Jonn Lilyea
Morales agrees to recall election
Posted by Jonn Lilyea on May 10, 2008
Evo Morales, president of Bolivia has succumbed to political pressure from his opponents after the residents of Santa Cruz decided by a large majority to secede from Bolivia in a protest of Morales’ intent to rewrite the Constitution according to the Wall Street Journal;
Mr. Morales agreed to the referendum late on Thursday after the country’s opposition-controlled Senate ordered that a recall vote be held within three months. “It’s best that the people decide our destiny,” Mr. Morales said.
The referendum will amount to a do-or-die moment for Mr. Morales, an Aymara Indian who won power in 2005 pledging to transform the lives of Bolivia’s majority Indian population. Nearly halfway through his five-year term, Mr. Morales’s populist policies and alliance with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez have driven a wedge in the country between the mostly Indian highlands and the more prosperous eastern lowlands.
Cuban propaganda outlet Granma quotes Morales as having begged for a recall for a year;
Morales said that he had been waiting for the Senate to send him the bill “in order to immediately invoke it,” recalling that he had sent such a proposal to the Senate last year and lamenting that the Senate had failed to approve it earlier.
“I want to convey to the country the deep satisfaction I felt upon hearing that the Senate had finally approved the government- proposed measure to convene a recall referendum to consider the mandates of the president and governors,” Morales said in a message to the nation.
“Much better that the people decide the fate of the president and the governors,” he added. Once the president invokes the law, the referendum take place within 90 days.
It’s odd that Morales has asked for a national referendum on the secession of Santa Cruz and a national referendum on his presidency, yet not for his constitutional overhaul. Learning from Chavez’ failure at rewriting the Venezuelan constitution last year, Morales is sure his reforms will fail as well. I’m sure if he wins the recall election, he’ll call it a referendum for his jiggering with the constitution.
