Grumblings From the Medialuna

The BBC has an article today about the run-up to the constitutional referendum in Bolivia next month. It's short but even-handed. In addition to interviewing Plan 3,000 community leader Portugal Quispe, reporter Daniel Schweimler quotes Jim Shultz of Democracy Center and Blog From Bolivia fame, Branko Marinkovic, and Victor Hugo Rojas:

I asked the UJC vice-president, Victor Hugo Rojas whether he thought more violence was inevitable in the run-up to the January vote on the constitution.

"Change," he said, "is painful. Whether the change will benefit them or us, we'll have to see, but there will be violence. It has to happen and may get worse."

Yikes. Anyhow, it's a recommended read.

Ukhampacha Bolivia

Jean Friedman-Rudovsky, an all-too-rare example of a good reporter, has a website I've just discovered, Ukhampacha Bolivia. In it comes a criticism of the proposed new Bolivian constitution, by Pablo Mamani. It's worth reading the whole thing, but this bit caught my eye, and I agree that the oppos are getting their "autonomy" too easily, at the expense of Bolivia as a whole:

.... The autonomous separatist statutes of Santa Cruz and the other eastern departments will take immediate effect after the constitution is approved, but the other autonomies—indigenous, regional—must undergo a long constituitive process before coming into effect.

Interesting

While I frequently always disagree with Lorien, she's got some suggestions on how Evo might gain a second presidential term:

... he has two strategic options:
One month prior to the next election, Evo could resign as president of Bolivia. His vice president would become president. Evo would be legally free to run for re-election.
Alternatively, he could have made all of his concessions to the opposition conditional on an amendment to the current Constitution which would allow him to run for re-election. That’s it.

And since I'm flummoxed about how he's going to be able to rewrite the constitution (which is the only way, so far, he'd be able to retain power for a second term), I'll entertain those two ideas. (Though I think the second is farfetched; you'd have some pissed-off MASistas if he did that.)