that he would quit, according to the World Bank press review.
– I cannot continue to govern with threats that strangle the country, he said after a rash of protests during his 17 months in office. If Congress accepts the resignation, Bolivia will have lost two presidents in less than two years.
Opponents dismissed Mr Mesas action as a political ploy to stay in power. Bolivias constitution means Mr Mesa can keep his job if Congress rejects his resignation (which a majority is supposed to do Tuesday evening).
Mr Mesa is a political independent with no party backing. Mr Mesa announced in a nationally broadcast address on Sunday he had “reached a limit”. In his resignation speech, he said his period in office had been blighted by no fewer than 820 protests.
The latest nationwide protest, aimed at forcing changes in rules governing Bolivias vast natural gas resources and due to take place over the coming days, would force the country to its knees, he said.
– In the next hours, the country could be completely blocked off, he said in his address. A prominent opposition leader, Evo Morales, told the BBC that Mr Mesa was trying to blackmail the country to avoid change.
Morales has promoted a bill, that would increase taxes on foreign oil companies to up to 50 per cent – a measure that Mr Mesa says would alienate vital foreign investors.
Protest s against the export of Bolivias natural gas resources has brought South Americas poorest country to a virtual standstill. Mr Mesas exit raises fears of a repeat of the bloodshed and unrest that forced his predecessor to flee the country two years ago.
With Bolivas coca leaf cultivation soaring, the heavy-handed tactics of the US-led war on drugs has fuelled increasing social unrest. Tension between the urban elite, seen as handmaidens of the US and foreign multinationals, and the impoverished indigenous Indians, reliant on income from the illicit cocaine trade, have turned the country into a tinderbox.
Faced with a national strike aimed at forcing international energy companies to pay much higher taxes, Mr Mesa made what was seen as last-ditch effort to get his opponents to back down.
Meanwhile, the United States called on Bolivias leaders Monday to forge a national consensus following an offer of resignation by the President. – We expect that the current political crisis will be resolved in a peaceful and democratic manner consistent with the Bolivian constitution, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
– We call upon the political leaders of Bolivia to work together to reach a national consensus in favor of a more stable and prosperous Bolivia, he said. – I think the first point to make is that President Mesa has not resigned at this point, Boucher noted, saying the leader had only announced that he would offer his resignation to the Congress and then the legislature would decide whether or not to accept his resignation.
