Ex-president Carlos Mesa analyses the political situation in Bolivia

"Carlos Mesa Gisbert, the ex-President of Bolivia, who led the country from 2003 to 2005, has given a talk on the current political situation in Bolivia. The event took place at Casa Amèrica Catalunya, and also featured addresses by Jordi Laboria, Deputy for Cooperation with Development at Barcelona Provincial Council, and Josep Ribera, Director of the CIDOB Foundation. 

The event was presented by Antoni Traveria, Director General of Fundación Casa Amèrica Catalunya. During his talk, Carlos Mesa highlighted the historical landmark represented by the election of the current indigenous president Evo Morales, though he regretted that Morales' government has not succeeded in abandoning the confrontational approach with which it came to power in January 2006, and which is characterised by a fragmented discourse without any ideological foundations. 

Mesa claimed that, on aligning itself with the indigenous people, the current government is failing to pay attention to the challenges presented by the autonomous regions, and that an awareness of ""recovering power"" is being constructed in the regions. Meanwhile, the destruction of the party system has meant that politics has taken to the streets. He warned that the rules imposed for the repeal referendum of 10 August are not very fair, given that they do not set equal percentages of votes for all those in government, and that they give a clear advantage to the current president. The opposition, which initially gave the green light to the repeal, is now objecting that the terms are unfair, and claims that behind the promotion of the appeal lies an attempt to impose a non-agreed constitution. 

The new constitution, Mesa claims, provides an element of ""indigenous mythicizing""; the concept of the Bolivian nation disappears and Bolivia is defined as a state with 37 nations, with the peculiarity that 98% of the population belongs to only two of them. In the opinion of the ex-president, the lack of dialogue between government and opposition is due to the fact that both believe they are going to win, and they are convinced that it is a ""now or never"" situation. Even so, Mesa does not envisage a scenario in which the country will fracture, nor that civil conflict will erupt. The ex-president stressed the urgent need to return to a party system and to rebuild the institutions through agreement, by bringing together all the representative institutions to for debate and work on the constitutional texts."