After desperately searching for a good news radio program, my housemate and I decided we had to find a TV to see what was going on in Sucre, where Bolivia’s constituent assembly is being held. We packed our things and were headed to our least favorite café (which boasts cable), when on the way out we saw our doorman watching TV in the building’s office. So we bulldozed our way in and begged him to flip the channel.
As best I can tell, here’s the story. Bolivia has been re-writing its constitution in a constituent assembly for about 15 months now. Its had at least two major stalls; one to determine what size majority was needed for approval (simple majority or 2/3rds; each article or document as whole etc…), then the more recent political maneuver of relocating the capital (see "Monday"). Most recently the MAS party assembly members have been so harassed by the opposition in Sucre that the assembly has been postponed for months at a time trying to calm tensions. It was in one of these breaks that MAS (President Morales’ majority, leftist party) took advantage of the time to write its own constitution. I was a little unclear on the purpose of this at the time, naively thinking to myself, “why would the political party write a constitution, isn’t that what the assembly is for??”
Anyway, now that Sucre has become so violent that the assembly had to be moved within an army complex, surrounded by the military and then surrounded by thousands of peasants who had marched to Sucre to defend it, AND now that the opposition party Podemos has stopped attending sessions in protest (as in their vote isn’t big enough to change anything), the remaining assembly members (MAS and allies) have not only changed the rules of order to make the approval process go much, much faster, but came yesterday with suitcases in hand vowing not to leave the complex until a new constitution was ratified. What new constitution, you may ask? (This is where I kick my naïve self.) It appears MAS sent their own constitution in to be ratified. So tonight, as the assembly was approving articles at warp speed, the Sucre university students were outside setting tires on fire, throwing rocks and the like, and the military was making good use of their gasmasks as they bombed a large radius with tear gas. The worst part is, it appears two people died today. When we left the doorman, only one death had been confirmed, though two were suspected, and the cause had not been announced. There are all sorts of conspiracy theories about who is to blame and suspecting the opposition of trying to make the government look responsible for the violence etc… But theories aside, death is death.
Once fully ratified, the country will have 6 months starting December 14th to call for a national referendum, in which a simple majority of the popular vote will be needed to turn MAS’ constitution into Bolivia’s constitution.
Some people argue MAS is right in forging ahead against the opposition’s ridiculous stalling. But I keep thinking of those famous words about the Iraq War, in which someone asked, “we can win the war, but can we win the peace?” It seems inevitable MAS will ratify their constitution, but the question remains if their constitution can bring peace to Bolivia.
3 comments:
I have a sinking feeling that this won't end well. For all the great things about our constitution, the best aspect is the protection of minority rights. Whether that is protecting religious groups, KKK marches, and any good and bad minority you can think of. The key, as always, is for the minority to be heard via voice, votes, or the judicial system. It took years to get our constitution hashed out (the Articles of Confederation were a monumental failure), and in the end a grand compromise was reached to include the Bill of Rights. Years to write and years to ratify; not written during a break and sneaked in the side door under the cover of night and with the protection of the military.
What I wonder about the MAS constitution is does it protect the rights of the minority, even if that minority s those with sympathies for the past (neo-colonial?) governments. That is, does it swing the pendulum too far and who will be left behind?
PS. In the second sentence "are" should be "our." What can I say, I spent more time than I wanted during Thanksgiving break grading papers.
Looks like President Morales is channeling Hugo Chavez. Too bad for Bolivia. Stay safe, Jess.
It was Sen. Kennedy who said "we can win the war, but can we win the peace" Love your blog !
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