"Bolivia will not be a colony for the Yankees, nor for the transnationals"

The resignation of President Mesa has implications for the United States and the rest of the world. The people of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia have been moving steadily to wrest power from the U.S.-backed regimes and toward self-governance for many months. As the people of Ecuador and Bolivia have witnessed the people of Venezuela take control of their own destinies, they have realized the possibilities for their own empowerment.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and the whorish regimes they have backed in these Latin American countries have struggled to hang on to the control they have maintained for decades. The struggle boils down to a battle for the natural resources of these nations, including gas, petroleum, agriculture, water and perhaps most important of all - labor. The indigenous people of Ecuador forced the resignation of President Lucio Gutierrez on April 20, 2005. Now comes the resignation of Carlos Mesa, President of Bolivia under tremendous pressure from massive protests in La Paz and nationwide roadblocks that have brought Bolivian government and commerce to a standstill. Mesa's resignation may be, as Carlos Herrera wrote earlier today, "another nail in the coffin for US hegemony and the global corporate empire in South America".

It is important to note that Mesa's resignation has yet to be accepted by the congress. This caveat could involve some sort of ploy. As the people of Bolivia realize their power, we shall have to wait and see. You can read more about the events leading up to tonight's resignation in Carlos Herrera's Series on Bolivia. His latest installment was published earlier this evening on Axis of Logic. We will keep you updated as events unfold in the next 24 hours. - Axis News Editor

Mesa Resigns
By Tim Webster

The president of Bolivia, Carlos Mesa, resigned tonight. I was in a taxi on my way back to Michela's apartment when I heard part of the speech that he was delivering. Since I arrived the political situation of Bolivia had gone from bad to worse as the entire country has been effectively paralysed for some days now, with road blocks all around the country. It was of particular concern for me on my arrival because it was not clear if I would be able to get from the airport down into La Paz. The city of La Paz is situated in a valley with Bolivia's youngest city of El Alto lining it's edge around the top. The airport is in El Alto and so are the most crippling blocks. Fortunately, I had no problem and Michela met me at the airport. It was sheer luck because I later learned the a number of other international flights from Brazil and Chile couldn't even land and were diverted. My first impression of the situation was that what the 'bloqueadores' were doing was exercising one of their last resources to force some sort of dialogue over the natural resources that have been privatised during the 90s and the continuing privatisation of Bolivia's resources. In other words, they want to keep Bolivia´s resources nationalised. I later learned that (naturally) it's a lot more complex then just that. One of the differences between this president and the last president, is that Mesa stated that no matter what happens he will not use any military force against the bloqueadores even though (I am told by the niece of the former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada) the law is such that the government has the right to take that course of action if required. So the past few days have been somewhat of a stalemate. Adding to what is already a very complex situation between the various cultural groups here, the departments (like states but not (yet) in any federal sense), capitalism, privatisation, globalisation, international debt and exploitation of natural resources, there was now a bet on (this is a big simplification....) to see how far Mesa could be pushed until he sent in the guns. Throw in Santa Cruz wanting its own autonomous state with rumours that the (very) capitalist party of the former president (MNR) is actually behind Santa Cruz´s push for autonomy as well as the road blocks (so as to destabilise any sense of political unity) and you start to have a pretty dirty battle on you hands. Unable to resolve the stalemate, Mesa announced that he had no choice but to resign as his conscience and ethics would not allow him to take any violent course of action. During his speech he highlighted the number of issues - numbering in their thousands - that have been resolved peacefully and through dialogue during his past seventeen months of government and that it could not continue in this way. Much of what he had to say was also an introduction into macro economics as he explained how the just because the price of soy is good, does not mean that the economy is good and he continued to wade his way through the many concessions that Bolivia has had make, not for want but because of the lack of international support (both private and public) if it doesn't. If the bloqueadores were hoping for a fight in the streets, they would have to wait a lot longer.

Within minutes of the end of the speech, phones started ringing and people took to the streets heading straight for La Plaza Murillo which is where the presidential palace is. I packed my video camera and some new film and headed straight there. When I arrived, a relatively small but extremely vocal crowd of people were there shouting there support for Mesa: no aceptamos su renuncia...we won't accept your resignation, si éste no es el pueblo, ¿el pueblo dónde está?.... if this isn´t the people, then where are they? Songs of la patria were sung, followed by rounds of the national anthem until finally, the president appeared on the balcony and addressed the crowd. Mesa thanked everyone for their support and described that with the support of people like those in the protest, they would build a productive, strong and safe country. The crowd shouted that they would stay put until the morning which is when congress meets too vote on whether or not they will accept Mesa's resignation. By the time that Mesa appeared for a second time, there were around 4000 people in the plaza and this time Mesa simply waved at the crowd and was somewhat emotional. The feeling of being amongst all the people that was there was incredible. Incredible in the sense that it was a sense of profound disappointment and fear because there had been so much hope in this president but unfortunately, the other parties in the government did not support him. What happens now is still anybody's guess, but one thing is for sure and that's that without this president, Bolivia will surely be moving backwards very quickly. A worst case scenario would be that the military takes over. But this is extreme. More likely, the various political parties (including former dictators) will be scrambling for power and there will be a very sudden shift to a very right wing government. Even so, right now on radio talk back there are very mixed opinions....bloqueadores that didn't want Mesa to resign, only that 50% of Bolivia's resources (and their other demands) remains here. Another caller of clase media, middle class, was pleased to hear about his resignation because, according to her, Mesa didn't not have plan to govern, nor could he guarantee anything and that he didn't have authority, that Bolivia belonged to no one and everyone simply does what they want.

I just heard on the radio that in the city of El Alto, the road blocks continue and in fact are worse now. So it looks like I won't be getting out to the North West of the country. There is another way out of the city which is north down into the Yungas and then upto Trinidad and from there I can get to the rest of the country - or out if I needed to. Just haven't worked out how I'll get to Peru...

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